Indian Well Reroute Part 2

UnitedHealthcare employees and their nice white shirts

CFPA held another work party on a beautiful spring day to begin the second reroute of the Paugussett Trail at Indian Well State Park, this time with volunteers from UnitedHealthcare.

Benching in a trail is hard work. 

The second reroute is much longer than the first, with about a quarter mile of new trail needed to reach the overlook, and much of this new trail needs to be benched into the side of the hill. At the end of the day, the crew had benched in 750 feet of trail.

The Indian Well overlook sits atop a long rock formation that caps the slope and forms one long series of cliffs.  The old route goes straight up this rock formation and reaches the overlook in 650 feet, but it's hazardous hiking downhill and the trail is eroding badly.

The new flagged route follows the base of the rock until the cliffs end, then rises gradually, reversing direction with a switchback to rejoin the existing trail north of the overlook. The hike will be about a quarter mile longer to reach the overlook from the parking area. The routing at the top has not yet been determined, but it's likely that part of the existing trail will be converted to a spur to the overlook for at least the short term.

Lost in the jungle?

The new route is not yet ready to hike and you would have to search through the woods to even find it. The connecting ends are done last so as not to lead people onto an unfinished trail.

Many thanks to the folks from UnitedHealthcare for getting those nice white shirts dirty and creating this new route.