Harold G Pierpont

Trail Blazer with a Bucket of Paint

Harold G. Pierpont, 3172 East Main St., gets 20 miles to a gallon of blue paint when he hits the trail.

Pierpont, retired from his job at M. J. Daly and Sons, where he worked for 15 years after spending most of his working life in the milk producing and distributing business. He is not completely retired from his avocation of layout out Blue Trails and keeping them open. From a total of 125 miles of Blue and Appalachian Trails, his area of responsibility has dwindled to about five miles, at his request.

“Due to a sickness three years ago from which I never fully recovered, I found it difficult to negotiate the real rough places and steep hills. And as I am now in my 70’s I decided for the good of the trails I would turn the job over to a younger person. I personally picked my successor (David H. Thompson, 349 Lee Ave., Cheshire) who has an energetic son just through college, so the trails are sure of good care for many years.

“Not wanting to give up completely, I requested to have two short pieces left to be my responsibility as long as I am able.”

Pierpont began his work on the trails in 1938. For about 30 years it was a labor of love. Work on existing trails consisted of keeping down brush and new growth and repainting every five years, oftener if necessary. Occasionally, the necessity arises of laying out alternate routes to compensate for loss of land.

Of the 75 miles of Blue Trails for which Pierpont accepted responsibility 30 years ago, more than 25 miles have been lost. The principal causes are housing developments, new quarries and new highways.

The Quinnipiac Trail used to start at the Sleeping Giant in Hamden and run to Wolcott where it made the “grand junction” with the Tunxis and Mattatuck Trails. The first parts of all these trails have been discontinued, Pierpont said. The Quinnipiac suffered the greatest losses.

Construction of I-84 lopped four miles off the Quinnipiac Trail. Another four were lost when a landowner decided that he didn’t want the trail on his property. The landowner told Pierpont that he was going to fence and asked Pierpont to move the trail. The trail had run across that particular land for 40 years, Pierpont said.

Nine miles have been lopped off the original 22 of the Quinnipiac trail, leaving only 13, slightly more than half the original total.

Pierpont’s avocation as a trail blazer began in the summer of 1938 when he and his 12-year old son took a walk. They went on a three-day hike starting on the Metacomet Trail in Meriden.

“We had continuous trouble most of the way as the trail was badly overgrown,” Pierpont recalled. “Near the end we lost it completely.”

Harold is one of those rare people who is willing to work for his fun. As a fellow who liked to hike, he could use well-kept woodland trails. If the trails weren’t well kept, he wanted to do something about it.

“I wrote the Connecticut Forest and Park Association which is the sponsor for all the Blue Trails in Connecticut and reported the condition I found the trails in.” The association is a private organization that maintains the trails.

“I also said that I like to hike as did my children and that I would be glad to give a hand in maintaining a portion of them,” Pierpont said.

The association accepted Harold’s offer. He was given a five-mile section of the Quinnipiac Trail to its termination in Wolcott and when he demonstrated that he would do a job his responsibility was increased to include all of the trail north of Bethany Mountain Road.

Eventually all the Blue Trails in the area around Waterbury came under his jurisdiction. He was handed the authority to lay out new trails wherever he wished, provided, of course, he secured permission from the land owners.

In laying out a trail Harold tries to give a hiker something more than a walk. One of the extra rewards he tries to provide is a view. Toward that end he brings the trails up on ridges to provide heights from which hikers can see for miles.

Pierpont considers that the complete trail-clearing kit for one man is a “lively lad,” machete and pruning saw.

The “lively lad” is a tool with which the average individual probably is not acquainted. A double-edged steel cutting bar is attached to the open end of a V-shaped wooden frame. Pierpont got his about 25 years ago. He said that the Appalachian Mountain Club paid for it.

The tool is employed like a grass whip. As a matter of fact, Pierpont said, it was invented by a “lazy man cutting grass with a scythe.” The firm that made the implement was taken over by a bigger outfit. The big firm altered the construction, and Pierpont doesn’t like the substitute product nearly as well.

Pierpont said the implement used to sell for $1.25 or $1.50. The one he uses has a Swedish steel blade which he keeps sharp by touching up a file every once in a while.

Pierpont bought the saw and machete on his own. He got the latter tool, he recalled, at the old Templeton Hardware Co. He sharpens the machete himself with a file, but he has the saw sharpened.

He figures that the “lively lad” will cut growth up to one quarter inch in diameter, the machete up to half an inch, and the saw will handle anything thicker. The saw is useful mainly for blowdowns, he said.

The recommended width for clearing trails is five feet, but “I stick to three feet” he said. He cuts growth on the trail itself and overhanding branches from trees on either side.

Once a trail has been cut, keeping it open is comparatively easy. Pierpont has spent 60 hours opening six miles of trail, but he can clear an entire trail in the same amount of time.

The first step in making a new trail is to lay it out. The route is first marked with strips of cloth.

When a firm decision is made on the route of the full trail, cutting begins. Only after everything else is all done is the trail blazed with blue paint.

Pierpont’s love for walking goes back to his boyhood. He was raised in the country where “we did a lot of walking.” He grew up liking that activity.

But when he goes walking it is for something more than just to hike. The longest day’s hike he ever made since he began working on trails was 14 miles.

“I never go out for distance. I go out to see things. I prefer clearing a trail to just hiking.”

Pierpont said that he seems much more along a trail than the average person. He is an amateur botanist, self-taught, who can recognize various species of trees and plants. Entering a trail off Summit Road, Cheshire, he identified sever different species of trees within the first few feet: Black birch, red maple, flowering maple, witch hazel, whitewood, red cedar.

Pierpont may work on the trails in any season of the year. He thinks that fall is the best season for cutting trails. Not only are temperatures more conducive to work, but growth which is cut stays down longer. A trail cut in fall will stay clear for six months, he said. The new growth cut in spring will sprout again.

Although the automobile has made walking unpopular with many individuals, the Blue Trails are surprisingly well used. This is indicated by the condition of the trails, Pierpont said. A well-trod trail stays clear.

Because of the changing land pattern caused by the growth of suburbia, The Connecticut Park and Forest Association is concentrating on trails on public land, Pierpont said. Such trails are reasonably safe from new housing developments.

As an example Pierpont cited the Mattatuck Trail from Reynolds Bridge to a point beyond Litchfield. The trail cuts through land held by only three owners, the state, the City of Waterbury (Wigwam watershed) and the White Memorial Foundation.

For anyone who wants information on the trails, the Connecticut Park and Forest Association, 15 Lewis St., Hartford, publishes a “Walk Book” now in its seventh edition. For anyone who has not walked the trails but would like to try, getting the “Walk Book” is a logical first step.

Hiking is one of the few sports which does not require a preliminary investment in special equipment. The “Walk Book,” however, advocates the wearing of “heavy hiking shoes not over six inches in height, with broad toes.” The shoes should be big enough to “allow plenty of room for one or two pairs of wool socks which make good padding.” The remainder of the clothing should be appropriate to the season. In winter or during a wet spring, a person who doesn’t like wet feet, should wear either rubber pacs or leather footwear that is really waterproof.

The neophyte hiker might also do well to learn to recognize poison ivy. Pierpont has encountered it in ample quantities along the trails, but he is one of those fortunate individuals who have an immunity.

“Poison ivy and I are the best of friends,” he said. “I can lie down and roll in it.”

Fully released from his regular job and with only a fraction of the trail-clearing duties he once had, Pierpont has a new activity to keep him occupied. Mrs. Pierpont joins him in the endeavor. They visit patients in hospitals and residents of convalescent homes. Pierpont said there are eight convalescent homes which he visits where he shows colored nature slides.

Story and Photos by Thomas R. Egan

Published in THE SUNDAY REPUBLICAN MAGAZINE, Waterbury, Conn., August 25, 1968

Pictures

HAROLD PIERPONT, 3172 East Main St., carries his full trail-making equipment. The implement in his right hand is a “lively lad”. He wears a machete at his belt and carries a pruning saw.

A “LIVELY LAD” is used like a grass whip.

THE BLAZE marks the end of a Blue Trail in Cheshire near I-84