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Monthly: May 2013

Uncategorised
May 25, 20130

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New Eastern Trail bridge over the Maine Turnpike, opened 2011The Eastern Trail is a 65 mile section of the East Coast Greenway, a transportation-recreation greenway connecting Kittery, in southernmost Maine to Casco Bay in South Portland!  

Eastern Trail route signThe Eastern Trail is both a trail and a vision. The Eastern Trail has a growing span of off-road sections, as well as a scenic on-road trail that mostly follows quiet country roads. Experienced bike riders and hikers can enjoy a beautiful journey from South Portland’s Bug Light Park on Casco Bay (near Portland) to Kittery’s Piscataqua River.

“The trail is humming with energy and events on its newly connected sections, but it’s not done growing.”  Maine Sunday Telegram, Dec. 2, 2012

We invite you to become an active part of our effort to build, enjoy, and sustain this wonderful resource.  This website will help you connect to current events, development activities, and other means of engaging with this trail and vision.

John Andrews and son in front of ET's John R. Andrews bridge in SacoIf you are new to us and to this site, the following links are a great place to start:

Also check out events that are happening on the trail, and then read the news both current and past. Also, please sign up for our mailing list so you can keep up with all the events and activities related to the trail.

The Eastern Trail is the Southern Maine section of the East Coast Greenway, a large network of trails that will connect Calais, Maine with Key West, Florida.

The Eastern Trail Alliance is the focused effort to vision, build, promote and use the trail.  It includes many supporters from all over (but particularly southern Maine), hikers, bikers, X-country skiers, birders, and other outdoor enthusiasts, dedicated to creating, enjoying and maintaining the Eastern Trail.

ET Map GuideEastern Trail Guide

This comprehensive 28-page spiral-bound booklet outlines each segment of our extensive on- and off-road trail network, providing detailed trail descriptions and maps in crisp vibrant color.

The Guide is available in several ways. One immediate way to get it is as a FREE download in a convenient, printable format (pdf).

A printed hard copy of the Trail Guide (8.5 inches by 5 inches) can be purchased from the Eastern Trail Alliance for $10 plus $3 shipping and handling. Click here to Order.

You may also buy the Trail Guide at a number of locations in southern Maine.  Click here for a list of current locations.

flickr photosharing logoClick here to view many photographs of the Eastern Trail

   

Archived News
May 2, 20130

You can’t get there from here:

 

You Can’t Get There from Here: Eastern Trail connection between South Portland, Scarborough remains elusive, expensive

SCARBOROUGH — If the “Bridge Out” sign is not enough, the drop down to the Nonesuch River from where a bridge used to cross the river is a vivid reminder of the obstacles blocking the off-road linkage of the Eastern Trail to South Portland.

But as a $150,000 study funded by the Maine Department of Transportation progresses, Town Planner Dan Bacon and Eastern Trail Alliance President Bob Hamblen are aware the water crossing may be the easiest part of constructing a 1.5-mile trail section to the Wainwright Field Athletic Complex in South Portland.

“There’s a reason this segment is not built,” Bacon said. “At least in Scarborough, it is the most complex section to create a trail.”

From Route 35 in Kennebunk to Bug Light Park in South Portland, for about 21 miles, the trail is largely off road, with the section between Thornton Academy in Saco and the eastern end of Scarborough Marsh primarily following the railbed of the defunct Eastern Railroad. It crosses the Saco River on Main Street in Saco, but there are pedestrian bridges spanning the Maine Turnpike in Kennebunk and U.S. Route 1 in Saco.

But getting to South Portland from Scarborough requires going south on Black Point Road, and east on Highland Avenue to Gary Maietta Parkway. There the trail becomes part of the South Portland Greenbelt Walkway, extending almost seven more miles to the coast.

“Crossing the (Nonesuch) river is comparatively one of the easier things to solve,” Bacon said. “We can drop a bridge into the existing abutments.”

Hamblen, who is also the Saco city planner, agreed.

“We recognize the Scarborough connector as one of the more complicated projects we will have dealt with,” he said.

Click here to read the entire article online at TheForecaster.net

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