TA Report: Upper Paugussett State Forest

Date of Activity: 4/3/09
Trail Ambassador Name: Mark Lurie
Trail Ambassador Email: eatsleepfish [at] gmail [dot] com
Town: Newtown
Location: Upper Paugussett SF
Trail(s) Ridden: Forest Road, Upper Gussy Trail
How did you use the trail?: mountain bike
What was the time of day?: early morning
Duration (Hours): 1
Distance (Miles): 5

Condition of Trail(s): The forest road from the entrance to the intersection with the White Trail is definitely now a logging road.

Some sections have been graveled and others are very soft and very muddy - the logging company ought to add some more gravel to these sections.

Below is an example of a particularly muddy section of the Logging Road that could use some more gravel.

The Upper Gussy Trail is looking really nice. The trail is now well defined and weathered the winter nicely. There is only one soft section on the trail that needs to be addressed at this point.

Observations: It appears the loggers may have been a little careless with their lunch leaving the job on Friday because the container must have flown out of the back of the truck. Hopefully they will police that up. Other than that they are doing a really great job at keeping the forest as pristine as they can given the type of work they are doing.

It appears that they are done with the area where the White Trail and the Logging Road ends. The section of the road between the first staging area and the new staging area (shown below) has been bladed and now needs to be packed down. Riding in it is worse than riding in snow. The second staging is where the logging road flattens out after climbing up from the entrance to the forest.

The logging company is keeping it's vehicles on the east side of the logging road.

Up on the Gussy trail, the salt lick is still there and has seen quite a bit of erosion. DEP asked me for the location and unfortunately it's been a month since but I finally got the Lat/Lon of the location:

N 41.45284 / W 73.31323

The black dot on the map is the approximate location. Easiest way to it is off of Sanford Rd, take the old Jeep Road to where it turns into the Blue Trail. Follow the blue to where it hooks back east and then crosses the stream. Once on the other side, the blue curves back west for a bit, at that curve head north till you hit the Gussy and you should find the spot.

I don't think the brick has been eroded to this point from deer licking. Looks more like water. I am going to pass this along to the DEP and wait and see what they say.