Blazing Trails and Crossing Streams––

Open Space Task Force Launches Its Spring Offensive

By Dottie Evans

The first Saturday in April was a productive one for Open Space Task Force members and friends who did not wait for a sunny day to begin clearing trails and moving rocks in Rocky Glen State Park.

The group’s ultimate goal, set for June 2004, is to create one continuous seven-mile hiking trail and greenway through Newtown.

On Saturday, it was the Sandy Hook portion of that trail starting at the Dayton Street Bridge that needed immediate attention. A sturdy group of volunteers showed up ready to work, bearing tools and wearing rain gear and gloves. They skidded and scrambled over the ice-encrusted leaves and rocks as they marked the main yellow trail and the white spur trails. The trail penetrates deep into a mature hemlock and hardwood forest, and passes near a high overlook that offers a spectacular view down to Black Bridge and the Pootatuck River winding through Rocky Glen.

“We got a lot done yesterday,” said group leader Pat Barkman on Sunday as she was preparing to go out on the trail again. She was particularly proud of “the neatest little rock bridges, or series of stepping stones now crossing the streams.”

Making the stream crossings was a prodigious project involving cables, huge hooks, canvas straps, and winching apparatus operated by volunteers Leon Barkman, Bill O’Neil, Dave Cronin, Rob Lynders, Harlan Jessup, and Eagle Scout candidate Dan Tichon.

Easton resident Peter Lewis carried a chain saw and worked all morning notching blow-downs that lay across the trail.

“We wanted to leave the trees in place as a barrier to ATVs, so we notched them to make it easier for hikers to climb over,” Mrs Barkman said.

While the heavy work of moving boulders and carving up tree trunks was going on, Mrs Barkman and her neighbor Cristina Barnicoat cleared and marked the trail. They collected trash and piled up brush, then moved the big fallen pine branches so the town could come Monday and pick them up at the Dayton Street trailhead.

Having put in a full day, the group retired to the Sandy Hook Diner at 2 pm to celebrate their efforts over hot coffee and sandwiches.

Neighbors living alongside Dayton Street also contributed to Saturday’s effort of picking up debris and garbage. One resident expressed the concern that people might use the trail entrance as a camping area, and Mrs Barkman suggested that the town could put some rocks across the opening to discourage cars from going in.

On Sunday, Mrs Barkman rallied more workers behind the cause, returning to the Dayton Street trailhead with Al Goodrich, Sallie O’Neil, Peter Sofman, and David Anderson.

Their purpose was to move more rock stepping stones across two marshy areas and the sun finally did shine on their efforts. If it had not, they would have gone anyway.