Meira Bienstock
BETHEL — Inland Woods and Trails is in the process of creating a new hiking trail on its property at Rumford Point. The trail is called Mystery Mountain and will be two miles long.
“There’s not a lot of hiking in Rumford area, we hope it will be family-friendly, a place to walk your dogs after work type of thing,” says Eliza Hazen, rec tech who works for inland Woods and Trails.
Team member Jake Burgess found a road nearby called Mystery Mountain Road, and it goes up to the point where the trail starts, hence where the name came from.
“Part of it was already an existing trail there,” says Hazen. “It’s sort of tucked into the back of a neighborhood. So we spent time this summer hiking the informal trail, our whole goal to make it sustainable.”
Many parts of the trail were steep, going over rocks. This would pose as a problem when it rains or there was dew on the rocks. The team has been mapping re-routes of the trail to make it easier and sustainable so the trail will last longer.
“Generally, it’s trying to make the path as easy and as sustainable as possible. We don’t want waterslides,” says Gabe Perkins, executive director. “The whole point is shedding water as often as possible.”
“People have been designing trails for about 300 years. We’re not reinventing the wheel,” Hazen says.
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