Steve Fagin: Rolling with the Rock Stars

Jul. 13—"I need a rock, this big," Wayne Fogg announced, holding his hands about 18 inches apart. Armed with a sledge hammer, chisel, shovel, and other tools, he crouched next to a retaining wall he was helping build on a trail leading to 688-foot Chauncey Peak in Meriden.

"And this thick," he continuing, moving his hands a foot or so closer together.

Terry Morton and I nodded, then scrambled up a scree-littered slope to rummage through jumbled heaps of traprock.

"Here's one!" I exclaimed, hefting a cinder-block-sized chunk. I lugged it back to Wayne.

"How's this?"

He took one look at my misshapen offering, frowned and tossed it aside.

I trudged back uphill. Ten minutes later: "How about this one?"

Wayne shook his head

"Gotta be flat," he said. "See, how this is angled?"

This time, I crawled farther uphill, and spent nearly half an hour prying free the perfect rock, a flat, symmetrical slice of basalt that had been wedged between two boulders. I carried it back to Wayne as if it were the Hope Diamond.

Wayne smiled, knowing he was giving me a hard time.

"It'll do," he said, placing it on the wall. The rest of the group chuckled.

Wayne is the leader of an elite squad of volunteers with the Connecticut Forest and Park Association (CFPA), aptly called Rock Stars. Since 2014, he and his team have dragged, split and stacked tons of rock to improve hiking trails throughout the state. Their mission: enhance safety and prevent erosion.

Wayne invited me to accompany his gang one sunny day on a particularly challenging project: replace loose steps on a stone staircase, and continue constructing a retaining wall on the Mattabasett Trail. The CFPA maintains the 62-mile Mattabasett and more than 800 miles of other blue-blazed trails throughout Connecticut.

I met Wayne and the rest of the crew at 98-acre Giuffrida Park, owned by the city of Meriden. Joining us were Terry Morton, Dave Vogt and Bob Waskowich; Bob Orciari met us later. There are about 30 Rock Stars, from whom Wayne puts together smaller crews based on the type of work required — some Rock Stars have particular masonry skills — and who's available. Most volunteers are retired, but others have full-time jobs.

The first order of business was dividing up about 100 pounds of tools, including two 18-pound pry bars, large and small sledge hammers, wedges, chisels, a mattock, shovel, rock hammers, saws, a heavy strap net for carrying boulders, spikes and a plastic saucer sled repurposed for dragging oversized rocks over uneven ground. We would have to carry all this gear, along with our lunch, water bottles, kneepads, safety goggles and work gloves, about half a mile uphill.

We set out shortly after 9 a.m., and it took more than an hour to reach the work site. We dumped the gear on the side of the trail and listened while Wayne outlined our assignment: Replace loose stone steps on a staircase, and continue building a retaining wall.

"This is one of our hardest jobs, because of the steep slope and all the loose rock," he cautioned. Wayne made sure we all understood two commands: "Rock!" if a boulder started rolling downhill, and "Eyes!" before smashing rock with a sledge hammer and sending shards flying.

In addition to moving rocks, Wayne, a retired computer programmer, also manages three miles of the Tunxis Trail and 10 miles of the Mattabasett Trail. In addition, he is CFPA's "GPS guru," collecting data on all trails maintained by the organization.

As such, he is understandably persnickety about the rocks he prefers for retaining walls, as well as countless other details. He uses apps on his smartphone to measure angles, compute slope ratios and calculate the number and placement of steps in staircases. Most of these skills were self-taught. Wayne also loads two daypacks, each containing the following: a 3-pound mason's hammer, mini pick, straps, whisk brush, 75 feet of 5/32 polypropylene cord on a winder, sidewalk chalk, tape measure and set of chisels.

Wayne then announced our assignments. He would continue building the retaining wall, joined later by Bob Orcieri; Dave and Bob Waskowich, who had worked on the stairs previously, would be in charge of replacing the loose steps; Terry and I would gather rocks and fetch tools, which also gave me time to ask questions, jot notes and take pictures.

Terry and I took turns ascending the loose-stone hill and tossing down suitable rocks. We also dragged one oversized boulder with the plastic sled, and were about to use the heavy net to carry an even bigger one when we spotted a couple hikers marching up the hill.

"They look like strong, young guys," Terry said. I nodded.

"Hey, how'd you like to help fix the trail?" I asked, as the pair approached.

"Sure!" they replied.

The four of us then grabbed a looped corner of the net, lifted the couple-hundred-pound boulder, and hauled it 50 yards to Bob and Dave's staircase.

The retaining wall was needed to discourage hikers from straying off the trail, causing erosion and loose rock to tumble, Wayne said. Worn sections outside the footpath indicated that some people had been taking shortcuts.

The upper section of the trail is particularly vulnerable to erosion because of its steepness and preponderance of loose rock. Chauncey Peak and nearby Lamentation Mountain are part of the narrow Metacomet Ridge that extends from Long Island Sound to the Vermont border. The ridge, formed 200 million years ago when lava flowed from giant fissures torn open during a breakup of the Pangea continent, is sometimes called the spine of Connecticut.

After lunch, Terry and I took a short break to hike a few hundred yards to the summit, where we gazed west at a series of dramatic ridges. This vista contrasted sharply with the view to the east, where bulldozers and dump trucks rumbled in an enormous quarry. The Suzio York Hill company has been excavating traprock here since the early 1900s, for use in roadbeds and other construction projects.

A deed prohibits Suzio York Hill from digging closer than 50 feet from the peak, and the company has promised to continue to allow hikers to access the trail.

Terry and I soon clambered back down to the work site. It was almost 4 p.m., close to quitting time. We started gathering tools and placing them in backpacks, checking labels to make sure each pack contained the proper equipment. Mercifully, we were able to hide most of the heavy gear behind a big boulder, so we didn't have to lug them back down the trail.

The Rock Stars would be back the next day, to continue working on the steps and walls.