Kiosk & Clean-Up at Hope Lake

Early March - Should be sunny, warm, and dry.  Our scheduled work party was to finish repairing the Hope Lake Kiosk and clean up portions of Oak Valley Trail and surrounding areas.

We had a good crew of volunteers on what turned out to be a chilly and blustery March 7th Saturday.  We did get some sun.  There was a lot of storm damage around the parking lot from the various ice storms and high winds.

Nancy and some of the other folks got busy clearing debris away from the parking lot.  Mark and Luis when back and got more supplies while we were setting up for kiosk restoration.  They also brought the hammers that I had forgot to pack for nailing the shingles on the kiosk roof.

Luis pitched in, along with the others.  Mark went back and got one of the chainsaws to whittle up some of the large tops and branches so they could be moved.

Erik helped with the clean up.  Bill went back to get a shovel to clear out wet spots and seeps along Oak Valley Trail.  Then Bill, Mark & Erik worked to reset an uneven bog walk along the lake and move stepping stones.

The re-set bog walk.  Mike had to go to the Barn to get some rock bars to un-stick the bog walk from the frozen ground so it could be leveled.  It was a good thing that this work party was so close to our Barn.

Helpful Trail Tip:  We should work on our pre-work party checklist of tools to bring.  Also get the stuff we'll need together during the week so loading up Saturday morning is less chaotic. 

Terry & Larry got started on finishing the re-roofing of the kiosk with cedar shingles.  We were continuing the repairs started in December.  At times the wind was gusting so hard across the lake the kiosk was rocking, but it was warmer then the work party in December.  We got the rest of the shingles on.  Some of the roof trim and doors will be put up a little later when we have a taller ladder and some warmer weather.

The other folks split up into multiple crews cutting brush and clearing debris along Oak Valley Trail, the Eklund Garden Connector, the Paugussett Trail over to J Pond and 4 Corners, the Flower Path, portions of the RecPath, and the Paugussett Trail on the back side of Hope Lake.  There was a lot of storm debris on the trails, and the early spring cutting really helps a lot with trail maintenance later in the year when everything starts growing at once.

Some of the storm debris cleaned up around the Hope Lake parking lot on Nells Rock Road.  It was a productive and brisk work party.  Thanks to everyone who helped out; Bodie, Danny, Erik, Nancy, Luis, Mike, Bill, Larry, John, Mark, & Terry.   

Also, thanks to everyone who helped take everything back to the Barn.  And thanks to Ray, Larry, Mark and Luis for getting the metal file cabinet up the stairs.

First Work Party of 2025

 The first work party of 2025 was cutting briars in the snow North of Constitution Blvd.  An earlier work party scheduled for Jan. 9th was canceled due to weather. 

We needed a new route to mow some of the trails following the Eversource powerline construction.  The big timber mats they put down to drive equipment on turned what was a usable road on City Open Space into a compressed swamp that was impassable at times.  So we shifted the route to slightly higher ground, which was a wicked briar patch.  The temperature was in the teens when we started, but it was sunny and the wind wasn't blowing.  So this was one of the best days of the week so far.

Bill was using his electric hedgetrimmer, but stopped to take pictures of our group.

Aidan, Nancy, Mark (& Mike) were going thru the thick stuff.  This was a day to wear the thicker, briar-resistant clothing.

A happy mid-winter work crew.  We split into 2 groups so we could use the brushcutters and hedge trimmers a safe distance from each other.

Bill & I also cleared out barberry along the Paugussett Trail from Constitution Blvd to the powerlines, and some of the other nearby trails.  Cutting back the barberry and other invasive species during the winter helps scheduling trail work in the spring when everything is leafing out.  Barberry is a pain to control, but cutting it now makes it easier to kill some of the fresh sprouts in the spring.

This stretch of the Paugussett Trail was pretty in the snow.  Some of the blowdowns that had been hung up in the trees finally decided to come down in December.  These will be added to the chainsaw portion of the To Do List.

There were a lot of prints on the trails in the snow (people and animals).  It's nice to see hikers and neighbors using the trails.

This is the path thru the thicket after the work party.  The gator path is re-routed around the wet spot N. of  Derby Junction (the power companies term for this spot).  Eversource is done with their work here, but UI Co. is still working on their powerline replacement project.  It should be easier to use and maintain our Gator/walking trail during this spring.

Thanks to Nancy, Mark, Bill, Aidan, Mike and Terry coming out to cut thick briars on a frosty morning.  It turned out to be a decent January day.  The first work party of 2025 is in the books.

Christmas Kiosk Cleanup Commencing

A number of our trail kiosks need rehab work.  The Hope Lake Kiosk is probably in the worst shape. Unfortunately, other trail tasks and repairs have gotten in the way.  I've been getting subtle reminders about fixing the kiosks for years.

The Hope Lake Kiosk is at the entrance to Oak Valley Trail on Nell's Rock Road.  It was in tough shape.

It was old and damaged.  The doors had blown off in a storm.  That left the corkboard exposed, and the rain destroyed that.  The roof was mossy and rotting.  The map box needed rehabbing.

The back side wasn't much better.  This kiosk was built in 2001 and is one of the oldest ones built by the Scouts.

We'd been talking about this forever.  One of the hold ups was getting cedar roof shingles to replace the old roof.  We decided to do these kiosks with cedar roofs in keeping with the woodsy Shelton Trail Fung Schway.  After looking around here and there Mark Volaro when up to Newtown to get the shingles, and then drove all over the place to get the right roofing nails for cedar.  Sometimes the preparation and logistics required for a trail work party take more time than the work party itself.  Then there's the getting of the supplies, ladders, boards, tools, garbage bags, etc. to the job site.  I should've gotten a picture of Luis buried in the back of the car wedged in between all the shingles and stepladders.

But we did get all the stuff there on a chilly Saturday morning.  It was a chilly Saturday morning and we got started to keep warm.

First the demolition.  Striping off the old shingles was interesting.  After a while Mike & I got the hang of it.  While we pried up the shingle on one side of the kiosk, Ellen, Bill & Ted took off the junk on the other side.

Cold work finding and putting the right bits in the drill driver.

Safety Trail Tip:  Remember to bring safety glasses and hard hats next time. 

Mark & Ray went over to Eklund Native Garden on Oak Valley Road to cut up a big oak blowdown that crushed a portion of the deer fence around the garden.

We managed to get all the old mossy shingles off one side, then all the nails.  The scouts really nailed this roof on for keeps.  Ted was reminding us of all the fun that went into building the scout kiosk at Lane Street when he was there.  On that one they used a tow truck to set the kiosk in place.

Then we moved our fancy scaffolding to the rear side.  It was a good idea by Ray to bring a plank and 2 stepladders.

Aidan and Luis were helping with supplying tools and cleaned up some storm damage along Oak Valley Trail and parking lot.  There were some smaller blowdowns across the trail, however we forgot to bring a trail saw to clear that.  I normally have all that junk in the back of my car, but it was in the shop.  But Bill Dyer Was Prepared.

With a battery powered hand held chainsaw that he just happened to have with him.  And It Worked!  Here's an idea for your last-minute Christmas shopping items.

Mike & I got the back of the roof stripped.  This side went faster because we were experienced roof ripper-uppers by now.  We had to replace a couple of rotten nailer boards.  Fortunately,  Mark had gotten some 1x4 cedar boards so the ground crew cut those to length and passed them up.  Then we started nailing on the cedar shingles.

It wasn't any warmer though.  But the ground crew kept us well supplied with nails and a variety of shingles, and cut whatever we needed.

Ted took a photo of Mike in action re-shingling.  Mike looks cold.  He did manage to get thru the whole morning without hammering his thumb.

He wasn't the only one who was cold.  More than a few times Mike helped me fumble to pick up nails with frozen fingers to do some nailing.

Mark & Ray eventually came back from cutting up the Eklund Garden blowdown.  It was a big mess of an oak tree that knocked down a portion of the deer fence (another thing to fix).

And here is an Artist's Rendering of Mark cutting the tree.  It's a pretty good likeness.

We finally got one side of the kiosk re-roofed, and decided that it was cold enough for today.  We reached a good stopping point.  We packed everything out and went is search of warmer locales and some hot food and drinks.

But it was a good start to getting some long-standing stuff off our "To Do" list.  We took off all the old rotten stuff and hardware from the kiosk, got half the roof re-shingled, cleaned up the trailhead parking lot and a portion of Oak Valley Trail (bridges still need some boards), and cut up a big blow down at Eklund (another remains across drive).

Thanks to Mike, Aidan, Ellen, Ted, Luis, Ray, Mark, Bill & Terry for coming out on a chilly morning. (Mike said this was the "second coldest work party he ever attended".  Ellen asked him what that was (it was before she became a member of the Trails Committee) and after Mike gave her the Cliff Notes Version of one of our Ice Capades Adventures she just shook her head and oh gosh, No).  Good Times.

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).