Shelton Lakes Recreation Path

The grand opening of the Shelton Lakes Recreation Path Phase 1 was today, followed by a hike. This phase of the Rec Path (1.25 miles) is now 8-12 feet wide and surfaced with crushed stone.

Here are photos and a video of our ribbon-cutting ceremony, and here's an aerial showing where the Rec Path Phase 1 is located. Parts of phases 2 and 3 are now a rough hiking trail (you can pan on the aerial and switch it to street map view to get a better idea of where the route is located). Coincidentally, it was ten years ago on December 18, 1998 that the City of Shelton purchased 234 acres there at Shelton Lakes from the water company. A developer had plans drawn up for condominiums, a retail center, and single-family homes, so we are very lucky to have purchased the property as open space.

The new granite markers at the entryway and road crossings were acquired through a grant secured by the late Dick Belden.

Winter Greenery in Clinton

I love having four seasons. The entire world around us is transformed every few months. Our early-season snow melted, leaving the woods rather brown and stark today. But that only made the scattered winter greenery stand out. The top photo is hair cap moss.

Princess Pine (Lycopodium) along with moss (dark green) and lichens (light green). People used to collect Princess Pine for Christmas greenery and they became rare for a time.

This is Downy Rattlesnake Plaintain. They say if you step on it you'll get lost in the forest.

These photos were taken today at Peter's Memorial Woods in Clinton. The Clinton Land Trust has done a fabulous job of maintaining this land, with high quality trails, maps, and signage, and the park is many interesting features, such as rock formations and a few very large oaks.

Jones Family Farm, Shelton

Yesterday we made our annual pilgrimage to Jones Family Farm to cut our Christmas tree, followed by hot apple cider, cookies, and some shopping at the gift shop, but we had a lot of people with us and I didn't really get to walk around the farm the way I wanted to. So today, after a couple of inches of snow, I headed back just to hike around and enjoy the farm without having to pick out a tree or worry about where the kids are.

As expected, the place was mobbed with hundreds of people from Shelton as well as New York City and New Jersey. Getting a place to park is like lining up before a rock concert. Fortunately, it is also very well organized and it took me all of two minutes to get a spot near the barnyard where they have their sales, gift shop, canteen, and fire pit.

I walked through a mob of smiley, rosy-faced families, and headed west up Candy Cane Hill, aka Israel Hill. Up and up, past pines, firs, and spruce I went, finally arriving at the North Pole, which is not a metaphor but an actual place on the hill, marked by signs. I climbed a bit further, then panned a series of photos which I stitched together at home (see above). Click here to see a larger version which you can magnify to see more closely. The left side of the photo is to the northeast and the right side is towards the southeast. Pumpkinseed Hill is the cleared area in the left background. The Candy Cane parking area is in the center right, and the cleared area in the right background is the Hudak and Stearn Farms off of Birdseye Road.

I went a bit further until a sign announced beautiful tall spruce trees to the right down the hill. These trees are actually on Shelton Family Farm, which is leased by the Jones family. In addition to Christmas trees there are wide open fields and a private pond called Lake Emerson just off Rt 110 (a well-known go-cart track is nearby). In the distance are the fields of Pumpkinseed Hill, also farmed by the Jones family. This end of the farm was very quiet with only a few families looking at the trees. I know which trees I'm looking at next year.

After the hike, I stopped in at the canteen with its heated restroom and hot apple cider, and hung out to people-watch. Frosty was walking around waving to the kids, and people were sitting around the fire pit trying to keep out of the smoke.

Jones Family Farm and Shelton Family Farm have both been preserved via the "purchase of development rights," which means that they are privately owned but can never be subdivided into a housing development. I've heard a few people grumble about using city funds to buy land "rights" rather than just buying the land outright, and how the land is not open to the public. However, I'm happy the farmers continue to own the property and run their farms. Though technically not open to the public, these lands are in fact enjoyed by the public in a way that would not be an option if the City were to own the property. I've been at the farm several times this year, picking strawberries, blueberries (twice), getting pumpkins, cutting a tree, and today I simply walked around enjoying the scenery. See my photos from the hike -- this place is a series of photo ops.

Preserving land by the purchase of development rights is the most cost effective method we have available. The price per acre is lower than if the land were purchased outright. Plus, there are no public maintenance costs associated with the land, because it is privately owned.

Eisenhower Park, Milford

Letterboxing took me to some corners of Eisenhower Park that I'd never seen before. Here's the Wepawaug River. Coincidentally, I walked along another section of this river just the other day at the Wepawaug Conservation Area and Kowal Nature Preserve in Orange, 'boxing once again. The river looked much the same upstream as it does in this picture.

According to the letterboxing clues, the 15-acre Kowal Nature Preserve was donated by a mailman. Imagine that. Most conservation lands have a story behind their preservation and a devoted crew of people who worked to make it so. There's an entire book about the epic battle to preserve Sleeping Giant State Park. Here in Shelton we are celebrating the 10-year anniversary of the Shelton Lakes purchase, which has grown to about 450-acres with 10 miles of trails. Before the purchase, there were well-grounded fears that the area would be filled with new houses. Anyways, I salute everyone who has helped to preserve conservation lands.

Back to Eisenhower Park. One of the fields was lined with overgrown tires which must have demarcated the parking areas at some point in time. I wonder how long the tires will last, and how some future archeologist might interpret them. As art, perhaps?

Loss of a Landmark

There she goes! The Derby/Shelton dam gatehouse is collapsing and will likely be replaced with the egress for a new fish ladder. The gatehouse is a landmark for boaters and has been the feature of many prominant landscape paintings, including a large depression-era painting in the Post Office, and another painting in Plumb Libary.

The gatehouse is owned by the Stratford-based McCallum Enterprises, who also owns the dam, canal and hydroelectric facilities. Under their federal license, McCallum was required to maintain the gatehouse, which was probably a hassle. But McCallum's engineers and the DEP fisheries unit decided the gatehouse was just the place for the fish ladder, so maintenance requirement has been waived. Sheltonites were given no opportunity to comment on this idea and it appears the people designing the fish ladder were not even aware that people around here think it's important. So, there goes our landmark.

McCallum also has plans to fill in the canal and replace it with high-density housing, and has recently installed an obnoxious fence (see photo below) to close 1000 feet of riverfront that had been public under their federal license to operate the hydroelectric facility. Local residents and officials had no idea these actions were proposed and missed the comment periods because the legal public notices were made in the Waterbury Republican, Fairfield Citizen News, and New Haven Advocate, the first two of which are not local and the latter is a left-wing freebie for college students that many older people find offensive.

The property is regulated by the 5-member Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), which supercedes all local regulations. The City of Shelton and local residents were given no opportunity to provide input before FERC decided to allow the collapse of the gatehouse, the filling of the canal, and the closure of the canal to the public. However, the US Corps of Army Engineers has not approved a required wetlands permit so far, so the canal might yet be saved (the application was temporarily withdrawn).

Here's a video (be sure to click "watch in high quality" to the lower right of the video) of the Canal Street Riverfront Development zone and the canal and locks, along with the fence that was erected, and here's a page with more information about the canal. I put the video together since many residents are not familiar with that area and aren't quite sure where the locks are.

Update 11/20/2008: FERC responded to DEP and the City of Shelton by a strong reversal of their original approval to close the canal to the public. The Mayor had asked for US Representative Rosa DeLauro for assistance, and that seems to have paid off. Yay!

Feels like there's a bug crawling across my skin...

I think I'm averaging about one of these every week since October. Adult deer ticks - the ones you find in cool weather - are more likely to be infected with Lyme Disease than the summer nymph stages. Fortunately, most people either feel the tick walk across their skin or they will feel an irritation after the tick bites. I usually find the adults walking down my arm, often while driving back from a hike through heavy brush. Or they might be on my neck, behind my ear, or on my back. And I always pick the adults up in the brush, so it's easy enough to do a tick check after letterboxing or working in the woods.

I've heard a lot of stupid things about ticks. Some come from medical professionals. For example, a friend of mine pulled an engorged tick off of herself in the winter (surely an adult deer tick) and called the doctor. She was told that if she could see it, the tick couldn't be a deer tick. I've also seen on the Internet pages that say it is all but impossible to see the nymph ticks. Hello? Ticks are not invisible nor are they microscopic. I can see the adults and nymphs just fine, and I occasionally even see the larvae, which are way smaller than even the nymphs (larvae can't carry Lyme Disease). The point is you need to LOOK very carefully and use mirrors and/or partners to check the areas you can't normally see. And I suppose if you are very hairy or have darker skin you're going to have a harder time.

The nymphs are a summer thing (May-June-July), and that's how most people get Lyme Disease. I think this is only partially because nymphs are smaller and more difficult to see. I think it is also because nymphs prefer low vegetation and grassy areas rather than brush, and people pick them up just by going out to their BBQ or mowing the lawn. They don't think to do a tick check just for stepping out onto the lawn.

Outdoorsy people, however, check for ticks constantly, and investigate every little tickle that might prove to be a tick. As long as the tick is pulled off within 24-48 hours after a bite, you won't get Lyme Disease, even if the tick is infected (and chances are good that it is not). Knock on wood, I've pulled hundreds of deer tick off of me over the years but never got Lyme Disease.

Zoar Trail, Newtown

"Who knew??" my husband and I kept saying. Who knew this trail, so close to home, would be so scenic? Our destination was Prydden Falls and a solitary letterbox that no one had logged for over 3 years, 1.6 miles from the trailhead at Great Quarter Road. The trail followed the shoreline of Lake Zoar the entire route, sometimes right along the shoreline and at other times 50 or 100 feet up. We could see the lake through the trees almost all the way to the falls. The trail was not difficult other than some tricky footing here and there posed by roots and rocks.

Prydden Falls were dramatic - the photo only captures a portion of it. At the foot of the falls there is a nice rock on the shoreline with an unobstructed view of the river. A great place for a picnic. After finding the letterbox and a nearby geocache, we returned the way we came. You can make a loop of the trail, but it's much longer and rugged.

Zoar Trail is one of CFPA's Blue-Blazed trails and we found it well-maintained. A trail volunteer somewhere deserves a pat on the back. It is also classifed as scenic by the DEP. Here are some more photos.

Toby's Rock Mtn, Beacon Falls

Ever wonder what's up on those rocky ledges overlooking Route 8 on your way up to Naugatuck? You know, the ones with all the graffitti? Turns out part of it is located within Naugatuck State Forest, a forest which is, oddly, scattered about the region in several unjoined "blocks".

I have never seen a map or description of the trails there, other than what can be found for letterboxing clues. Access is via Cold Spring Road, a gravelled series of potholes that follows the traintracks to a remote parking area. There, I found some unexpected interpretive signs at the parking lot which tell about the history of the area as a sort of amusement park. I then went back out to the gravel road and found the trailhead on the south side of Spruce Brook. Although the trail is mostly unmarked, it is generally easy to follow along the bank of the brook past a series of scenic waterfalls, chutes, and pools.

After a beautiful walk along the brook, I found a turn-off for the poorly maintained blue trail, which I followed up to the top of Toby's Rock Mountain. The view was spectacular, looking north up Route 8 through the notch where the Naugatuck River Valley constricts to its narrowest point. Turkey Vultures (the ones who are constantly circling over Route, apparently waiting for you to die) were sometimes flying below me, and migrating hawks occasionally passed overhead.

I don't know of any maps available for hikers, and the trails are not well marked or maintained, which is a shame, because the scenery there is amazing. Here are some of my photos.

Pomfret Pow Wow

Here's yet another way our open space and parks are used: A Pow Wow. This one was in Pomfret, where I was letterboxing, geocaching, leaf-peaking, and meeting up with a friend (who tipped me off to the Pow Wow). There was a roped-off circle where various dancing and drumming and such was taking place, and an outer circle of vendors selling things like Buffalo Burgers, jewelry, and animal pelts. I very nearly bought an entire beaver pelt, including the tail, for $35. But I couldn't imagine what I would do with it, and settled for an amazingly soft rabbit pelt for $7 for my daughter.

There are schedules of pow wows available online, like this one for New England. In some ways my favorite part was simply hearing the drums and flute in the background as I walked through the forest approaching the pow wow, because it felt timeless.

Copperhead at Sleeping Giant

The letterboxing clues directed me to look for "a serpent's den" along the trail in Hamden. Turns out this was not just a figure of speech! This juvenile copperhead greeted me in front of the den and conveniently hung out while I fumbled in my pack for a camera, all the while trying not to tumble off the cliff just below me. When I got a little too close with the camera (that's what the macro setting is for, right?) he struck aggressively and was in no hurry to leave. The yellow-green tail tip is typical for a juvenile. After a while he finally decided he'd had enough of me and headed for the den (see video). I never did find that letterbox.

Although copperheads (and timber rattlesnakes) may be found throughout the state, it is on the traprock ridges of central Connecticut where they are most common. Still, I have never seen one until today, so this was a real treat, especially since I had the good fortune to not fall off the cliff in my excitement. I've found many snakes letterboxing and geocaching, mostly shy garter and ring-necked snakes (sometimes right on or under the box). This snake was completely different. It had an evil sort of beauty - the triangular head and the serpent eyes are very different from our more common and less dangerous snakes. It's appearence simply shouted out, "Danger!" The repeated strikes emphasized that point.