There’s an imaginary character you can catch on Branford’s popular Trolley Trail, and he’s not on Pokemon Go.

Since July 6, pages from storybook author Eric Carle’s colorful tale, A House for Hermit Crab, has the story’s hero popping up prominently on the trail, along a unique StoryWalk posted by the Willoughby Wallace Memorial Library. The library is just a stone’s throw away from the Stony Creek side of the trail, entered from West Point Road.

From Stony Creek, the trail leads to Pine Orchard with features including a span over a former trolley trestle bridge, some stunning views of the Thimble Islands, a concrete pedestrian bridge and trails passing wetlands and woodlands surrounds.

On July 6, the library staff introduced the StoryWalk to the public with a special event that drew about 40 kids (and their adults) to check it out, said Children’s Librarian Stephanie Carvin. The event culminated with kids coming back to the public library to visit hermit crabs and a horseshoe crab in a touch tank experience contributed by a member of the Friends of the Willoughby Wallace Memorial Library.

The library will keep the StoryWalk up and running for the rest of the summer, said Carvin. Posted unobtrusively on wooden stakes along one section of the trail, the walk eventually takes readers past some 30 laminated book pages. It ends at the concrete bridge with the last page of the book, and big surprise for kids to find—hundreds of tiny fiddler crabs in their natural habitat, scampering across the mud at low tide.

The nationwide StoryWalk Project was created by Anne Ferguson of Montpelier, Vermont in collaboration with the Kellogg-Hubbard Library, Carvin explained. The project is designed to encouraging reading and hikes/walks. StoryWalk curators simply pick a book that fits the theme or goal of their project.

“This year’s summer reading has a fitness theme, ‘On Your Mark, Get Set, READ,’” said Carvin. “We thought this would be a perfect year to implement a StoryWalk because it incorporates exercise with reading.”

Library Director Alice Pentz said fitting in Carle’s little hermit crab was an ideal match, because the critter and the aquatic friends he finds to decorate his shell perfectly lend themselves to the shoreline trail. She said the library team began planning the StoryWalk many months ago.

“Summer is a very busy time for Children’s programming,” said Pentz. “A lot of preparation goes into planning these programs, and we’re trying to use our resources around us as most we can.”

What’s surprising to the library staff is just how popular the StoryWalk has become.

“This is a favorite trail of everybody who lives in Stony Creek, and now we have people talking about the StoryWalk at the [Stony Creek] Market, at The Thimbleberry, at the library...and we also have a guest book back at the library for people to sign with comments on the StoryWalk,” said Pentz. “We’ve had people from in town, out of town, and out of state telling us how much they enjoyed following the story.”

Carvin heads out most mornings to make sure all of the pages on the walk are still in place and often encounters families and hikers reading a page or two as she does.

“We’ve also found lots of people are checking in on the walk. Regular walkers are coming in to the library to tell us, ‘All the signs are up today,’” said Carvin.

The story-on-stakes (stakes were donated by Branford Building Supplies) was installed with a little elbow grease by Pentz and Carvin and with permission from the Branford Land Trust and First Selectman James B. Cosgrove.