16 August 2020 -- Sunday morning drive

Charge saw battery, take saw with me to Axe Factory...and someone else had re-opened it since Thursday morning :)












Wait, huh, what?

Someone has given the road some serious love here. Looks at the ConnDOT Town Highway maps, holy crap 100% no ambiguity or question about it, this is still a town road!












Now onto Middle Road...never gone up this one before. Nosed in with my pickups but never pursued it...





This road has gotten some love as well with hazardous trees dropped.






Well, I have the saw...but it is starting to rain and looked like it rapidly get worse (which it did; it turned into a steady rain shortly after). I'll come back later this week.

Clearing trails after Isaias

...last Thursday got skunked finding 2-1/2 trails (one I hadn't gone down in 20+ years, one I had never gone through but was almost out the other side) blocked by down trees. Which make about six so far this year. (The 1/2 trail was tight but I could squeeze by.)

So I finally broke down and got a battery saw.

When I was out and about on Sunday one trail had be re-opened, and when I go to this one (Middle Road) it was starting to rain.

Tonight my knees were feeling pretty good, and I needed to de-stress from work (which since I got back from vacation has felt like I've been getting water boarded with a fire hose...four days into the week and have yet to have a normal lunch break or not be doing 10pm emergency changes!)

Someone had given it a little bit of love. Hard to tell if it was for horses or ATVs; I didn't really see much evidence of ATV usage and definite piles of horse poop. But if you're hauling a chainsaw on horseback, tip of my hat to you!


Ok, so I made this just passable. The spring pole on the right has me concerned; not worried...just need extra caution. There's a couple ways to cut them to gradually release the tension, but I'd much rather have my helmet, chaps, and a gas saw when dealing with one. (Chaps are ineffective on electric saws, so as odd as it seems I'm safer hauling out the 372XP if the saw gets flung awry than I am with an battery powered electric one.)

So I left much of the rest one the ground firmly holding down the spring pole until I return with the proper gear to deal with it.


And the road previously had gotten quite a bit of love -- lot of dangerous trees had been felled previously.

...this was also the closest to needing 4wd I needed given how dry it is. Would be a fun snow road though.






Middle Road is about a mile. I also went down Nutmeg Lane which is also about a mile long and all but a short section near one end is open to travel; I remember going through here years ago. Got gated about 20 years ago. Glad to see the owner now allows self-propelled persons through so I at least happy to see that instead of it being completely closed.


Nearby clear cut, mostly I assume from gypsy moth damage. But the state had already started to do this style of clearing to encourage much greater forest diversity before the widespread oak die off occured.

Connecticut law on traffic signal outages

UPDATE:

Connecticut law changed in 2021!

Sec. 14-299b. Inoperative traffic control signal. The driver of a vehicle approaching an intersection controlled by a traffic control signal that is inoperative shall stop such vehicle and proceed in the same manner as though a stop sign were facing in each direction at the intersection, unless otherwise directed by a police officer. Violation of this section shall be an infraction.

Public Act 21-61, Effective 1 October 2021
Connecticut law reverts to the general right of way rule, as of 2018 it does not treat traffic or signal light outages as a four-way stop: 

 Many States require drivers to come to a full and complete stop at a dark signal. The presumption is that there has been a power outage at the intersection. Currently, Connecticut does not have any regulations that require a motorist to stop at a dark signal. 

 http://cirma.ccm-ct.org/pdf/police%20roll%20call/darksignals_lw_090418.pdf

Archived here:  http://www.d90.us/fire/SignalOutage/Connecticut_Traffic_Signal_Outage_darksignals_lw_090418.pdf

1) That also answers the question of portable stop signs.  They MUST NOT be used at traffic signals which are out UNLESS the traffic signal when it is restored will default to a all-flashing-red allowing for the temporary signs to be removed before the light is restored to a normal cycle.

2) Thinking of a scenario where understanding the law is important and could put a third party at risk,  while I'm not a lawyer this is how I think things would play out:

Vehicle 1 is on a intersecting highway and stopped.

Vehicle 2 is travelling in the right lane on a non-divided, four-lane highway with two lanes of traffic in either direction, approaching with Vehicle 1 on the right.  Because Vehicle 1 is stopped, they have yielded the right of way.  (Vehicles yield to the vehicle approaching an intersection without a stop, yield, or working traffic signal when the vehicles would otherwise enter the intersection at approximately the same time.)

Vehicle 2 stops because the driver erronously believes signal lights revert to four-way stops.

Vehicle 3, which was hidden from view of Vehicle 1 by Vehicle 2, is following the general right-of-way rule is proceeds as normal.

Vehicle 1 seeing Vehicle 2 slowing and presuming they will come to a stop proceeds into the intersection and is struck by Vehicle 3.  

Whose at fault?  While 3 may have some fault under a general duty of "due regard" I would expect that the folks who did not follow the law and instead treated the intersection as a four way stop would be most at fault.

(Following that traffic lights do not revert to a four-way stop, the general right of way rule only applies to vehicles on public highways -- a vehicle on a driveway such as the exit from a typical shopping center must always yield to traffic on the highway).

03 July 2020 -- Forgot how much I explored!

I forgot how much I covered this day!

Are those Longhorns in Hampton?


Looks like they're doing a bit of grading in Natchaug on roads I was whining about lack of basic care of earlier this year.


Nosed into this interesting looking trail. Was a bit tight for a modern Jeep.



Exploring a bit on trails in Nipmuc that the gate is open (and I've never seen closed). Really would like to go deeper, but figured alone and without a winch discretion was important.








I seriously doubt Bear Den Road is actually private. Especially that sign on a DEP gate. I'm hoping it's just for dead oak trees, this section of Nipmuc (which the main entrance is off of Skopec Road complete with a Welcome sign behind a newly installed, locked gate) is currently closed.

Old Mashpaug Road





Alone and no winch. This seems to be a theme. Have I mentioned I have the new-to-me steel bumper and winch sitting in my garage?

The other fork

Coming in from the other direction

Last time I remember being down here, the bridge wasn't fit for ATVs to cross. It was probably a 1930s maybe 1950s era wood deck that had collapsed by the 1990s.





You know, I've nosed up this way a few times before but I guess signs had me convinced it was closed...but I think I was wrong. No gates, no signs, and a good portion adjoins state wildlife management area.