Be A Volunteer

Put your hands (and not just your boots) on the trails this hiking season by joining Steep Rock Association’s (SRA) Monthly Trail Work Party. The Monthly Trail Work Party meets at 10:00 a.m. the third Saturday of every month from April through October. Have you ever wondered how trail workers build stone steps through remote forested hillsides or boardwalks that meander through swamps? Participants in SRA’s monthly trail work party learn by doing, tackling new and exciting projects every month, ranging from backcountry trail construction to water and vegetation management. Whether you participate for one workday or for the entire season, you are sure to enjoy the camaraderie of the group while leaving a lasting, positive impact on the trails you love. The work party meets the third Saturday of every month from April through October from 10:00 am to 12:30 pm. Tools and equipment provided. Wear/bring close-toed shoes, a mask, long pants, seasonally appropriate clothing, and a re-usable water bottle. Some hiking to the varying worksites will be necessary.  The monthly work party project will be posted on the SRA website two weeks prior to the event. Families with teens and older children are welcome, but an adult must accompany and participate with children under 16 years of age. Registration is required and limited to 15 participants. CDC protocols regarding mask wearing and social distancing will be enforced. PROGRAM LEADERS: Mike Giapponi, SRA’s Trails and Preserves Manager, will lead the program. Mike leads volunteers in various conservation projects, including the maintenance of SRA’s 46-mile trail network. Steep Rock Association is a nationally-accredited land trust whose mission is to conserve ecologically and historically significant landscapes and riparian corridors in and around Washington CT and to enhance the community’s connection to nature through outreach, education, and passive recreation. Saturday, September 25, 10:00 AM to 12:30 PM Project: This month, we will be moving and shaping stone to create rock waterbars and other drainage features along Meeker Trail. Special thanks to the National Environmental Education Foundation, Toyota Motor North America, International Paper, and the Hilton Effect Foundation for their sponsorship of this project. Location: Macricostas Preserve Main Parking Area (124 Christian St., New Preston, CT.) Note: This event, originally scheduled for 9/18, has been rescheduled to 9/25.

Tunnel Road hugging the banks of the Shepaug River.

Contributed photo

  If you’re looking to explore some of western Connecticut’s most beautiful country with two managers who intimately know the land, this hike is for you. On September 25, 2021, from 11:00 a.m. – 1:30 p.m., join Steep Rock Association (SRA) and Roxbury Land Trust (RLT) on a 4-mile inter-town hike along Tunnel Road.  Rory Larson (SRA’s Conservation Science Manager) and Jamie Curren (RLT’s Land and Property Manager), both Roxbury natives, will lead the walk.   This partially closed town road, which connects protected lands owned by the two organizations, offers unparalleled views of the Shepaug River as it follows the waterway’s course into large tracts of preserved, wild lands. It also lies adjacent to the old railroad bed rich in history for discussion along the way. The group will take two slight detours off Tunnel Road to investigate RLT’s Battle Swamp Brook Preserve and the Tunnel itself, a 235-foot passage through bedrock in SRA’s Steep Rock Preserve, from which the road received its name.   The hike will start at the main parking lot of Steep Rock Preserve located at 2 Tunnel Road in Washington Depot and finish at RLT’s Battle Swamp Preserve on Judd’s Bridge Road in Roxbury. A shuttle bus will then bring all participants back to the starting point in Washington, concluding the program. Participants will be required to wear a mask on the shuttle bus. Additionally, participants should wear appropriate footwear for a long, moderately difficult hike and bring plenty of water. Inclement weather will postpone the program until the following day, September 26, 2021.