|
 The following
text appears appeared in Down East
Magazine, April 2003, in its Inside
Maine column by Andrew Vietze
Talk of a walking and biking trail up the East Coast has been going on for years now. Planners envision this as a sort of urban Appalachian Trail, a greenway that goes through cities and towns rather than woodlands on its way north. The Maine section will travel from Kittery to Calais, following old rail beds and backroads, and it all sounds exciting and very ambitious, and, well, something that will be nice to use many, many years from now when it's done. Turns out it might not be that long. There have been some encouraging new developments of late. In fact, a large part of the trail -- an eighty-five-mile section from Kittery to Casco Bay -- is already usable. Last October the group responsible for this piece, which is called the Eastern Trail, unveiled a series of signs that mark the on-road portions of the trail. Anyone who wants can now follow it from Kittery to South Portland. Granted, there's nothing new about these roads, but the fact that the signage is now in place and you can easily follow some of the most pleasant routes through York County is kind of neat. And the trail links to other networks in Saco and South Portland, which you might not find but for these signs. "It goes from Bug Light Park in South Portland all the way to the Kittery-Portsmouth Bridge," says John Andrews, president of the Eastern Trail Alliance, the group working to bring this all about. "Twelve different communities and the Department of Transportation spent over a year working out the most scenic and most bicycle-friendly routes that could be found, with the idea that they all had to connect to the off-road trails in the future." Andrews recommends that people check out the trail guide that's available on the group's website www.easterntrail.org. It's filled with maps and handy information. And he encourages people to hit the trail. "We did a great loop, starting in Saco, where I live, and biking the Eastern Trail to South Portland, crossing over to Portland, and then we took the train back down to Wells and biked home. It was fantastic. We even had breakfast on the train." The options are endless, he says, including biking, walking, taking the train, and riding the Casco Bay Lines. "And it will just get better and better as the off-road sections are built," says Andrews. For more information visit the website or call the Eastern Trail Alliance at 207-284-9260. |
Happy Trails