Round 3 - Paugussett Trail Stone Hauling

 A sunny Saturday with no rain in sight; seems very abnormal.

This was the third work party in a row to finish up this section of the Paugussett Trail north of Constitution Blvd.  It's a very wet stretch that was hardened with crushed stone over the last two weeks.  This week we were putting a finish topping of finer crushed stone over the coarser sections.  This week was less muddy - above is the "Before" picture of the clean crew at the start.

Jack, Anne, and Val were loading the wheelbarrows and buckets with crushed stone.  Other volunteers were hauling it out along the trail to the end then working their way backwards.  Thanks to the Shelton Highways and Bridges Dept. for dropping off more processed stone.

We didn't get a lot of photos this time, but it was a lot of hard work.  And despite the cool weather it got surprisingly hot in the sun.  We need to bring more water next time.

Helpful Trail Tip:  Bring water, lots of water.  And snacks.  And dress in layers.

Some people cleared up the upper Eversource crossing, others raked, smoothed and tamped down the fine stone mix.  Everyone helped.  Devin was a big help wheeling the crushed stone.

Trail Hardening is hard work.  I could almost hear Bill Dyer cheering us on.  We kept going until lunchtime when we ran out of steam and water, but we got this section all covered.  Val & Ellen shoveled and moved a lot of stone all morning long.  Some of the younger guys could take a lesson from them on how to keep working and being efficient.

 It may take some more fine finishing but this was a huge improvement for the trail tread.

Thanks to Devin, Val, Ellen, Ivana, Andrijana, Anne, Teresa, Terry, Jack, Jaden, and Cooper.

Go Buckets and Resident Mice

We had a problem with woodland mice at the Trails Barn this past winter.  Seems like when it comes to choosing to hunker down in the woods during Winter, or take refuge in a new weather tight Trails Barn, some of the lightweight mice choose the Barn.  And within that Barn they really liked our nice weather tight, dry 5 gallon plastic buckets that we use for trail work parties; especially the ones with warm extra soft cushy gloves for the trail volunteers.  

So, without looking at pictures of the old existing buckets, and their mousification.  Here are the new Go-Buckets.  We tossed out several pairs of old gloves that the mice had used for their Shelton Air B-n-B.

We washed out, vacuumed, and bleached the old buckets before they were relegated to crushed stone hauling duty.  New buckets, with lids, were purchased, and the Bucket Boss sleeves were reinserted, after cleaning.  The result is two new Go-Buckets with the following gear:

One bucket has a first aid kit, the other needs one.  One bucket had 2 pair of pliers, the other none; we spread them out.  One bucket had 10 pair of safety glasses, the other none, so we put a couple in each bucket.   You get the picture.  We put 3 pair of NEW and CLEAN work gloves in each bucket.  We also added key ingredients such as zip ties, duct tape, electric tape, WD-40, flagging, hand pruners, pliers, chainsaw multi-tool, tape measures, note pads, pencils and other writing implements, folding hand saws, and other implements of destruction.

Stuff in Bucket #2.

Stuff in Bucket #1.

Typical stuff in the outside pockets.  We try to be prepared, but you never know what's needed.

So, it may seem silly but we are de-mouseified going into the Spring 2024 season, kinda.  We may need to add some stuff, but we have some supplies for trails volunteers at work parties, in case they forget to bring their own gear.  Everybody should bring their own stuff, but we try to have extra supplies on hand, just in case it's needed.  We recommend that you bring safety supplies, water, snacks, gloves, and appropriate work boots to all the work parties.  You'll be happier, and so will we.

More Mud Along the Paugussett Trail

 We got even more volunteers out this weekend to work on the Paugussett Trail than last weekend.

This picture doesn't do it justice because this was the clean version at the beginning.  A number of High School students kept rolling in all morning as we kept working.

We had issues with the finer crushed stone sinking into the muck last week so this week we got the Shelton Highways and Bridges Dept. to drop off some coarser stone to firm up the base, and then top it off with the finer mix.  We had a great teams moving the stone with wheelbarrows and buckets.

Plenty of team work.

Tom Welch actually read the Work Party Instructions saying "wear your worst work clothes, because they will get muddy".  And his old shoe started to come apart.  Luckily we had duct tape, lots and lots of duct tape, which made for some funny moments, but Tom left the work party with the same number of shoes that he arrived with.

Everybody finished up with muddy feet at the end.  But we got a few more hundred feet into the woods.  The next work party should finish it up for this section.

Thanks to Teresa, Patrick, Tom, Ethan, Ryan, Allison, Zach, Zion, Jack, Emily, Analia, Kassidy, Maya, Jadelyn, Erik, Luis, Ted, Devin, Dillon, and Terry for helping out.  Sorry if anyone's name is missing or misspelled.  The start of the work party was kinda like the opening of JRR Tolkien's The Hobbit when all the dwarfs kept arriving for dinner.  But all the help was wonderful.

Sunday Morning Stroll - 2024 Shelton Trails Challenge

It was a beautiful Sunday morning so my wife and I did one of the Shelton Trails Challenge Hikes together, sorta.  It was Level 2 Paugussett Trail from Indian Well State Park to Buddington Road hike; a distance of 4 miles.  To avoid spotting a car she started at Indian Well near the falls, and I started at Buddington Rd.  We passed and drove each other's car home.  I got the better part of the deal because I was hiking downhill, without a big pack.

I parked at the trail kiosk near the powerlines, then went downhill and crossed Josh's Bridge.  The neighbor had their goats out mowing the grass and brush.  We waved and he made sure the goats stayed out of the road.  

The first part of the hike was very peaceful and quiet.  There wasn't even much road noise once I got a little away from Buddington.

The Woodpecker Staircase is a funny landmark tree along the trail - still standing.

Vernal pools were filled up due to all the rain.  The frogs were not making as much noise now that they've laid their eggs in the pools.

The scout bridge over the J Pond was in good shape.

Eklund Native Garden was clear and getting ready for Spring growth.  The trail then crosses Oak Valley Road and heads along the west side of Hope Lake.

The Paugussett Trail joins with the Recreation Path near Hope Lake.  Traffic started to pick up and I went past the Dog Park and Trail Barns at Nells Rock Road.

Families were out enjoying the RecPath.  This portion of the hike was on the handicapped-accessible gravel Path.

People were fishing at Silent Waters, jogging, or strolling along the RecPath.  The Paugussett then turned uphill after the dams and followed the Powerlines north toward Independence Drive.

Crossing Independence Dr. - Eversource is still working on the gulch.

There were trout lilys and other spring wildflowers poking up along the streams.

Passing the area that we were working on yesterday.  It was much nicer to walk on today.

The section thru Wiecek Woods was extremely muddy.  Somebody thru these silly sticks in the mud which actually made it harder to walk on.  The sticks can roll when you step on them - just wear good waterproof boots this time of year.

Crossing Meadow St. and there's a short road walk down Mayflower Road.  The neighbor's are using the trail head at the cul-de-sac to dump their yard waste in the trail, again.  SIGH.   Why can't everyone just be good citizens and either have a compost pile in the own yard or take the bush to the City yard.

It was an easy walk downhill to Rt. 110 and Indian Well State Park.  Watch for traffic at Rt. 110.

Passed an old shovel head along the trail.  Maybe we could fix this up?

There were some step-over blowdowns on the old road.

The trail pops out into a meadow with pretty wildflowers.

And there's my ride at the Falls Parking Lot - with some Dutchman's Breaches.  Now if I can remember how to drive a stick shift I should make it home.  

This spotting of cars with a friend or relative is an easy way to do some of the longer Trails Challenge hikes.  You can see a lot of nice features along the Open Spaces along the way.

Let's Get Muddy

It's Spring, it's Connecticut, and it's raining all the time it seems.  Which makes it very muddy to do trail work.  In some places people could reasonably say lets wait until it's dryer to do trail construction projects.  Some people might say that, but not us.......

The Paugussett Trail from Constitution Boulevard North to Meadow Street is a boney, wet, root-filled ankle twister that is just not the most pleasant to hike or walk.  For 2024 one of our big projects is to fix this by improving drainage, adding crushed stone & gravel, cutting trees, and making a better walking surface.  Despite Mother Nature.

Today we had about 21 volunteers show up to move crushed stone in along the wetter and rootier sections of the Paugussett Tr. listed above.  This is the group photo at the beginning of the work party.  Note how clean and mud free they looked at the beginning.

But, prior to this.  Mark Vollaro cleared out a place to dump stone, and then the Shelton Highways and Bridges Department responded to our request and dropped a load of 3/4" Processed Aggregate off.  Thanks very, very much to H&B for helping us out. 

Mark and Ray pre-fab'ed some temporary walkways across the muddy spots to help us wheel in stone.

About 104 l.f. of walks to be precise.

 

Which were then wheeled in and dumped off and spread by our great team of volunteers.

Basically, volunteers loaded many wheelbarrows with crushed stone and brought the stone into muddy and rooty areas in the trail, dumped their loads, and others spread the material out with shovels and rakes.

                            

Everybody got lots of practice with shovels and wheelbarrows.  There was no exam afterwards though.

At the end of the day it was a job well done with lots of muddy boots and pants to show for it.

Thanks to Anne, Jeff, Brooklyn, Nolan, Dillon, Ryan, Ethan, Danny, Bodie, John, Jeff, Cooper, Camille, Ellen, Val, Luis, Michael, Erik, Bill, Mark, Terry & Teresa.

We fixed up about 400 l.f. of trail and used up most of the crushed stone pile that was dumped off by the City.  Great progress - TBC.

Birchbank Overlook Trail Register Removed

 

Graffiti's door

All good things must come to an end, and so it was with the Birchbank Mountain trail register.  It was great while it lasted, and the logbook filled up by hikers at the height of the pandemic is priceless. But in 2023, lots of people started to hog and skip pages, turning the 'guest book' into something not worth saving, so it was removed. We were thinking about trying it again in 2024, but discovered that people had just recently starting carving into the door. And the little totem pole that someone left had been broken off and taken. This is why we can't have nice things. And so the register was removed. But honestly, we were surprised it lasted as long as it did. 

We'll replace the door and maybe install it somewhere else less prone to vandalism. Maybe the end of Stockmal Trail, since that's such an abrupt ending for a trail. 

Signs of Spring

 Ah Spring!  The weather gets warmer, snow turns to rain, lots and lots of rain, more rain, the trails get muddier, and birds start flocking northward to their summer homes.

The Porta-Potty's have also flow North from their winter homes.  One has started roosting at the Dog Park near the RecPath and Trails Barn.  Just in time for the Trails Committee Meeting this Wednesday at 5:00.  A welcome harbinger of Spring.  The public is welcome to attend in the New Barn.

And the daffodils are coming up too next to the flower gardens.  Ah Spring.