A Seven-Mile Greenway Through Town––

Clearing The Way For ‘Al’s Trail’

By Dottie Evans

When blazing a trail in the wilderness it is understood that overcoming obstacles will, literally, come with the territory.

Certainly, this has been true in the making of Al’s Trail, a seven-mile greenway hiking path through Newtown that has already been 12 years in the making. And though Newtown is surely no longer a wilderness, there are obstacles aplenty standing in the way.

Before completion, Al’s Trail must cross all manner of natural and unnatural areas. These include state-owned open space, Newtown Forest and Nature Conservancy properties, public utility land, private easements, watersheds, a fish hatchery, and scenic roads as well as streams and rivers.

More formidable trail interruptions include housing developments, a railroad, a natural gas pipeline, and even a six-lane divided superhighway.

It might be safe to say that if Al’s Trail cannot be completed in the near future –– while there is still a narrow window of opportunity and before development overtakes green space –– it might never happen.

Realizing that time may be running out, many Newtown residents have embraced the greenway vision and are working hard to make it a reality. Ad Hoc Open Space Committee member Pat Barkman is one of its most outspoken and determined supporters.

“We hope to open certain sections of the greenway trail by the Tercentennial celebration,” said Ms Barkman, looking ahead to the spring of 2005.

As a longtime Newtown resident and dedicated hiker, Ms Barkman served on the Newtown Greenway Committee in the early 1990s and then on the Ad Hoc Open Space Committee that was subsequently created by First Selectman Herb Rosenthal to target possible properties in town that should be saved from development.

She has worked tirelessly to round up volunteers to clear portions of the trail, as well as to contact private individuals and government officials at the state and local level concerning various permissions that must still be obtained. Though challenged, Ms Barkman continues to concentrate on the positives.

 

Al Goodrich: Senior         Statesman Of Newtown Trails

A rough map of the proposed seven-mile trail with some sections completed shows an S-curve snaking through Newtown, running north to south. It shadows Lake Lillinonah, parts of the Pootatuck River and the Fairfield Hills section of Deep Brook. Its northern terminus is at the Upper Paugussett State Forest and its southern terminus is at the Reed Intermediate School. Until the under-highway I-84 crossing is successfully negotiated, a temporary southern terminus might be located behind the Newtown Methodist Church in Sandy Hook.

It was Ms Barkman who decided to name the proposed seven-mile greenway in honor of Al Goodrich.

“It was too lengthy to say ‘Greenway From Reed School To The Upper Paugussett,’ so I started calling it Al’s Trail. After all, he has worked so long on mapping trails in Newtown –– at least 12 years, I think,” said Ms Barkman.

Rob Sibley, chairman of the Ad Hoc Open Space Committee, has agreed that the trail should be named after Mr Goodrich, dubbing him the “elder statesman” of Newtown trails.

As an engineer who first moved to Newtown 42 years ago, Mr Goodrich retired in 1983 and has spent the last 20 years exploring trails throughout northwest Connecticut. He has walked through Newtown’s forests, followed streams, mapped trails, blazed new trails, and rediscovered and mapped the network of abandoned railroad trails that crisscrosses the town.

In 1991, Al Goodrich and Mary Mitchell wrote the first edition of the Newtown Trails Book, published by the Friends of the Booth Library. This edition was followed by updated versions as new trails were added. In 1997, a Rail Trails section was included.

Mr Goodrich has also mapped 15 trails for the Weantinoge Walk Book published in 1997 by Weantinoge Heritage, a New Milford-based land trust that has saved more than 4,000 acres in 13 area towns.

Al Goodrich served on the town’s first greenway committee alongside chairman Judy Holmes, when the two of them began brainstorming a continuous trail through town. The route they conceived was very similar to what is being blazed today.

In a recent interview, Mr Goodrich recalled when he and Ms Holmes first realized they had to figure out a way to cross under I-84.

“We started exploring down at the end of Commerce Road where Deep Brook feeds into the Pootatuck River. That’s when we realized that the fishermen have been doing it [crossing under I-84] all along,” Mr Goodrich said.

Another boost to the concept of a continuous greenway trail was the state’s gift to the town of 21 acres along both sides of Deep Brook through Fairfield Hills.

“They gave that to us as a partial repayment for having put in Garner Correctional Center. That’s when I began marking the trail from where the Reed School is now, all the way to I-84,” he said.

When Bruce McLaughlin, owner of McLaughlin Vineyards, offered an easement through his property linking the CL&P land bordering Lake Lillinonah to the Upper Paugussett State Forest, Mr Goodrich was greatly encouraged.

“That was back in 1991. I guess you could say we’ve been working on this thing steadily since the early 1990s,” Mr Goodrich said.

Al’s Trail: The Route

According to a rough summary by Ms Barkman, the following sections of Al’s Trail have been successfully completed: From the Upper Paugussett State Forest to Albert’s Hill Road, across CL&P property on a trail developed by the Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts led by Scott Colman and his son, Tyler, and daughter, Sarah, also blazed by Sally O’Neil and Renee Baade.

From McLaughlin Vineyards over Eagle Hill onto Nature Conservancy land, to Newtown Forest Association land, across the Iroquois Pipeline, across a railroad line to Black Bridge Road, where there is open space land alongside the road, to Acorn Drive, where Dan Letson has done his Eagle Scout project.

[Note: During the months of December through March when the bald eagles are feeding at the Shepaug Dam, hikers will not be allowed on that section of the trail. Another route around that portion is being considered.]

After Acorn Drive, comes Antler Pine, then Walnut Tree Hill Road, and Newtown Forest Association land to Rocky Glen State Park, where Eagle Scout candidate Dan Tishion has been working on a section that gives onto Dayton Street in Sandy Hook.

From Dayton Street to the Newtown Methodist Church, across the Iroquois Gas Pipeline right-of-way and under 1-84, alongside Deep Brook and Tom’s Brook where the Candlewood Valley Trout Unlimited is responsible for protecting the watershed.

“They do not want the trail to run too close to the river or any trees to be felled there,” said Ms Barkman, speaking of the fishermen’s group that is dedicated to protecting the Class A trout stream and hatchery.

“We share those goals, so that should not be a problem,” she added.

Most Difficult Crossing Of All: Under I-84

Finally, the Al’s Trail volunteers are working on ways to navigate a safe crossing beneath the superhighway. This involves a very steep descent and a crossing over a rocky embankment under an overpass.

After approving the under-highway crossing for Al’s Trail, the Department of Transportation (DOT) has stipulated that a $16,000 chain link safety fence must be installed alongside the highway on both sides between the trail and the highway.

“We don’t have money for that now,” said Ms Barkman, “but the state is willing to work with us to try to reduce the price.”

At the moment, money for Al’s Trail and for preserving any more town open space is virtually nonexistent. The Ad Hoc Open Space Committee had asked the town for $250,000 in its 2003–04 town budget request, but those funds were removed in the version that finally passed due to budgetary constraints.

It is hoped that a large bond issue for the purchase of open space to curb growth will be approved in the near future. The concept has been approved by the Board of Selectmen, the Board of Finance, and Legislative Council, but not yet acted upon.

Despite the current lack of funding and other physical obstacles to its progress, Al’s Trail may actually become a permanent and treasured part of Newtown’s natural landscape. This is largely due to ongoing hard work by volunteers who keep signing up to move rocks and build bridges.