trail cleanup

On numerous occasions, I have seen people coming in and out of the woods in this area. The impression I've gotten is that they either live in there, or engage in illegal activity. I once road my bike about 20 feet into the woods (if heading northbound, there is small grass trail on the right as you start to go up the hill
), and I saw, I kid you not, a man wearing a trenchcoat, watching the canal line from behind the trees. As soon as he saw me he rushed further into the woods. This is a very dangerous situation. If possible, I wouldn't go any farther south than the dixwell bridge crossing. PLEASE BE CAREFUL!!

This bridge over the parkway has no sidewalk. Despite the nearby canal trail access and sidewalks before and after, this bridge lacks sidewalks.

Road edge on north side of Skiff Street at the Parkway overpass is eroding and bush covered. Many parents ride with their kids on the north side of Skiff Street between their neighborhoods along Whitney and the canal trail. There is a sidewalk until the parkway overpass, which then disappears entirely. In this area, there is only a narrow strip of unstable dirt and a lot of bushes as you approach the overpass, and parents with children are forced to step into auto traffic on Skiff at this point. On the western side of the overpass, a beautiful sidewalk is installed for trail pedestrians and riders. The south side of Skiff between Whitney and the trail is even less kid-rider friendly, with almost no sidewalks. At the very least, the bushes and unstable dirt on north side of street need to be stabilized and cleared. Sidewalks along Skiff would be ideal!

This situation has become even more dangerous this summer. The weedy bushes are so big that a pedestrian on north side of Skiff, crossing over Parkway, must step into lane of high-speed traffic. Area desperately needs a sidewalk for all pedestrians and especially for families with kids walking up from Whitney to Canal Trail.