Major Blue Trail Reroutes

Here's a map showing the recent reroutes to the Blue Trail (future Paugussett) at Shelton Lakes. Click the photo to enlarge or click HERE for a pdf version you can print. 

• Reroute "A" is located between Independence Drive and Wellington Court and is an Eagle Scout project still in progress. This is a bad section of trail right now, because the old route has become overgrown [update: the Trails Committee cleared this section on June 15] and the new route has a wet spot the Scouts will be building a bridge across. All the heavy rain has made the crossing very muddy and difficult. The reroute is not yet blazed.
• Reroute "B", which is complete and fully blazed, is a significant change on either side of Route 108 that consisted of shifting the trail off of the powerlines and joining the Rec Path to cross the Silent Waters dam. 
• Reroute "C" [is complete 6/19] should be complete within a few days, and involves both a reroute and an extension south to Buddington Road. The 1/3-mile extension was constructed as an Eagle Scout project by Josh Kreitler and included a substantial bridge over a swamp.  There is a parking area on Buddington Road at the powerlines, next to a set of mailboxes (include #184, which reads "84").  The 1/3-mile reroute was done to allow the old section to connect the new section and to take the trail away from the houses along John Dominick Drive, including the ongoing construction of new homes on that street and Buddington Road. Only the northern 1/6 mile of this new route is not yet blazed (the section north of the White Trail). That portion is flagged and cleared. 

About the old sections of Blue Trail: We have not decided what to do with those sections. In some cases the blazes have been covered over, in others the old blazes have yet to be removed, and in still others the long rectangular blazes were partially covered with spray paint to create small blue squares.  The latter blazes might be converted to blue/white blazes in the future where they connect the blue and white trails. 

Why are we messing with everyone's head? Because we are trying to have the Blue Trail formally adopted by CFPA as a Connecticut Blue-Blazed Trail and an extension of the Paugussett Trail. Reroutes "A" and "B" were recommended by CFPA.  Reroute "C" is partly in response to new construction.