Find a Way

We've had a lot of problems in the past with the Paugussett Trail at Mayflower Lane; probably more problems in this one spot than in the rest of the trail combined.  Signs torn down, painted blazes on trees removed, city open space landscaped like it's part of someone's yard to confuse hikers, bush and yard waste dumped directly in the trail bed, trees cut down, athletic equipment parked directly in the trailhead so people don't know where to go.  And it's been going on for years.

We're just volunteers trying to help out our town and frankly, we have better things to do with our weekends than keep cleaning up this nonsense.  So after last weeks work party to clean up the Mayflower Trailhead, yet again.  I, along with my daughter Emma, added a nice sign at the trailhead, so that trail users could easily find the trail entrance behind the basketball hoop, and continue their walk through City Open Space at the appropriate location.  This wound up costing me close to $20 in ice cream between Emma and Tyler (who took the picture) at Wells Hollow Farm after our little work party.

The trail marker posts were installed by the Trails Committee the previous week as part of our clean up work party, and after they were up it was just apparent that a small sign would fit nicely when viewed from the cul-de-sac.  It has a little City of Shelton open space sign, and a small Connecticut Forest and Parks Association sign to note who the property owner is that gave permission to put the trail there, and who takes care of the trail.  It didn't seem like a big deal at the time.

Well, some of the neighbors had a major hissyfit about the sign attracting all the riffraff hikers to their neighborhood, contacted one of the aldermen, who rather than fact checking, shot off a scathing and stunningly inaccurate e-mail to the Mayor, who after some back and forth with various Trails Committee members, most of whom liked the sign, decided to take the sign down and remove the neighbor's athletic equipment from the public Right of Way.  Who knew hiking trails could get this dramatic!

So, enjoy your walk, be nice, smile and wave at the neighbors on Mayflower Lane, pick up a little trash along the way, and send in your pictures at the trailhead.to the Shelton Trails Blog.

Switching gears, Sunday was a nice day so why not spend part of it cleaning graffiti of the sign kiosk at the entry to the Shelton Lakes Recreation Path on Lane Street?  Somebody though the kiosk built by Eagle Scouts could be embellished by their initials.  Idiots.  But a little Goof Off and a lot of elbow grease later it was gone.  Somebody also spray painted the Lane Street Boardwalk, and Harriet Wilber's Memorial Bench at the Land Trust Meadow.   It only took some more Goof Off and a wire wheel to clean up that mess.

The Bench is probably a lost cause at this point, but that's up to the Shelton Land Conservation Trust.  They were doing a nice job that morning planting an oak tree supplied by the Olde Ripton Garden Club at the far end of the meadow along the RecPath.  It seems that there's always an arms war between those that want to make their communities better places to live and those who would make them worse places.  This Sunday it was the nice people, who are stubborn and persistent, who came out on top.  And a hundred years from now I hope that peoples grand kids enjoy the oak tree that they planted.

   
The End.  Courtesy of Rich S. and his camera that knows no restraint when trying to capture someones good side.

Fixin' Stuff

Everybody always likes the fun jobs of building something new; a trail, a bridge, a kiosk. But the fact of the matter is that there are maintenance jobs that have to get done and somebody has to do them. I think most trail users assume that it's City staff, or maybe "the little people" who come out in the middle of the night to take care of this stuff, but in reality it's just volunteers.

Teresa Gallagher reblazed the Turkey Trot Trail recently. The old blazes were faded, and they get bigger as the trees grow. Terry scraped the bark, blacked out the old paint, and then came back and re-painted the white blazes on the trees. This has to be done every couple of years. This year she has reblazed Turkey Trot, Oak Valley, and Nells Loop Trails, along with most of the Blue Dot trail. That's a lot of work so people can find their way in the woods.

Rich Skudlarek recently replaced a couple of broken fence rails along the RecPath on top of the old dams at Silent Waters. We generally lose a couple of rails a year due to trees falling down in a storm. The fence is there so no one accidentally walks off the dam, and needs to be kept up, however it may take a little while for volunteers to fit it into their schedule sometimes. Nice job Rich.

In addition to mending fences, Rich also just finished fixing the Plexiglas in the Turkey Trot Kiosk. Apparently some joker though it would be fun to smash out the glass. We try to keep the trail entrances clear and in good shape. Unfortunately the time spent fixing this vandalism takes time away from other things.

We've had to fix a lot of vandalism this year; fire rings were recently removed on both Nells Loop Trail and the RecPath, the Lane St. Kiosk was repaired, the Harriett Wilber Memorial Bench was removed from the Land Trust Meadow on Lane St. due to vandalism, a lot of trash that was thoughlessly dumped was picked up, and major ATV damage at Birchbank Mtn. is being corrected.

People like to show up for a ribbon cutting, but getting folks out to fix erosion or vandalism is more of a challenge. Anything people can do to assist us with this stuff is greatly appreciated.
Consider coming to a work party this Fall. As Bill says "many hands makes light work."