TM Report: Wilton Woods

Date of Activity: 3/12/11
Condition of Trails(s): Wet, Snow, Extreme Mud
Trail Ambassador Name: David Francefort
Observations: With the recent snow melt and then 4" of rain the park is officially a mess, so much so that I recommended to the Wilton Conservation Commission to shut down the park to mountain biking until it has adequately dried. WCC posted park closed signs and will remain in effect until conditions improve. This was my first time in 2011 to really check out what the winter damage has done and I have my work cut out this Spring. Most trails have new temporary streams running across them, something I have never seen before, many sections of trail have lost up to 6" of top soil, exposing rocks and roots (like the trails there aren't rocky and rooty enough!) I hiked up blue east and the trail reroute I did in the fall was the driest section in the park and looks like it did last year, onward to the orange I went where a bridge was partial moved by the rising river and much debris is on that trail. Also on the orange I came upon a pond that was never there engrossing about 100 feet of the trail and my rock armoring project from 2 years ago was under 6-12" of water.

    

 The problem was the run off area was completely clogged by logs, branches and leaves. After 2 hours of moving debris, water was flowing back to the river and I could noticably see the water level receding. The blue west is a mess up by the first stream crossing with heavy leaching from the hillside, I installed 6 knicks to slowly get the water off the trail and the hill past the stream lost a lot of soil so I think a trail reroute away from the fall line is a project in the next month or 2. At the park entrance I added armoring to allow visitors easement to the trail head without having to walk through 10 feet of mud and stream.

Trail Ambassador Email: dfrancefort@excite.com
Town: Wilton
Location: Wilton Woods
Trail(s) Ridden: N/A
How did you use the trail?: Trail Maintenance
What was the time of day?: 8AM
Duration (Hours): 5
Distance (Miles): N/A