Quillinan Reservoir

Date: 4/13/2015
Report Type: TA Report
Trail Name: Quillinan Reservoir
Town: Seymour/Ansonia
Trail Conditions: Use Caution (mostly firm, but some wet spots)

Observations/Information: Saturday afternoon I happened to be in the neighborhood, so stopped in to Quillinan for a quick walk around to get some idea of the status of the trails. They seemed to be, for the most part, firm but tacky (but with evidence of some earlier too-soon riding on two wheels but especially four hooves - see below).

Sunday I took a quick prelim ride: Rimmon lot, down past the double-logover, up the hill to orange, up past the (second) teepee to purple, then winding down back to the lot.

This morning I made a bigger loop: down the fire road all the way to the reservoir, the up the outermost (?? I'd guess you'd call it) Purple, all the way back around to the lot. Most of Purple has been leaf-blown fairly recently. On both rides, I took the Wo so whatever impact I'd have would be minimal.

The streams are running, of course (albeit not particularly hard), and as the first crossing south of the parking lot isn't armored, I carry over it, using the stepping stones. The first (and biggest) mucky patch encountered is on the fire road shortly to the south of that, just after the fork. It appears the culvert there is plugged and water has come over the trail. It's wet for 20-30 feet or better.

The rock armoring of the stream crossing just below the logged area (i.e. the beginning of the gnarly section) is holding nicely, but the approaches are wet as are some patches in that section.  (Advice would be to avoid going down that way for now.)

The wet seems to be mostly isolated to the fire roads (and gnarly section), as opposed to the new singletrack. Copious horse prints, even on the singletrack (and in that cliffside rock feature up top that I'm too chicken to ride, one left a horse-sized "calling card" so be advised). Horse impact definitely has bike impact easily beat.

TM = cleared some branches (not as many as I expected, though). One car in the lot as I left, but didn't see anyone, but it was first thing in the morning.

Trail Ambassador Name: John Joy
Trail Ambassador E-mail: jmj [at] savagejoy [dot] com
How did you use the trail? MT Biking
Trails Ridden: Fire Road, Purple
Time of day: Morning
Time/Duration (hours): 1:15
Approximate Distance (Miles): 4