Pre-Storm Paugussett Perusal

On Saturday, a small band of hardy trail maintainers walked the Paugussett Trail from Meadow St to Eklund Garden to check of issues and plan future improvements.

We encountered a large pile of brush blocking part of the trail from a road construction project, not good, but maybe there project wasn't finished.

Shelton's Highways & Bridges Department just finished putting in drainage along Meadow Street to control icing, and cut back the brush for better sightlines when crossing the road, which is a good improvement.  Now we just got to get the brush pile cleared.  We pushed on thru the Wiacek Woods and noted wet areas where we need more stones and a possible re-route to avoid some wet meadow areas.

Beyond the powerlines we came across the first of some smaller blowdowns and large branches across the trail.  Wonder how many more blowdowns there are after the storm?

South of Wellington Court there was a small stream where we noted it would be good to add a small footbridge.

There are three other bridges built by Eagle Scouts that are holding up well. 

Sometimes you find unexpected things when you go to clean out a partially clogged culvert.  Like this wood frog hibernating inside the culvert under a rock.  At Polly's request we re-covered the frog for the colder weather soon to arrive.

But many other trail users were not hibernating this day.  Here's a warm puppy having a great time out walking his humans by Silent Waters before the storm.

Continuing south, we crossed Rt. 108, around the Dog Park, admired the new wood chips placed by the Parks and Recreation Department and came toward Hope Lake, where more people were out enjoying the trails.

These younger hikers were having a great time.  A little cold wasn't stopping them out enjoying Hope Lake and the Paugussett Trail.  Who knows, we may have a future trail manager somewhere in this photo.

Hope Lake - frozen.   In the coming days the ice will thicken and let us work on some planned improvements.  We ended at Oak Valley Road and looked at some recent repairs to the Eklund deer fence.

So even during the colder days of winter; people hike, dogs walk, frogs sleep, and trail work is planned for the coming year.  Keep checking the Trails Blog for upcoming events or shoot us an e-mail if you'd like to be notified.