Thankless Jobs; Clearing Ditches and Culverts

 Some trail work parties are great; nice weather, lots of volunteers, awesome photos.

This one, not so much.

 It starts at the Beginning.  The cold rain was moving out.  I ask everyone to turn around and get a "happy beginning group photo" and this is what I get.  It's like every family Christmas card photo, except everyone turned in unison away from the camera with better timing than the pool scene from "Caddyshack".  This is what we have to work with.

OK, after several takes we have a decent "Before" picture of volunteers at Lane St heading out in robust winds to clear the drainage swales and culverts along the RecPath.  Some people are even smiling.

Drainage maintenance is a thankless task.  And it has to be done ever year, sometimes multiple times!.

In this case a low berm of washed out gravel, leaves, and sticks builds up at low points and keeps runoff on the Path.  The shoulders and culverts have to be cleared out to allow runoff to flow off the RecPath and into adjacent woods and wetlands to prevent sedimentation and erosion from impacting the Path.

In this case the low point and a couple of bleed off locations uphill were cleared out to help drainage on the RecPath.

The Rouge Hoe is a great tool for this work.  The Shelton Trails Committee has a couple of them and they are the bomb for both heavy duty side hill digging and fussy scraping of seasonal debris.  They are heavy duty versions of US Forest Service tools that we have for volunteers to use.  They are very rugged tools that are Made in America and we can't recommend them enough for trail work.

The Lane St. Boardwalk looked funny with all the recent deck repairs last month.  It may be a little cocked and twisted but the boardwalk is in decent repair heading into the winter.

Further up the RecPath the crew was clearing ditches and overhead blow downs.  There are still some blowdowns hanging over the Path from previous storm damage, but, if you move quickly, and don't dawdle under them, they probably won't kill you.  We took down the "Caution" tape because most of the worst problems had been cleared.  That doesn't mean that branches that are hung up overhead won't come crashing down at any time and hurt you.  Look overhead as you go through the woods and move quickly past anything sketchy looking, particularly on windy days.

Meanwhile Mark and Ray were replacing a broken board on one of the wooden bridges north of Wesley Drive.

 

We cleared out upstream and downstream ends of cross-culverts and drainage ditches from Lane St. up to  Wesley drive.  A few of the inlets were buried by vegetation and had to be cut out before clearing the built up sediment at the pipes.

This is the chipmunks eye view of one of the culverts.  A portion of the pipe is clogged with silt down by the outlet, restricting the pipe's capacity.  The culverts need to be cleaned so runoff doesn't build up, overtop the Path, and erode the crushed stone surface.

The downstream channel needs to be cleared of blowdowns, barberry, sediment, and briars.  Some of the drains need further clearing with saws and power tools.

Some of the drainage ditches needed to be cleared of fallen logs and tree limbs.  Mike Flament lead the effort to roll the logs out of the ditches and un-block the culverts.

After clearing the ditches, Devin would jam one of our sturdy leaf blowers up the culvert and blast the leaves and sediment out the downstream end.

Bill Dyer was giving the official Thumb's Up to Devin's culvert cleaning efforts.  It's kinda fun to see all the gunk blasting out the end of the pipes.  It makes you feel like we have the system set up for winter storms.  After 2 months of drought we finally seem to be getting into a winter rainfall/snow cycle.

It was a cold morning with the wind picking up, but we had a good crew; Ray, Mark, Devin, Luis, Ellen, Bill, Mike, & Terry.  These are thankless routine maintenance tasks that need to be done every year to keep the Shelton Lakes RecPath in good shape.  Most people may not realize that these things need to be done, but like cleaning the gutters on your house every year this maintenance prevents  a lot of problems and damage.  All done by Shelton's Trails volunteers. Enjoy.

RecPath Repairs at Lane Street

The boardwalk through the floodplain at Lane St. needed repairs.  It had been put off for a while due to all the storm damage restoration and clearing.  Having finally gotten a breather from Mother Nature, we tackled Lane St on a beautiful Fall Saturday morning.

Betsy, Aidan and Gia were our cutting and clearing team.  The briars and brush was growing into the RecPath and was cut back from Lane St. to the woods at the end of the Land Trust meadow.

This was one of the "Before" shots of the boardwalk.  One of the boards was really missing, and a number had holes or were on the way out.  These decking boards needed to be replaced.  

A surprising amount of planning goes into even a simple work party like this one.  One of the preliminary steps was estimating the materials and tools necessary, and getting them to the job site.

Going to Home Depot in Derby for supplies on Friday Night before a work party - good times.  The decking boards at Lane St. were 5/4 x 6" x 6' which isn't sold, but 12 footers are.  Home Depot normally doesn't cut pressure treated lumber.  So we brought a saw with us and did a little cutting in the parking lot to modify the boards to fit into the car.  Oddly, nobody at the store came over to ask me what I was doing at 9:15 at night cutting boards in their parking lot.  I guess it's not the weirdest thing they've seen.  We also got screws and a tool for pulling nails.

The next step was to drive the boards over to Lane Street, put on a headlamp, and carry them in part - way for tomorrow's work party.  It was a pretty night, and I could see my breath.  Fall is here.

Saturday morning was the usual crazy  running around getting tools at the Barn.  We really have to do a better job pre-planning and packing up all the tools in bags the week before so we don't forget things, which happened.  Then drive to the trailhead and deliver the tools to Lane St. where I met Bill Dyer: who, for awhile, looked like the rest of the work party, but then people came rolling in and we got started.

Devin and Mike are replacing the deck boards.  There was a lot for heavy work removing the old deck boards and some of the screws (square drive & torx head) were stripped and had to be pried out or cut off.

The RecPath was pretty busy; there were a lot of runners and bikers.  After some near incidents, we strung flagging across the Path.  People could still pass after we gave them permission, but they had to walk and not just push by.  We wanted everyone to be safe and not get hurt; including us.  

Using the flagging to actually close the trail around the work area worked well.  We removed the flagging at the end of the job.

Some of the boards came out in one piece and others had to be cut out.  A variety of crowbars helped too.  Betsy brought her garden cart with her and hauled all the old boards out the the trailhead.  We will contact the Shelton Parks and Rec. Dept. to see if they can pick them up, otherwise it'll be a dump run next week.

The deck boards are attached to stringers elevated on timber piles set in the marsh.  Some of the screws were stripped and couldn't be pulled out.  These were cut off with a small reciprocating saw with a metal cutting blade.  Some side rails were bolted to the ends of the boards (another trip back to the car for the adjustable wrench that was forgotten).  

Interesting fact: there's a lot of animal tracks visible in the mud under a boardwalk that you only see when you're kneeling on the boardwalk looking upside down trying to loosen carriage head bolts.

Meanwhile Aidan was cutting back briars with one of the electric hedgetrimmers.  We had cut this area earlier in the year, but brush +sun +water =lots of growth + thorns.

Gia got some hands-on quality trail time with the loppers and trimmer.  The RecPath looked a lot better when they were done with it.  Now all we have to do is work on the grass to get our full crushed stone width back, but that's for another day.

Devin & Bill were replacing one the last boards.  We replaced 8 broken or spongy boards in all, and the RecPath Boardwalk is back in serviceable condition.  Nice job.

Mike, Gia, & Devin on the repaired Lane St. Boardwalk at the end of the job.  We hauled all the tools back out to Lane St, loaded the cars, and Mike & I put things away at the Trails Barn.

The Shelton Land Trust's Hawley Meadow along the RecPath is at the end of the boardwalk- a "Before" picture.

Thanks to everyone who came out:  Aidan, Devin, Gia, Betsy, Bill, Mike & Terry.  Maintenance is seldom glamorous, but it was a good fall morning to be outside.  

And as Bill put it "I am impressed how we were able to replace bad boards without anyone getting tetanus, at least that we know".  Now There's a performance metric for success on a work party.  

Go visit the RecPath at Lane St. - it's really pretty right now.  Also check out the events page for our Full Moon Hike on October 17th (that's THIS Thursday).

RecPath Work Party at Lane St

 We managed to squeeze in a work party at Lane St. before the rain hit.  The meadow had grown in so much that our 8' wide RecPath was down to 2' in some places.

Mark had the crew clear out the briars and stubs around the Sycamore Tree.

Val and Annie cutting brush and raking along both sides of the trail.

Dora & Jason cutting brush.

The crew clearing out debris.

After:  the RecPath edges still need work, but they are a lot better than they were.  Thanks to everyone who came to help out.

They say it's called "Spring".

This past Saturday was weird.  We had a work party and the sun was shining, with no rain, impending thunderstorms, no sleet or ice, the wind wasn't howling, the birds were chirping, it got warmer as the morning went on, and the flowers were blooming.  Not at all like our last few events.  Weird.  Not sure what to make of this odd weather.  They say it's called "Spring".

Bill and Mark were organizing the troops.  We had a great turn-out of 24 volunteers to cut brush, plant trees, and remove thatch from the RecPath at Lane Street.

Mark went over our objectives and safety rules.  There was a discussion of what to cut (things with thorns, invasive plants), and things to save (wildflowers, native plants).

It was a Blue As Could Be morning with some of the trees flowering along the edge of the Means Brook floodplain.  This might be a shad bush tree in flower.

The volunteers stretched out into various groups cutting or digging out old grass on top of the crushed stone Recreation Path.  Another group went up to the end of the meadow to plant tree dogwood trees that Bill Dyer donated along the RecPath.

Mike brought his own weedwacker.  We had a lot of tools but it's usually fun when folks bring their own gear too.

A lot of folks were out enjoying the RecPath too.  Strolling, running, walking dogs, pushing baby strollers, etc.

Lots of friendly dog walkers going thru the work areas.  Volunteers stopped to pet the pups, when OK'd by the owners.

The hayfield always encroaches on the crushed stone surface later in the summer, so we were trying to remove a lot of the thatch so people will be able to enjoy an 8 foot wide RecPath in June, instead of a 2 foot wide path thru the hay.

A lot of high school students were working on removing brush as part of their community service efforts.  Their work was much appreciated.

Some large thickets of briars were removed along the RecPath, which should make things more enjoyable later in the summer.

Thanks to everyone who helped out: Samuel, Anne, James, Mike, Ilaina, Matt, Val, Ellen, Noah Ethan, Tamia, Derek, Serenity, Joseph, Steven, Danielle, Minnhi, Zach, Jahneil, Mattheiu, Julien, Terry, Mark, and Bill.

Maybe if we're lucky we'll get some more of this weird "Spring-like" weather to enjoy the trails on the weekends.

June Cutting at Lane Street

It's June, so it's time to do some cutting along the RecPath at Lane Street.  The stretch along the Land Trust Meadow is one of the most scenic areas of the RecPath, but it also grows like crazy in early summer.  We're also entering a early Hot & Sticky spell in the weather, so we've got that going for us.

Fortunately, we had a good turn out of volunteers, so we got everything done before it got silly hot.

Helpful Trail Tip: Bring lots of water to drink on these work parties, and don't leave your canteen in the car.  Bring it with you too.

The RecPath follows the edges of the meadows with the Means Brook floodplain on the other side.  It's a prime area for robust edge growth.  The hay and thorns starting to encroach on the RecPath were trimmed.  Some invasive species were removed, and sightlines improved going around some of the curves.

The raspberries and other plants were in full bloom.  One of the benefits of coming to this work party were the trailside snacks.

Mike & Terry also fixed holes in the decking on the boardwalk.  Some of the screws were reluctant to come out, but luckily Terry had his tool kit in his car.  

Mike let Terry try to fit all the parts back into the tool case.  Maybe we'll get him a Rubik's Cube for next time; it might be an easier puzzle to solve.  

The boardwalk looked good by the end.  There's some great viburnums and shrubs flowering along both sides, and unless you like wading deep into swamps this is one of the easiest places to see these plants.

 There was a nice patch of Mayapple at the end of the boardwalk.

The meadow hasn't been mowed this year and there is a mix of meadow grasses and wildflowers that are attracting a lot of butterflies and birds.  It doesn't show in the photos, but if you walk along the RecPath and stop to look from time to time you'll see a lot of activity in a very pretty meadow.

There were a lot of folks out enjoying the RecPath.  We'd like to thank the neighbor who offered to get us doughnuts at Royal Bakery.  We'll take you up on that next time.  Thanks to everyone who came out to help:  Matt, Terry, Bill, Luis, Graham, Mike, Terry & Mark.  It definitely helps to have a lot of hands on a job like this.

Before the Storm

Saturday morning, cold, mixed sky; some clear blue with wispy crescent clouds ahead of sheet clouds from the storm rolling in.  We're getting snow, but how much?  Will it stick?  There'll be rain, but will there be ice?  Gil Simmons where are you when we need you?  Or even Hilton Kaderli.   

People, and dogs, were not hedging their bets.  They were out hiking, dog walking, running, and biking before the storm hit.

 At Lane Street in Huntington Center, the bridge reconstruction project was quiet, but residents and trail users could still use the temporary pedestrian bridge to bypass the construction and reach the RecPath trailhead.

The pedestrian path wraps around the construction site and you can walk down Lane Street to the trailhead kiosk for the RecPath.

You can also enjoy an up-close-and-personnel view of bridge reconstruction that you seldom see while driving past a typical construction site.

 Hey look, the bridge foundations are finally getting completed.  Means Brook flows under and thru the bridges.

There was a lonely Mallard drake hanging out in some open, unfrozen water upstream of the bridge.  It was a reminder that wildlife has to cope with the upcoming cold weather just as humans do after an unseasonably warm December and January.

Further downstream, the Far Mill River was flowing along at Gristmill Trail on Mill Street.  Water levels were low following flooding last month along the trail.

Typically more of a summer destination, Gristmill Trail is still very striking in mid-winter.

The RecPath along Silent Waters had a number of hikers and runners along it.

The RecPath going downhill to Meadow Street had a lot of leaves and debris on the paved portion, but was being used by a number of runners and dog walkers.  This will be the site of a future trail work party to clean up The Path, but it was open and used by a lot of people on Saturday.

Kylo was taking his family out for a walk on the Turkey Trot Trail & RecPath Saturday too.  Dogs have to make sure everybody gets out for an invigorating walk in the winter.  It was good to see everyone out enjoying Shelton's Trails & Greenways before the storm hit.