Little Pond Trail Lives On

Little Pond Trail

Back in 2014, Luke Claire and other member of Boy Scout Troop 27 created a new trail to a small pond located off of Beech Tree Hill Road in the White Hills. This was Luke's Eagle Scout project. The trail provides neighborhood access to the little pond, which can be fished early in the season, before it's covered with lily pads. The trail is just under 0.1 mile, so it's a very quick walk to the pond.

"Out & About" challenge photo at the pond

During the 2020 pandemic, the pond has been included as one of thirty "Out and About" outdoor challenge sites located throughout Shelton, in an effort to reduce crowding at some of Shelton's better-known locations. Participants visit the sites, take a picture of an avatar they chose to represent themselves, and then email the photos to the Conservation Department.

Oops, the trailhead is really overgrown

This little trail needs someone from the neighborhood to become a Trail Monitor and let us know when the trail is overgrown or had some other issue that needs to be addressed. It was fine earlier in the season, but by mid-July it was a jungle.

Trailhead cleared out and with a new sign

It was felt that a sign at the trailhead was needed so that people in the neighborhood would know the trail was there. But the trail was never named, so what should the sign say? And the pond isn't named, either. After some back and forth, we settled on "Little Pond Trail" for the practical reason that when we referred to the trail as the little pond trail, everyone on the Committee knew which trail we were talking about. The trail is little and the pond is little.

New sign at the trailhead  letting the neighborhood know the trail is there

Closer to the pond, the trail was really overgrown and needed a haircut, just like a lot of people these days.

"Before"

"After"

Sadly, someone had scraped off some of the painted trail blazes and ripped off the Public Open Space sign. This is usually the mark of a neighbor who doesn't want strangers in the open space near their property. This has all been repaired for the moment, and of course the trail had to be cleared extra wide in case the blazes are removed again and people are trying to follow the trail to go fishing or whatever.  If it keeps up, we'll probably have to install cameras. This is another thing a new Trail Monitor can keep an eye on and let us know as soon as possible if the trail is vandalized.

Vandal removed the sign and scraped off some blazes