Reed Gilbert, a member of the Brunswick School class of 2024, loves hiking, camping and the outdoors.
During the pandemic, he and his family spent hours at Babcock Preserve, a vast 300-acre town preserve off North Street where he noticed that there were many lost hikers throughout the seven mile trail system.
Tying together Reed’s love of the outdoors, survival and orienteering expertise and a desire to help his fellow neighbor, Reed worked with Darrin Wigglesworth, Parks Operation Manager, Town of Greenwich, to re-blaze and install wood posts with metal QR codes along the ~9 miles of yellow, blue and white trails at Babcock.
“Planning, organizing, sending emails, and then, finding time between school and sports to walk the trails over and over again, remove multiple 10 yard dumpster sized collections of invasive species, paint dozens of blazes and install posts three feet deep into Connecticut terrain has been a tremendous amount of work,” Reed said.
His 12-month community service project marks the culmination of efforts towards earning the rank of Eagle Scout, the highest achievement in Scouts BSA.
Walking from the Babcock Preserve parking lot on North Street, you will spot a three foot tall wood post topped with a metal plate imprinted with a number and a QR code. Read the QR code with your smartphone and you will be taken to a Babcock map (soon to be digitally updated with a detailed map Reed helped create with Parks and Recreation).
Most importantly, in case of emergency, the numbered post allows you to quickly tell emergency services exactly where you are in the park system.
Along the trail, look up and you will see yellow, blue, and white trail blazes newly painted about six feet up select trees.
Scannable QR code. Try it! Reed worked with Darrin Wigglesworth, Parks Operation Manager, to re-blaze and install wood posts with metal QR codes along the ~9 miles of yellow, blue and white trails at Babcock. Contributed photo
Reed Gilbert, Reed Gilbert, Troop 9 Boy Scout, did his Eagle Scout Project at Babcock Preserve.
Reed Gilbert, Reed Gilbert, Troop 9 Boy Scout, did his Eagle Scout Project at Babcock Preserve.
Reed Gilbert prepares to install a post at Babcock Preserve. Contributed photo
“Trail blazes are a universal system of markers to help hikers of all backgrounds navigate a trail – to know when to go straight, turn left or right, and where the trail ends and begins,” Reed explained. “They are especially important when the trail may be covered in snow or leaves.”
Reed worked directly with the Town of Greenwich to determine the size, shape, type, format (paint versus colored blocks), and location of each trail blaze.
In March 2023, just three months after finishing the trail blazes, Reed noticed that several of the yellow blazes had been purposely defaced on the yellow trail. The 6″x3″ rectangular blazes that Reed had fastidiously painted with the Town had been disrespectfully painted over in 18” patches of gray spray paint.
“I was and am dumbfounded,” Reed said. “The effort, the approvals – gone in a blink of the eye – all because someone didn’t like it? Who would purposely sabotage community service efforts, and why?”
The Town is now looking into the vandalism.
In fact, Greenwich Police Chief Jim Heavey said, “If you have a problem, call the Town Hall. Don’t go out and deliberately destroy town property. If you have a crime tip, please contact the Greenwich Police Department at 203-622-8004.”
Chief Heavey added, “When the Babcock property was first acquired by the Town in the 1970s, my old Boy Scout Troop 25 camped up there to help Boy Scout, John Slusarz mark out some of the very first trails on the property as part of his Eagle Scout project. Slusarz is now Greenwich Police Captain.”
For now, Reed’s work is complete and he looks forward to his senior year at Brunswick School, his Eagle Recognition Dinner and lots of family time in the Babcock Preserve.