Trails Day 2023; Housatonic Woods Preserve

We had a great inaugural hike on Woodsend Trail for CT Trails Day.  The weather cooperated and it was cool and breezy rather than raining.  The Connecticut Forest and Parks Association was coordinating hundreds of outdoor events around the state this weekend.

The starting point was at the Woodsend Avenue trailhead.  There were 22 people plus 3 dogs from Shelton, Monroe, Ansonia, and Stratford.  We had good representation from the Shelton Trails Committee, Conservation Commission and Shelton Land Trust on the hike, and at least one neighbor who joined us.

The new trail was built this spring following purchase by the City of an open space property from a local family.  That parcel connected several other open space properties, including a Shelton Land Trust parcel with the Paugussett Trail, which allows for a larger band of open space; hence the new Housatonic Woods Preserve and Woodsend Trail.

There were plenty of take aways at the sign up station, with Royal Bakery doughnuts, and including previous blog posts of all the great work by volunteers in constructing the new trail.

And we got away just after 10:30.   We split into 2 groups for various speeds on the moderately difficult hike.

Mike Flament made sure none of us got lost on the way in acting as sweeper.  The trail tread was mostly dry, with a few wet spots.  The vegetation had grown in some during the last two weeks, and the views of the Housatonic River were mostly green now.  We did note the old charcoal mound and the areas of the previous debris removal looked great.

Everyone got thru the "Tangerine Squeezer" OK.  

There were a number of stone wall crossings along the hillside.

Ellen Cramp was leading over some of wetland crossings.

A lot of trail work had been done this spring to make the trail tread easier to walk.  When the water is running you can hear it going underground.

All the blow downs had been cleared and all the little stream crossings seemed in good shape.

There were a lot of areas along the Paugussett Trail with much more light coming thru the tree canopy.  The Beech Leaf Wilting Disease is taking a toll on the beech trees.  The beech leaves get all wilted and fall off, and it's thought we may loose all our beech trees in the next few years. This is on top of Beech Bark Disease, which has been afflicting the trees for years. 

Joe Welsh from the Shelton Land Trust was explaining some of the problems facing the beech trees and how their loss might impact the composition of Connecticut's forests.

There were a lot of nice sights along the trail.  A bobcat was spotted at the detention ponds below Sinsabaugh Heights after the first group went thru.  It was camera shy and bounded up the hill before we could get a picture of it.

We stopped and admired all the work done by trail volunteers in the boulderfield and along the switchback on the way back to the trail head.  It makes for a very nice 2 mile loop with lots of connections to various neighborhoods.

Lee and everyone else made it back thru the Tangerine Squeezer.  The Squeezer is a little easier to navigate going back uphill.  It's a moderately challenging trail, with a lot of interesting spots.  

After the hike we let everyone know that Celebrate Shelton was having a Food Trucks on the River event on the Riverwalk in downtown Shelton.

Some hikers ventured down to enjoy the bands, vendors, and food trucks.  It was a festive way to finish a Trails Day hike.  Nice that that was scheduled for the same weekend as Trails Day.

Also after the hike, after putting away some of the gear in the Shelton Trails Barn.  I noticed some guy attacking the Japanese knotweed along Nells Rock Road near the Barn.  It turned out to be Bob Woods, who decided to get rid of some invasive species on Trails Day.  Good work Bob.

It was a successful 2023 Trails Day.  We christened a new trail, folks got to do some exploring, saw some wildlife, and we didn't loose too many hikers.

Happy Earth Day from Woodsend Ave.

It was a good morning for a work party at Woodsend Trail.  We had a heavy turnout of volunteers, including a large number of Shelton High School students doing a community clean up for Earth Day.  I think that we had 26 people split up into 3 work groups handling different tasks.

 

High School students with Silvia from Shelton Youth Service Bureau after digging in the trail. 

And this week we tried to match up what people in each group was doing with the tools they carried in.  Rocket science eh!

One Group had it easy.  They had to go about a half mile down into the woods, empty a bunch of 55 gallon drums filled with rocks and dirt.  Bonus;  the lids of the steel drums were welded shut, so they had to be cut open first, in order to empty the rocks and dirt.  But they persisted, and then hauled the drums, plus tires, a steel plate, a truck hood (which had been cut up by Mark and Luis earlier in the week), and taken a half mile back uphill to Woodsend Avenue for pick up by the City next week.

Ethan and Noah hauling a tire up to the pick up site on Woodsend Ave.

They also made some improvements to a stream crossing, and cut brush along the way.

Group Two got to do some digging and dirt hauling.  They made improvements to the earlier benching in the hillside from the switchback to the stream crossing.  The high school students go to use pick mattocks and rock bars to excavate the upper side of the trail and bench it in better.  

The students digging in the trail along the hillside.

 

Other volunteers hauled 5 gallon buckets of soil down to improve the treadway thru the boulderfield.   

Some of the students after benching the trail into the hillside. 

The trail after all the soil had been placed in the treadway thru the boulders.  Much better footing now.

Group Three went to cut barberry and did out skunk cabbage on the end of the trail below Sinsabaugh Heights.   Now that everything is leafing out areas of trail that were formally clear are sprouting skunk cabbage and other vegetation.

 The pile of debris hauled out to Woodsend Ave.

All in all it was a very good work party.  All the goals were accomplished, there were no accidents, we didn't roll any boulders downhill into Route 110, and everyone go to appreciate leverage and teamwork.  Lots of improvements got done and some long standing junk and trash in City open space were removed.  Thanks to Terry, Noah, Ethan, Sam, Logan, Brianna, Gabby, Ellen, Emily, Caitlin, Dimitri, Ryan, Silvia, Luis, Anne, Elaina, James, Tommy, Serenity, Daniele, Ivy, Ralph, Mike, Marcus, Teresa and Bill.  .

Woodsend Trail Boulder Rolling

Saturday was clear and crisp; a great day for a trail work party at Woodsend Trail.  And we got a great turnout.

We had 22 volunteers to continue clearing the trail, digging it into the hillside, cutting up debris, and moving boulders.  Which is good, because this is a new trail, and it requires a lot of work.

The trail volunteers had a number of tools to choose from.

 Ralph was cutting brush, roots, and vines along the treadway.

Luis and Mark had gone in earlier to cut up a metal truck cap.

We split into multiple groups; some cut roots and brush along the trail tread, some benched in sections of trail, and some headed down to work on the boulderfield crossing.  

With the aid of physics, some strong rock bars, and some strong backs we moved a number of impressive boulders out of the trail tread - visit the Shelton Trails News and Events page for some videos.  I think it became personal between Graham and one of those boulders, but we moved it.  James and Tommy moved some pretty impressive boulders, and walked some of the bigger slabs into safer locations along the trail.  Having multiple rock bars helped.  We tried to work carefully, and move the boulders slowly into pre selected locations, so they wouldn't get out of control.  We were pretty safe and did not roll anything down into Rt. 110, or get any fingers or toes mashed.

But, even with all the precautions, sometimes accidents happen.  There was one mishap when one person took a tumble into the boulders, but luckily it resulted in just some scraps and bruises.

Trail Safety Tip:  Plan for unexpected bumping from co-workers and always have stable footing to move to in a hurry.  Also wear heavy boots and keep your fingers and toes out from under rocks with using pry bars, in case the rock slips.  Be aware of you co-workers and keep the downhill work areas clear of volunteers when moving large objects that can roll.

After moving the large rocks, smaller rocks were placed together to stabilize trail edges, fill in holes of chink wobbly rocks.  Bodie is packing in smaller rocks along the trail edges.

Other volunteers then excavated the dirt into 5 gallon pails and brought it downhill to fill in holes between the boulders for a safer tread.

And they succeeded. 

Where once you had to guess where the trail was between the boulders, now there is a nice, clear tread.

Other people worked on finding and placing some stepping stones for better footing across the stream.

Bill Dyer worked his way down and is checking out the new step stones.  Big improvement.

We didn't get photos of everyone, but thanks to Annie, Luis, Mark, Ralph, Evan, Noah, Graham, Ellen, Jan, Rajan, James, Thomas, Bodie, Michael, Ilaina, Alysa, Bob, Bill, Evan, Mia, Tameria, Teresa, and Terry.  Lots of stuff got done, and it was a beautiful Spring morning.   More trail blazes were added and the trail is much easier to explore now.  Thanks for everyone who helped build this trail.
 

Post St. Patricks Day Party (Work Party that is) at Woods End Trail

In honor of St. Patrick's Day we broke out the traditional Irish utensils of delicate work:  the Pick and Shovel.  It was a great morning to clear out the Woodsend Avenue entrance to the new trail at Housatonic Preserve, and continue benching in some sidehill trail sections.  The weather was dry and sunny for a change.

Since we had a lot of folks we split up into groups.  While one gang tackled the entry at Woodsend Ave., another jumped up past the plateau and started benching in the trail down to the boulder crossing.  There were few rocks to dig out out and a few tree roots to cut.  And by a few we mean dozens and dozens, dozens.  At one point a volunteer said something like "there are so many rocks and roots on this hill".  Yup, welcome to Shelton.

But the gang did a nice job and after a while a trail tread started to emerge from the side hill slope.  We worked to make a stable tread, with a slight outslope for drainage and to protect against erosion.

Mike and Teresa are going over the best routes to cross the stream and how to relocate rocks and boulders for improving the footing.  Luckily, this being Shelton, we had several rocks to choose from.  Then all we had to do was move them in place.  Lucky us.

Misha worked on moving rocks to make stable steps though the boulder field.

Terry and Mike rearranged the boulders

Afterwards, we had a stable, benched-in trail along the hillside from the top of the cliffs down to the stream crossing.  There was a lot of heavy rock moving.   There was also one group of volunteers cutting logs and blowdowns up by Sinsabaugh, and another crew cutting out the entrance at Woodsend Avenue.

At Woodsend Ave the briars were cut back, leaf piles were removed so the road drainage was clear, fallen tree limbs were cut, vines cleared, and the access trailheads were cut out.  It no longer looks like an abandoned jungle.  And some of the neighbors stopped by and were positive about the clean-up, which was really appreciated.

A lot was accomplished today, and it was not easy work moving rocks in the mud.  There's more to do next week; including pulling out the tractor tires, 55 gallon drums, truck cab, more cutting, benching in, drainage improvements, and you guessed it; pick and shovel work.  Should be fun.

Thanks to everyone who came out today; Abby, Annie, Bill, Bob, Luis, Mark, Matt, Mathew, Michael, Mike, Ted, Terry, Teresa, and Val.  Lots of help gets lots done quickly.  And everyone came out in one piece with no flattened fingers or toes while moving all the rocks.  

If anyone has better pictures of the rest of the work party you can share them in the Comments section below.