CARRABASSETT VALLEY — The Narrow Gauge Pathway was officially reopened Thursday morning, Nov. 19, with a “ribbon” cutting by Selectman Chair Bob Luce.

All five board members were in attendance along with Town Manager Garrett Corbin, Recreation Director Deb Bowker, Code Enforcement Officer Chris Parks, representatives of Jordan Excavation, former town manager Dave Cota, Tom Cromwell [an avid biker on the trail] and others.

Work on the trail is not 100% complete, Corbin said prior to the ceremony. “There are a few things still to do. Enough has been done for pedestrian traffic. It is safe for the public.”

Corbin said the project was overseen by Parks with the work done by Jordan Excavation.

Bowker said she has a pretty good history of the trail. “It’s wonderful,” she said of the reopening.

An orange rope was tied across the trail near the Munzer Bridge. Luce had to make several attempts with pruning loppers before the rope cut through, which drew several laughs.

“I ride every morning, literally,” Cromwell said afterwards. “And I live right here so this is a really valid link for me. For a lot of people. The trailhead is right here so I get a good idea of how much use it gets.”

Cromwell said it has been a quiet spring and summer with the trail not open. “To have it back, especially to have it back before the winter is huge.”

“That was the goal when I got hired,” Corbin noted.

“I give him a whole lot of credit because it got dropped in his lap,” Cromwell said. “He just picked it up and ran with it. It looked tough. To the town’s credit they wanted to do it correctly so it doesn’t keep happening.”

“We did some additional work to try to set up the boulders so they won’t move and the trail won’t erode as much,” Corbin stated.

The trail was impacted by flooding during the December 2023 storm.

The trail rebuild was funded through FEMA [Federal Emergency Management Agency], Corbin said. “We don’t have the money, they will reimburse us,” he noted. “Just waiting on the FEMA process, when it started and the engineer process were a lot. It was getting late in the summer and I was getting nervous about, I don’t know if we can get it done this year.”

If it didn’t get done this fall, it wouldn’t have been done until a year from now, Corbin estimated.

“This is the time to do it,” Cromwell said.

“It is really popular in the winter,” Corbin noted. “People have been coming in the town office all summer saying, “where can I go,” asking for a detour.

“It’s awesome to see the traffic, just over the weekend,” Cromwell added.