Huge progress was made on Phase 2 of the Putnam Nature Trail during the week of Earth Day.  Most importantly, neighboring Buzzi-Unicem generously provided 2 days of skilled bulldozer work to reclaim 2 miles of the former railbed between County Roads 150 W and 300 W.  Then, an Earth Day volunteer day was organized by the Greencastle Rotary Club, the City of Greencastle Sustainability Committee, and People Pathways, taking care of the next level of clean-up needed along the property line and along the rough graded future trail surface.  Many thanks to all who participated to make the objective of opening this trail section this year much more feasible.  (Click on photos below to see larger versions.)

Healthy Communities of Henry County has doubled the length of the Raysville section of National Road Heritage Trail (NRHT) in the Fall of 2016 and Spring of 2017.  This multi-use trail is now 4 miles long from the Big Blue River in Raysville to SR 3 in Dunreith (NRHT map across the county).  This was the culmination of a number of years of planning and preparation to build on the popular crushed stone NRHT section that had already been in service.  This extension occurred in two parts.

Last summer, Jeff Ray coordinated the clearing of the .75-mile section of elevated corridor through Raysville west to the Big Blue River, then, with a group of volunteers, installed railings on 3 of the 4 old railroad bridges that pass over the Historic National Road and other local streets.  The 4th bridge's railroad structure already had side railings.  This section was opened with a natural surface and is accessible from the Raysville trailhead on West Street.

Then, late last year, a long-awaited opportunity arose to purchase the quarter mile of corridor at the east end of the existing Raysville trail, including the all important 80' long concrete arched railroad bridge over Buck Creek.   In addition to this quarter mile, this provided access to the next 1.4 miles of corridor that Healthy Communities had previously purchased, so volunteers cleared that section last Fall, too.  Then, at the end of March, volunteers installed the needed railings on the Buck Creek bridge, allowing this new section to be opened to the east as a natural surface trail.

Healthy Communities is working towards upgrading the new sections of trail to crushed stone surface in the foreseeable future, but in the meantime, trail users are invited to enjoy these beautiful new sections of natural surface trail.