Paugussett Trail Improvements at Wiacek Meadows Continue

 

A "to-do" status list in map form

Now that the growing season is over, it's time to get back to the Paugussett Trail improvements at Wiacek Meadows. By the way, that is the current working name for the open space property located to the north of the High School, between Constitution Blvd North and Meadow Street. Wiacek is pronounced "WHY-seck." Or possibly WHY-a-seck. The above map shows the overall plan and our progress. As you can see, most of the tasks have been completed. Part D was just completed last week in an afternoon. That involved shifting 160 feet of trail off an eroded gully. 

October 2024 reroute (160 feet)

Part E has just begun. This is the ~350-foot section that floods during the wet season, sometimes for months at at time. There is no possible reroute -- it's all wet in every direction. It's not a skunk cabbage mucky type of wet, which would be worse. Rather, it's a hard pan hilltop with roots everywhere type of wet. In the summer it all dries out and is fine to walk on except for roots and rocks. 

April 2024 conditions

Although this section of the Paugussett doesn't get a lot of use, it must have at least a few regular users because last spring someone put down long branches on the trail, parallel to the direction of travel, which is a big no-no. Stepping on a log or branch parallel to the trail is just asking to slipping into the mud. And the mud wasn't that deep, so people with hiking boots could have just walked right through it except these branches were in their way.  Not helpful!

April 2024 conditions
Section with rocks

Over the years, some sporadic efforts were made to put down rocks in places, with varying levels of quality control. Some sections of rocks aren't too bad, but some are very uneven and pretty tedious to walk on.  

Summer conditions:
Lots of roots and rocks!

During the summer, the trail dries out, but all the rocks and roots have been a serious annoyance. The first task will be to create a summer treadway, with many of the rocks and roots removed or covered over.  Most people hike during the dry months. That part has been started: 

A summer treadway cleared
on the left of the rocks

After a summer tread has been cleared out, the winter/wet season tread will slowly be improved. Some parts of the trail will get new 8-foot bog walks consisting of a pair of 2"x8" boards resting on top of 5x5 sleepers.  Other parts of the trail will likely have some rock work done. The goal is for these improvements to be off to one side so that people can choose to walk on the dirt when things are drier. 

None of this will be quick or easy. If anyone would like to help out, please let us know

RecPath Repairs at Lane Street

The boardwalk through the floodplain at Lane St. needed repairs.  It had been put off for a while due to all the storm damage restoration and clearing.  Having finally gotten a breather from Mother Nature, we tackled Lane St on a beautiful Fall Saturday morning.

Betsy, Aidan and Gia were our cutting and clearing team.  The briars and brush was growing into the RecPath and was cut back from Lane St. to the woods at the end of the Land Trust meadow.

This was one of the "Before" shots of the boardwalk.  One of the boards was really missing, and a number had holes or were on the way out.  These decking boards needed to be replaced.  

A surprising amount of planning goes into even a simple work party like this one.  One of the preliminary steps was estimating the materials and tools necessary, and getting them to the job site.

Going to Home Depot in Derby for supplies on Friday Night before a work party - good times.  The decking boards at Lane St. were 5/4 x 6" x 6' which isn't sold, but 12 footers are.  Home Depot normally doesn't cut pressure treated lumber.  So we brought a saw with us and did a little cutting in the parking lot to modify the boards to fit into the car.  Oddly, nobody at the store came over to ask me what I was doing at 9:15 at night cutting boards in their parking lot.  I guess it's not the weirdest thing they've seen.  We also got screws and a tool for pulling nails.

The next step was to drive the boards over to Lane Street, put on a headlamp, and carry them in part - way for tomorrow's work party.  It was a pretty night, and I could see my breath.  Fall is here.

Saturday morning was the usual crazy  running around getting tools at the Barn.  We really have to do a better job pre-planning and packing up all the tools in bags the week before so we don't forget things, which happened.  Then drive to the trailhead and deliver the tools to Lane St. where I met Bill Dyer: who, for awhile, looked like the rest of the work party, but then people came rolling in and we got started.

Devin and Mike are replacing the deck boards.  There was a lot for heavy work removing the old deck boards and some of the screws (square drive & torx head) were stripped and had to be pried out or cut off.

The RecPath was pretty busy; there were a lot of runners and bikers.  After some near incidents, we strung flagging across the Path.  People could still pass after we gave them permission, but they had to walk and not just push by.  We wanted everyone to be safe and not get hurt; including us.  

Using the flagging to actually close the trail around the work area worked well.  We removed the flagging at the end of the job.

Some of the boards came out in one piece and others had to be cut out.  A variety of crowbars helped too.  Betsy brought her garden cart with her and hauled all the old boards out the the trailhead.  We will contact the Shelton Parks and Rec. Dept. to see if they can pick them up, otherwise it'll be a dump run next week.

The deck boards are attached to stringers elevated on timber piles set in the marsh.  Some of the screws were stripped and couldn't be pulled out.  These were cut off with a small reciprocating saw with a metal cutting blade.  Some side rails were bolted to the ends of the boards (another trip back to the car for the adjustable wrench that was forgotten).  

Interesting fact: there's a lot of animal tracks visible in the mud under a boardwalk that you only see when you're kneeling on the boardwalk looking upside down trying to loosen carriage head bolts.

Meanwhile Aidan was cutting back briars with one of the electric hedgetrimmers.  We had cut this area earlier in the year, but brush +sun +water =lots of growth + thorns.

Gia got some hands-on quality trail time with the loppers and trimmer.  The RecPath looked a lot better when they were done with it.  Now all we have to do is work on the grass to get our full crushed stone width back, but that's for another day.

Devin & Bill were replacing one the last boards.  We replaced 8 broken or spongy boards in all, and the RecPath Boardwalk is back in serviceable condition.  Nice job.

Mike, Gia, & Devin on the repaired Lane St. Boardwalk at the end of the job.  We hauled all the tools back out to Lane St, loaded the cars, and Mike & I put things away at the Trails Barn.

The Shelton Land Trust's Hawley Meadow along the RecPath is at the end of the boardwalk- a "Before" picture.

Thanks to everyone who came out:  Aidan, Devin, Gia, Betsy, Bill, Mike & Terry.  Maintenance is seldom glamorous, but it was a good fall morning to be outside.  

And as Bill put it "I am impressed how we were able to replace bad boards without anyone getting tetanus, at least that we know".  Now There's a performance metric for success on a work party.  

Go visit the RecPath at Lane St. - it's really pretty right now.  Also check out the events page for our Full Moon Hike on October 17th (that's THIS Thursday).

The Paugussett "Indy Link" Improved

A better tread for the wet season

The "Indy Link" section of the Paugussett Trail is probably no one's idea of a hiking destination, but it's an important connection between Shelton Lakes and other open space properties like Housatonic Woods and Indian Well. It now has a better treadway that will hopefully remain dry during the wet season and have fewer annoying roots and rocks.  

The Indy Link section of the 
Paugussett Trail

The woods are poorly drained and we've had lots of problems with the trail over the years. Parts were previously relocated and we have several Scout bridges. North of the bridges, the treadway became confusing the past few years. It was originally routed on higher ground covered with tree roots, but summer trail users took the lower ground instead, packing in a treadway over temporarily dry wetlands and up drainage gullies. The higher ground grew over with vegetation and the lower ground became a morass during mud season. 

Treadway (right) separated from
drainage gully (left)

The trail tread has now been reestablished back on higher ground and clearly delineated, with material added to help with the tree roots. Another reason for excess mud was people placing rocks in the middle of a drainage channel, damming it up. That keeps happening around town.  If the trail is wet, please don't screw up the drainage even more with logs or rocks. Anyway, the dam was removed, the drainage channel reclaimed, and large stepping stones were placed in a few muddy spots. The one remaining low spot was then given an 8-foot section of bog walk. 

New bogwalk

Some of the existing Scout bridges have decking boards that are rotting out. The worst boards were replaced for the winter, but the remaining decking is getting spongy and will need to be replaced within the next year or so. We've learned that 1" boards rot too fast, so they'll be replaced with 2" boards. 

Rotting boards

OK now until next year

The next section of the Paugussett requiring attention is the Meadow View section just south of Meadow Street, which last winter was covered in mud for a few hundred feet. This probably needs a long bog walk. Stay tuned!

Nicholdale Cutting Party

The brush at the Nicholdale Land Trust Preserve can grow really fast at certain times of the year; like Summer.  And it certainly has this year.  It's been several weeks since the trails were last brush cut so today was the day.

We had eight volunteers on a cloudy morning to cut out the blue-blazed Nichols Loop around Nicholdale.

Ellen & Mike lead most of the volunteers along one end of the trail and a couple of us went the other way.  It's sometimes better to spread out when you're using power tools for work party safety.

The section of the trail that parallels Rt. 110 was pretty thick and overgrown.  Particularly where trees were cleared (by ConnDOT or UI) within the State Right of Way earlier in the summer.  The grass and brush exploded with the extra sunlight when the trees were removed.  Above is a before picture.

And the "After" picture.  We tried to cut the briars, thorns, and grass, and leave the wildflowers and native plants.

Bill was coming thru with his electric hedgetrimmer cutting out briars.

Anne, Athena, and Ellen at the end of the work party.  Everybody made it out at the end.  Another perfect work party without loosing anyone: 100% volunteer retention.

The Shelton Land Trust's Nicholdale parcel is a great location to observe fall wildflowers and bird migrations.  And the Preserve is easy to navigate now that the trails are cleared.  Thanks to everyone who helped out today: Aidan, Athena, Anne, Bill, Ellen, Greg, Mike & Terry.

Blowdown Brook Strikes Again

Mission Accomplished!

There's a reason we call an unnamed stream at Indian Well "Blowdown Brook."  Every year some big tall trees blow down near the brook. And here we go for 2024! This along the Paugussett Trail about half a mile north of the beach access trail. 

Two large oaks 

Where's the trail??

We received an email last week from a hiker about multiple trees down on the trail (thank you!!) and were horrified to find the trail almost completely blocked. A pair of big tall oaks had uprooted and fallen across the winding trail in three spots, taking some smaller trees with them. Some of the blockage was the main tree trunks, over two feet in diameter. Further down the trail it was large branches and the canopy. 

I went out first with a small battery-powered chainsaw to scope out the problem.  At first I thought the trail would need to be rerouted, but I couldn't find a better way through the woods.  So I did what I could and cleared out small stuff to direct people where to go. 

When your chainsaw is too small for the job
but is better than nothing

When the weekend arrived, Terry Gallagher sharpened up his big chainsaw and I joined him for safety reasons. After looking at the mess and taking chronic erosion issues into account, we decided to tighten one of the curves so that the trail levelled out for a bit. This would force rainwater runoff off of the trail, and there would be less chainsawing. In the meantime, I worked on erosion issues up and down the hillside. The photos below show what one part of the blowdown looked like before and after clearing and shifting the trail location (looking southbound down the hill):

"Before." The trail is to the right under the big log

"After": The trail was shifted uphill to the left, which
should help with drainage.

One of the tree trunks turned out to be the trickiest because it pinched Terry's saw. He had to detach the bar and chain and we came back the next day with a second saw. 

Had to leave the chainsaw bar
and come back the next day

Finishing up that last log

Here's another before and after, showing that it's not just logs but lots of smaller stuff that has to be moved first, especially where canopy branches land. And why it was hard for people to figure out where the trail was. 

"Before"

"After"

 

Reblazing Turkey Trot Trail

Just passing through

Turkey Trot Trail has been long overdue for a blaze make-over, so I took advantage of a long streak of dry weather and got to it. Lots of wildlife along this trail while I was working. A small bear came in off of Shelton Ave and crossed the trail as I was coming around the bend. He behaved perfectly, moving off the trail promptly when he saw me, and vacating the premises. That's not a bear to be concerned about unless you have an off-leash dog that might chase it. Later I passed a deer near the trail, holding a freeze pose as if I couldn't see her. 

She thought I couldn't see her.

Turkey Trot Trail is usually pretty easy to follow since so many people use it, but there are times in late fall when the trail is full of fresh leaves, or in the winter after a snowfall, where the curving tread can become unexpectedly confusing. All the sudden those blazes become really helpful. Blazes are especially important for trail users who aren't familiar with the trail. I added some left turn and right turn blazes here and there to help out in spots where it might not be obvious that the trail was changing direction.  

Quality trail blazing takes a lot longer than you can imagine, but when done right it looks good and lasts for many year. Eventually, though, it's time to completely redo the blazes. The paint fades, of course, but as the trees grow larger, and the blazes grows wider with them. It's often half an inch or an inch, but on one tree, the blaze was 10" wide! Blazed trees are lost when they blow over in storms, or succumb to disease.  We've lost all our ash trees and now the beech trees are dying from Beech Leaf Disease. Some blazes are vandalized. Someone had carved an "X" through a lot of the Turkey Trot blazes (why??). And the trail even shifted in a few places, resulting in old blazes 20 or 30 feet off the trail. All this is to say that the Turkey Trot Trail blazes from twenty years ago were in really bad shape, if they were there at all.  

Ugly old white blaze and black concealer from years ago.
The tree will probably die, so the blaze was move to a different tree.

Blaze now concealed

For a complete reblaze, I reassess the location of each existing blaze. If it's on a dead or dying tree, it will be relocated if possible. Is it at a weird angle? It will be shifted. Is it too wide because the tree grew? It will be narrowed. Most old blazes are also scraped as needed to remove any bark or paint that is getting flakey, and then brushed to remove dirt and dust. A 2x6" template is used to outline the new blaze, and then the outline is filled in using a short, square, stiff craft brush.  The bark is rough, so there's not a lot brushing action. It's more like stabbing, forcing the thick paint into the nooks and crannies of the bark. 

Old blaze:
Too wide, and vandalized with an "X"

Reblazed!  Scraping and concealer paint
was used to narrow the blaze

After the new blazes are done, I come back with concealer paint that has been color-matched to a typical black birch or tulip tree, and cover up any parts of old blazes we don't want any longer. It's a flat exterior paint and usually does a great job of blending in and hiding the old parts of the blaze. Back in the day, we used to use a dark brown or black spray paint to resize the blazes when they got too wide, and that never looked good. So that old dark paint is now covered over. I don't use this paint on beech trees, though, because they are a much lighter color.

We sadly have a lot of dying beech trees along this trail with obsolete trail markings, so I came back with another concealer, gray, and then gave it a few spritzes of light green camo spray paint to blend in. Not perfect, but a lot better than it was. 

Virgin's Bower, a native vine under the powerlines

After the blazing was finished, I cleared a couple of the trail crossings under the powerlines. They grow back so fast. The one with the little bridge was especially overgrown. A lot of the plants are invasive (mugwort, wineberry, autumn olive), but there's was tons of a native vine called Virgin's Bower that gave the appearance of a blooming shrub, or maybe Japanese Knotweed in bloom. I was careful not to cut it. 

Seedpods of Virgin's Bower

2024 Microburst Recap

 

Boehm Pond and Shelton Lakes were slammed!

It's been just over a month since the August 3 microburst cut a swath through the middle of Shelton, felling trees and knocking out power to almost half of our residents.  Here's a recap of all the chainsaw work that created. Committee members Mark Vollaro and Terry Gallagher are the only two with the bigger gas-powered chainsaws capable of cutting larger logs (some were enormous), and both have had repeated chainsaw safety training courtesy of the Connecticut Forest and Park Association. Mark often went out with a spotter/helper. Teresa Gallagher (staff) uses a smaller battery-powered chainsaw that was effective in cutting many of the tree crowns and branches that fell on the trails, and for delimbing the larger logs so hikers could step over them while waiting for the larger chainsaws. And then some anonymous freelancer cut up several big logs that were across Turkey Trot and Oak Valley Trails. 

August 4 - September 7 chainsawing hours: 

Mark Vollaro with Ray Hansen:  25 hrs (12.5 hrs each)
Mark Vollaro with Ellen Cramp: 15 hrs (7.5 hrs each)
Mark Vollaro with Luis Isaza: 16 hrs (8 hrs each) 
Mark Vollaro with Bill Dyer and Ray Hansen: 9 hrs (3 hrs each)
Mark Vollaro (solo): 8.5 hrs
Terry Gallagher (solo): 12 hrs
Mark Vollaro and Terry Gallagher: 8 hrs (4 hrs each)
Ray Hansen and Ellen Cramp: 8 hrs (4 hrs each)
Teresa Gallagher (staff - solo): 25.5 hrs
TOTAL CHAINSAWING HOURS = 127

Mark Vollaro and Ray Hansen on Nells Rock Trail

Note that these hours do not include all the work that went into pulling a zillion branches and sticks off the trail (many trail users helped with this), scouting out trail conditions, mapping all the blowdowns, or the anonymous chainsaw work that fell from the sky. Phew! 

All that is to say that some trails are a tad overgrown here and there, but we've been busy! 

Ellen Cramp assisting Mark Vollaro
(Paugussett Trail near Eklund Garden)

Luis Isaza often works with Mark Vollaro

Teresa Gallagher's little battery-saw was great at cutting
branches and small logs so the trail was passable until
Terry or Mark could cut the larger logs.

Mark Vollaro make a tremendous effort cutting up blowdowns

Terry Gallagher finished off a major blowdown across the
Rec Path near Lane Street that Mark and Ray had started.