Cooperative Success in Trout Brook Valley

Sunday, September 26th, was great day for trails in Fairfield County.  Trail Bosses, Trail Ambassadors, and mountain bikers that love to ride Trout Brook Valley got together with Aspetuck Land Trust Trail Maintainers to do some much needed work at TBV.  Dave Francefort, who organized and led the initiative, said: 

...there were about 25 people in total, 3/4s of which were mountain bikers.  All the trail re-route projects done today, the land trust people learned a lot from Paula, Rich, Ryan and K and myself.   David Brandt was overly impressed and eagerly to learn our techniques, he could not believe the transformation of the trail we worked on, blocking all the braids, placing choke stones, deberming the downside of the trail, raising trees that line the trail up. 

TA Report: West Hartford Reservoir

Date of Activity: 9/5, 9/11, 9/18, &  9/26.
Trail Ambassador Name: Mike Lefevre
Condition of Trail: Shady & Dry.
Observations: As always, questions/comments about NEMBA. Park conditions, Wildlife sightings, & afew rider assists.
Trail Maintenance hours: 2 hours
Work Accomplished: As always picking up peoples trash throughout the trails and parking lot.

TA report:Cockaponset SF / Weber Woods

Date of activity: September 29, 2010
Condition of trail(s): Good shape
Trail Ambassador Name: Don Hazuka
Encounters and Observations: I didn’t have much time so I decided to ride the perimeter loop of the forest; we didn’t have much rain at all in this area, so the trails were in good shape with no standing water or mud; headed up the dirt road to the upper green, then west to the parking lot where one empty car sat; jumped on the upper orange running right next to the pond when I got the bejeezus scared out of me when about 20 ducks took to flight; a feeder stream to the pond was still very dry (photo) showing the lack of rain this summer; came across and greeted a guy hiking on the lower orange figuring it must be his car in the lot; hooked back onto the green and took it home; it was raining acorns everywhere; glad I was able to fit this one in before the coming storm.

Trumbull-Pequonnock

Saturday, September 25th, 2010
Condition of Trails: Perfect, Leafy
Trail Ambassador Names: Rich C

Headed in from Whitney and rode the Trail above the rail trail right out of the parking lot - this is sweet - whover built this trail should be commended!
Rode the Red starting at its northernmost point. The weather was beautiful... actually kinda hot and muggy. Encountered a few bikers here and there and chatted about the Trumbull Trail program (gave out biz cards, etc.). Everyone seemed interested and agreed there was some serious fixing up to do throughout the Park.
After the Rusty River, I rode the Upper Red to assess any issues but it was so dry all appeared fine. On the southern side of the fire road, I rode the Red and eliminated the incorrect yellow blazing on a few dual-blazed trees.

Continued on to near the south end where I eradicated the yellow blazing on an incorrectly yellow-blazed trail.  The headed back north via Mullholland Drive, the Rooty trail, swung in toward the River on the Sandy Lake Rim Trail and stopped up at the Canyon to take a few photos.  Another reason was this Park is so awesome!

 

Finally slogged up to the Yellow in the Central Maze and headed on out. Love the Slick Rock section... Another highlight of the park for sure... I even rode south a bit on the Rail Trail once across the bridge - it was such a pleasant day. Trails were in great shape and the Park was dry and leafy.

TA Report: Upper Paugussett State Forest

Date of Activity: 9/22/10
Trail Ambassador Name: Ed Perten
Distance (Miles): Several
Condition of Trail(s): Paula's trail-great shape, dry, new section needs to be ridden on, rained on, it is still soft. Mark's trail-great shape, dry.
Observations: We first rode Paula's trails and enjoyed them, hoping to do the same on Mark's trail. As I was putting my bike on the roof rack, I noticed a broken spoke on my front wheel. Luckily I had a spare spoke and I expected this to be a quick fix.
To make a long story short I decided to do this repair over my open car trunk so as to eliminate the possibility of loosing screws and parts in the dirt parking lot. What I did not account for was dropping the quick release spring into the trunk lock hasp compartment. Luckily I found another function for the spare spoke. Using the end of the spoke which goes to the hub as a hook, we fished out the quick release spring, we completed the repair and were on our way.

TA report: Waldo State Park

Date of Activity: Sept. 21, 2010
Trail Ambassador Name: Paula Burton, Glenn Vernes
Location:  Waldo SP
Trails: Where's Waldo ,Extension, Hunter's Trail, and Access Road
Condition of Trail(s)/ observations: Totally beautiful afternoon!

TA Report: Paugussett State Forest

TA Report: Paugussett State Forest
Date of Activity: 9/21/2010
Trail Conditions: Excellent!
Observations: Parked at the lot on the Echo Valley side. Only saw that same BMW truck in the lot; again I assume its a runner. My wife rode with me today and we stayed mostly to the Polly Brody fire road. We also hit the fire road/jeep trail on the back side of Gussy as well as some of the scenic road. It was a picture perfect day for riding. Nothing unusual to report. Forgot the camera this time. Good news is I think my wife might have gotten bitten by the mountain biking bug. Maybe a future NEMBA member?

TA Report: Wadsworth Falls State Park

Date of Activity: September 15, 2010
Trail Ambassador Name: Paula Burton, Mark Lurie, Al Tinti, Ryan Tucker, Glenn Vernes

Condition of Trail(s): Bone Dry
Observations: This was our monthly pre-meeting ride. We had five board members, all of them TAs, and 29ers outnumbered 26ers by four to one! There were also three single speeds. Regrettably, no one decided to come and ride with us.

The trails were extremely dry. We've had so little rain that many trails are turning to dust, and giving us a good idea of what riding must be like in the desert. Traction was sketchy both in climbing and cornering, and the stream that runs through the Little Falls was bone dry. Trails were otherwise in good condition, though, and holding up well to the drought. The trail gnomes have been busy as well, creating a new rock feature and de-limbing a large tree that recently fell, creating a nice log feature.

The Advanced Ride at an Intermediate Pace

Rest Stop at Black Ledge Falls

Somebody have a mechanical?

Must be Glenn

Paula managing the Swag Raffle

Fabian Esponda and his crew arrived a the tail end of things.

2010 Fall Fiesta @ Gay City State Park

We had a great turn out for this year's Fall Fiesta although we weren't in our usual spot which added a little confusion for those arriving before we got some signage up.

There was plenty of swag

John Isch

Art (back right) getting ready to head off on the Epic

Mark Sponauer

Click here for higher resolution pictures

More Fall Fiesta Pictures

Sunday, September 19th, Gay City State Park, Hebron, CT

More pictures from the event..

Trail Building at Seth Low Pierpont State Park, Ridgefield, CT

Sun. Oct. 17

Seth Low Pierpont SP

Ridgefield CT. 

Paula Burton 203-733-2963 

peburton@aol.com,

Help us build a new trail in the beautiful park at the request of the land manager. We hope to get it built in one day, but we need your help. Call or email for meeting place and work from 9am until 1pm. Lunch provided, then go for a ride after at Bennetts Farm.

TA Report: Paugussett State Forest

Trail Ambassador: Rick Brodsky
TA Report: Paugussett State Forest
Date of Activity: 9/19/2010
Trail Conditions: Excellent!
Observations: Parked on the side of the road at the boat ramp again. Took the same route. Connector to Polly Brody and up the 3 hills to the trailhead of Gussy. Didn't see any riders at this early hour, but there were about 5 trucks that pulled in with boats at the ramp. All fishermen. Everything looked great on the trails today. Weather was perfect for riding

TA Report: Cockaponset SF / Weber Woods

Date of activity: September 19, 2010
Condition of trail(s): Great; dry and quick
Trail Ambassador Name: Don Hazuka
Encounters and Observations: I decided to explore more of the Quinimay trail so I had my wife drop me off at the upper lot at Pattaconk Pond and head south from there; the trail was nice and dry, not technical (except for part of the paved Filley access road leading to route 148!), which allowed some pretty fast riding for the first few miles; the Quinimay takes you from woods to road and back a few times due to the positioning of Cockaponset forest parcels, roads, and private land; after about five miles it merges into the green trail of Weber Woods and finishes up at the west parking lot; just before the merge, there is a very cool old stone dam about 50 yards in on the left .

 It doesn’t take much imagination to realize the hard work it took to construct it, especially without machinery; headed to the west lot, saw one car with a bike rack, but no rider on the trails; came across and greeted a man and woman hiking the white; blasted around more of the trails, then headed home; fantastic weather, excellent ride, great day.

Trumbull-Pequonnock

Saturday, September 18th, 2010
Condition of Trails: Good, Leafy
Trail Ambassador Name: Rich C, Dave F
After meeting in the Daniels Farm Parking Lot, we carpooled off to a location near the fireroad that was much closer. This saved us a huge amount of time and easy to lug our tools in to the spot with a wheelbarrow that Nick had wisely brought.
Mark Lurie and I had visited the spot ages ago with the Land Manager to get his approval. I had already prepped the general line for the trail a couple of weeks back: it was pre-raked and so we all jumped to work: raking, digging and benching.
We had a unexpected quick "Intermezzo" from our focused work when I lifted a rock and got attacked by a swarm of bees. Everyone wisely scattered as I danced around, swearing like a loon. They were an angry bunch >> they were in my hair, on my arms, hands and even inside my shirt. I got stung numerous times and Val got one taste of their vengeance as well.

After that unexpected jolt, we resumed work, carefully observing and avoiding the swarm still hovering low to the ground off to the side of the trail...
Nick and Dave spearheaded the end of the route, shifting it a little further up the hill for better flow. Much of the trail at this end was armored with a tight fit of rocks. Luckily we were blessed with an abundance of large flat rocks right nearby and Dave, as always a master at this type of work, focused intently on fitting them logically together.
There's still a bit of final finessing that needs to be done so we have yet to connect this trail with the current trail right above a washed out fallen line we hope riders will soon avoid. It should be a great ride as we have scoped it out so the flow will funnel a rider nicely into it from the current trail.