Balmy February Morning at Pine Lake

It was 65 degrees Fahrenheit in Antarctica today, and nowhere's near that in Shelton, CT.  A few brave and intrepid trails volunteers ventured out to take advantage of the snowless (so far) winter and cut briars along the RecPath behind Pine Lake today.  The wind was still kicking up from last night's storm.  The wind speeds hit records (80 MPH on Cape Cod) last night.

 It was very pretty, but the wind across Pine Lake along Rt. 108 was pretty ear-chilling this morning, so we decided to get into the pine trees and start cutting right away.

With a variety of saws, loppers, hedgetrimmers, weedwhackers, chainsaws, bow saws, and other instruments of destruction we attacked the briars, poison ivy, Japanese knotweed, burning bush, barberry, and other invasive species growing into the RecPath.  We wanted to do a pre-emptive strike before everything bloomed out and started growing this spring.

Once we got out of the wind, into the trees and started working it warmed right up.  The sun came up and the pines looked great in the early morning sunlight.

We split up into teams and worked our way up to Constitution Blvd.  (and Val went to Hope Lake), cutting briars and invasive species growing into the RecPath.  A lot of people were out using the trails; dogwalkers, joggers, mountain bikers, and one really hard core biker wearing shorts.  He must have a robust circulation system.

We got a lot done, but there's more to do.  We have another work party coming up in two weeks on Oak Valley Trail if people would like to enjoy a brisk outing in the morning.  Thanks to Graham, Luis, Bill, Val, Mike, Mark, Jim & Terry for helping out today.

 

We didn't get a lot of good action shots of people working.  For some reason everyone just kept moving.  Val did get a picture of putting stuff away after the work party.  Thanks to everybody who came out. See you in a couple of weeks.