Upper Mulikin Trail Building (continued)

I had originally planned to go out and do some work early this morning but it was raining.  Went back to bed, woke up later, and thought I would let things dry out a bit.  Ended up heading out about noon and it was steamy to say the least, but I got a lot of work done, but there is much more to do.

First I armored this intermittent stream crossing. Also took out a small tree and clipped some overhanging branches that were ruining the sight lines.

Riding the Reroute for the first time

Another neighbor boy, Matt, who rides wanted to join Bucky and I for ride in the forest on Saturday after my trail work session on the Mulikin. I had contacted his mother the day before to ensure that he showed up to the ride with a helmet and plenty of water.

We headed up the rerouted Lower Mulikin Trail and then rode the rerouted section.  It was rough and soft and clearly needs some breaking in.  The up and overs on the rock walls, however, are smooth as butter!

 

The State Forester told me that someone had gone in and cut some of the trees after they were marked for harvesting.  If you are reading this post, I can't stress it enough, but please do not cut anymore trees in the southern section of the forest. Please have some patience.  

On the way back down the Mulikin and on the reroute the trail was still a little sketchy.  Definitely need to do some more benching.

First Phase of the Upper Mulikin Reroute is open for business!

On Saturday, June 30th, 4 Housatonic Valley Chapter NEMBA members and myself met at Pond Brook at 7 AM to work on the Upper Mulikin Reroute. I have been working on this reroute for almost a year but have had some set backs that include 2 broken ankles in the span of 6 months and a wind storm (aka Macro Burst) that knocked over trees on a few sections of the route that required rerouting the reroute.

Jeff (r) and myself (l)
photo credit: Paula Burton

We started working on the hardest section of the reroute first. Jeff, Paula and myself concentrated on the upper part of the trail with rock removal, armoring the holes, and then some benching.

Andy (l) and Nick (r)
photo credit: Paula Burton

While Andy and Nick worked on up and overs on the rock walls.  They had to do two of them on this one section and when I rode them later in the day they were like butter!

Then we all worked together to remove rocks and bench the sweeping climb/descent section.  This was really tough work and a lot of rocks were removed.  Paula, Andy and Nick took off around 10 AM but Jeff and I stayed to connect the top part of the reroute to the existing Mulikin and then do the first section, which enabled us to close off a really bad section of the existing trail.

When Jeff and I were done, we were completed drenched in sweat and dirty from head to toe!

Re routing the Mulikin Trail Continues

Saturday's forecast was for rain all day and the True to Brew Ride I was supposed to go on was cancelled.  However, the rain didn't come to Southwestern Connecticut till about 10:30 am. Rather than ride, I headed out to Upper Paugussett State Forest to continue the work I am doing on the Upper Mulikin Trail. 

I have cut two sections of the reroute and today I did the third. It is probably the longest section, approximately .6 miles and 5 turns in it. It also goes through a break in a rock wall.

A nice rock spine next to the trail will be in the making as well. While doing this work I cut out a ton of barberry plants, which are invasive and harbor ticks.

The Upper Mulikin Trail is Closed

I enlisted the help of my boys to assist Pete and I with the physical closure of the Mulikin Trail today. They needed some fresh air and some exposure to the woods.

We set the first closure sign about 50 yards in from where the White Blazed & Purple Blazed (Mulikin Trail) split.  Pete made up some signs and bought some stakes from Newtown Hardware.  We also used pink engineers' tape across the trail.

Just in case someone didn't take the first closure seriously we added some additional signage further in.  The thing to note here is this is where the re-route is going to begin.

While we were adding this secondary warning another pair of hikers came down the trail.  In fact we saw more more hikers using the Mulikin Trail than mountain bikers.  Actually there were none using trail during the time we were there.  We did come across a pair of riders stuggling up the Poly Brody.

Since the Mulikin is both and up and downhill trail we also put interior and exterior signs coming from the other direction, too.

As we were putting up the last one we met up with someone walking his dog on the Unmarked and Unsanctioned Trail.  That is a first!  On rare occasions I have come across the loan hiker or shirtless, wandering priest on the Gussy Trail, but this is the first time I have seen a non mountain biking person on DSP.  

Saw some hoof prints on the Brody Road

These two, father and son, were struggling up the steepest section on the Brody Road.

The son had a full face helmet on, that I thought was a bit of overkill

On the way back we walked down the White Blazed trail to where it intersected with the Lower and Upper Mulikin Trails and then went a way that I used to ride many years ago before I found the Lower Mulikin Trail.  It's an old trail that leads to an old skidder path that hooks up to the Hunter's Tree Stand Trail. Right off this trail is a tree stand that someone erected and locked it to the tree that it is on. 

Given the nature of this trail being so straight and the fact that it goes right past the tree stand I would assume that it was made of the hunter/owner of the tree stand.  No competent mountain biker worth his or her weight would bother making a trail so straight. Given the amount of area in this part of the forest you could create a serpentine route that would easily stretch the length of the trail to at least another mile.  Not to mention using a fall line climb after the stream crossing, too.

Today's route:

A 3-D view of the route

Trail Closure: Upper Mulikin

As you know from my last post I was on the Mulikin Trail and couldn't believe how torn up and rutted it was.  I contacted the land manager for the forest and he has given me permission to close this trail and do a re-route.

Please do not ride this part of the trail. 

There are plenty of other ways to get to the Upper Gussy Trail. 

The re-route might take a month or two, faster if I get some volunteers to help out with benching and berming.

So stay tuned.

Upper Mulikin

Gussy in a Light Snow

Wasn't expecting this light snow Sunday morning and figuring that roads would be salted down I headed into the woods at Upper Paugussett.  With a light snow falling, it was really quite in the woods, when I stopped.  Riding with my new bear bell and creaky seat post made it less serene to the ears.  Still, it was a lot better than my last attempt during Thanksgiving when the snow just thick enough to make riding less enjoyable.  

The Mulikin

The snow made things a bit slick but overall, it was great riding weather.  I rode the Gussy, the Reach Around, the Unmarked and Unsanctioned Trail, and the Mulikin Trail. The latter being absolute crap and no one should be riding that right now until the ground is frozen solid or we get at least 6 inches of snow. Until then, please stay off the trail.

It really is warmer in the woods!

Saturday was just a raw, cold, fall day here in SW Connecticut.  I wanted to ride Waldo but with the kid's activities and such that by the time my wife returned my best shot was just to hit the Gussy again.  My recent introduction to road riding now has me all confused for dressing for the woods but my new rule of thumb is if it's around 40 degrees (4.4 C) then shorts and two to three layers up top. 

Riding up the Mulikin gave me more time to look at these silly purple blazes and the only thing I can think of is that they are there to connect people either to the White Trail or just to dispel any confusion coming off the Blue Trail.  There is also no bypass to the rutted section but now that I think about it, they might be thinking the lower part of the trail before the turn, which has always been, in my case the Mulikin, but with that tree coming down due to Sandy and thoroughly blocking the trail that by pass that I have been riding for years is now thought of as the main trail now.

By the time I got to the top of Mulikin I was really hot and had to take off a few things as I imagined I would.  Once on the Gussy I decided to hit the short cut to the Three Bears Roller but found that I really don't like the flow.  I know who ever did it is probably reading this post so don't take this the wrong way, but I think a few tweaks here and there would make this a fun downhill trail and open up some additional challenges on the way down before the bears.

If I am going to rid up the Gussy, I like go out on the Equestrienne Trail, which by the way was one of the original impetuses to build the Gussy because the yellow crossed private land and was really unsustainable.  What I like to do is descend the Yellow to the blue, ride that for a little clip and then head out to the Forest Road on the sloppily blazed white trail but then I found some new yellow blazes at an interesting height - looks like someone painted them without getting off their high horse (pun).  Basically it connects the Gussy to the sloppily blazed white trail.  It's really a one way (down) trail trail if you are going to ride it.  You could ride it from the other direction with Granny's help.  Again, a few tweaks here and there and it could be a fun trail in either direction!

Snowshoeing like a Mountain Biker

My goal to day was to snowshoe up the Gussy, hit the reroute (on the Gussy) and then run down the new Mulikin, and then find my way back to the Echo Valley lot.  Word of caution, don't try parking at Echo Valley unless you have 4 Wheel Drive and an SUV!  Cars won't make it in the driveway.

There were some interesting snowshoe track on the Gussy.  The old tracks you see here on the ROW were the same tracks I saw the other day that entered from the Poly Brody but I never went far enough in to see where they went.  Well today I found out where they went.  They followed the Gussy for about a third of the way in and then veered off to the east coming back to the Gussy around the double stream crossing and then heading west to pick up the ROW.  Must have been a hunter.  Found another set of tracks that came from the blue trail cutting across the Gussy and heading east towards the Poly Brody.  Ironically, for the most part the Gussy was still virginal!

Temperatures were in the upper 20s but I had to ditch the jacket because I was getting way too hot too quickly and the wind was freezing my ears so I went to a balaclava.  Found some small pine trees blocking here and there that must have had snow on them causing them to bend over and more snow held them in place.  I got them free but I think I might have to come back and cut them.  I think I will start carrying a hand saw in my pack.

While there have been some unconfirmed Catamount sightings in our area these cat tracks belong to the Bobcat variety.  The gait is too short for a big cat.

A lot of activity on the Poly Brody.

The New Mulikin parallels this stream for a bit.

I retraced my route down the new Mulikin.  There might be a few sections on the new trail where the climbing will be a little steep but they will be short.  Otherwise this is going to be one kick ass trail.  There is one section that will be series of banked turns heading down to the old cart path.  I can't wait to start working on this re-route!

On the way back I took the west side blue trail and once again reconfirmed that I really hate this trail.  It blocked in numerous spots by blowdowns but the steep up and downs on this trail are pathetic.  I wanted to take the horse trail but couldn't find it so for the most part I snowshoed the blue trail.  Finally I picked up the Reach Around and then the lower part of the Gussy and was happy again!

I found NEMO!

Or it found me!  I put off riding as long as possible Friday morning so that I could still get in a decent ride without having to use lights and still make it to the office (dinning room - today's home office) in time since Winter Storm Nemo was shutting down the state.

 

I started out by riding up the Mulikin.  The snow from earlier in the week was virginal and there were no tracks in the snow.  Still, looking at sections of this trail, there is going to be a lot of work involved in a few places.

The ride down the Gussy was nice, someone had come before me and it looked like the rider did an out and back from the Echo Valley lot because the goods were untouched.  I cleaned the Wet Spot, hitting the right line, which everyone seems to shy away from, at least this guy did.  The Reach Around looks like more people are riding from what I can see on Strava  and she is getting broken in really well.  The wind storm from last week blew some sticks down but nothing major.

 

Up and down the Gussy is great ride and while on the way down I didn't notice anything in particular it was on the way up that discovered a new feature.  It appears someone foot raked a path that lines you up with a real decent roller.  It has a great run out, too, and throwing caution to the wind I backed up and went for it.  It was a really nice roll!  Just have to remember to hit it on the way down.

 

Embolden by my success on this new roller I hit the Log Ride Short but slipped off of it mid way through but was able to keep riding.

Still feeling cocky I hit the other big up and over at the yellow trail intersection and cleaned that as well!

Time was running short so I headed down the Poly Brody and it was turning into a fast pedal until I found that the snow on top of the ice near the entrance was not rideable what so ever and went down.  So, I decided to walk the icy parts.

That still wasn't a good idea because slipped on the ice and went down hard, landing on the bike.  I got a nice raspberry in the lower back from my pedal and my back landed on the frame which I think may have resulted in a bruised rib.  Looks like I won't be mountain biking for a couple of weeks.  Then again, with the snow predictions, I don't think the trails will be rideable for quite sometime, either.