Fauver East Trail

 Family commitments have been my priority this year.. but I do miss the woods. Knowing my fitness has suffered, I went out easy and finished up the 2 trails I needed at the Walter Newton Natural Area in Plymouth. Fauver East and Glove Hollow Trail. There is a small parking pullout on Texas Hill Rd now at the Fauver East trailhead which wasn’t there when I did Plymouth Mountain. Room for maybe 3 cars. Fauver East was pleasant. The view points referenced on the map are no more.. but the trail is maintained. There are a LOT of well established but unmarked (as far as I could tell) trails in this area. Much as we’re conditioned to want to explore all the trails, only 2 of the probably 10+ showed up on one of the digital maps I was using (and not shown at all on the paper map).. so I resisted, not wanting to get lost! I stuck with the blue blazed trail (which is also incorrectly marked on most digital map sites I have seen).. there is a loop option, I went up the shorter side and down the longer side. There are well established paths to the apparent summits of the 2 peaks mentioned on the paper map with a small cairn on both as well. I had read that Fauver East Trail dead-ended beyond the second knob summit. I followed the blue blazes, which did continue past the summit and looked like they might be leading to a restricted viewpoint, but as the greenery became more and more overgrown, I realized I hadn't seen a blaze in a while, so I turned back around figuring I had reached the end of the road. Glove Hollow Trail wanders alongside a brook that feeds Rainbow Falls. Very dry, very buggy, but a nice meander. Rainbow Falls right now is merely a trickle. Having seen Rainbow Falls completely frozen previously, it's probably best to visit in the Spring when the snow is melting!

Strava Activity

Trailhead on Texas Hill Rd

Kiosk at the junction with Glove Hollow Trail

Heading up Fauver East from the kiosk

summit cairn on the "south peak"

dry vernal pool today

summit cairn on the "north peak"

at the point I turned around

last blaze I saw beyond the "north peak" summit

bridge to Rainbow Falls on Newton Trail

Rainbow Falls is a bit of a "waterfail" today

standing on top of the falls