BEDFORD – The USDA Forest Service has two maintenance projects planned for the week of April 18 that involve temporary closures.
Trail building materials will be shuttled by helicopter above the Deam Wilderness on Tuesday, April 20, with Wednesday, April 21 as a rain date.
For public safety during these activities, all National Forest System land located in the area bounded on the west by State Road 446, on the north by Tower Ridge Road, and on the south and east by Hunter Creek Road will be closed on Tuesday, and Wednesday, as reflected in the Closure Order 09-12-21-04.
This includes portions of the Charles C. Deam Wilderness, Grubb Ridge Trailhead, Blackwell Horse Camp, Brooks Cabin, Cope Hollow Trail, Martin Hollow Trail, and Hunter Creek Trail.
In addition, Monroe County Highway Department will close Tower Ridge Road from the intersection of Last Horse Lane east to the intersection with Hunter Creek Road on Tuesday and Wednesday.
This is the second phase of the trail material placement for the pending re-route of approximately 3700 feet of the Cope Hollow Trail. The planned re-route is due to poor trail location in an old entrenched roadbed.
In addition, Forest staff and volunteers from Friends of Lake Monroe and Indiana University Outdoor Adventures will conduct maintenance activities in the “peninsula area” of the Charles C. Deam Wilderness on Earth Day on Thursday, April 22.
For public safety and to facilitate this work, the Peninsula Trail, campsites 14-24, and the area designated on the map for Closure Order 09-12-21-03 will be temporarily closed on Wednesday and Thursday.
The maintenance activities will include decommissioning illegal campsites, rehabilitating designated campsites, removing invasive multi-flora rose along the Peninsula Trail, trimming vegetation that is encroaching on the trail, and removing litter.
For more information see the closure orders posted by April 20th at https://www.fs.usda.gov/alerts/hoosier/alerts-notices or contact the Forest toll-free at 866-302-4173.
