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Today, the Town of Scarborough announced that the Eastern Trail’s Close the Gap trail-building project, a 1.6-mile gap in the trail between South Portland and Scarborough, is officially accepting sealed construction bids!

We’re excited to share this announcement with you, the Eastern Trail community, and are grateful to the Town of Scarborough for their tremendous leadership throughout this process.

This achievement wouldn’t have been possible without the generous support of Eastern Trail supporters like you and your steadfast commitment to our mission. The Close the Gap project has faced challenges along the way, but thanks to donors like you, we are now at the beginning of the construction phase!

We appreciate your patience and dedication, and we look forward to sharing updates with you as this long-anticipated project progresses.

We are filled with gratitude today for you and our partners at the Town of Scarborough, City of South Portland, MaineDOT, and more – thank you!

Onward and upward!
The Eastern Trail Alliance Team

How did YOU make the most of the Eastern Trail last winter?

Whether you’re snowshoeing, jogging, or riding a fat bike—we want your feedback! It is not too late to take our winter trail-use survey. Your input helps us plan for a better all-season trail experience. Share your trail habits in our quick survey – Go here to take the survey

Join us on Saturday, May 31, 2025 for a timed 3.1 mile run or walk along the scenic Eastern Trail followed by an awards ceremony to celebrate and acknowledge the top finishers. The race begins and ends in the Mill Brook Industrial Park (Saco, ME) with parking at Maine Molecular.

$35 per person, $40 day of race

The John Andrews Memorial 5K is a signature fundraising event of the Eastern Trail Alliance, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that builds, maintains, and promotes the Eastern Trail, southern Maine’s premier multi-use greenway.

This race honors John Andrews, the Eastern Trail’s legendary founder, who passed away in 2017. John’s vision to create the Eastern Trail started in the early 1990s. He worked patiently and persistently for decades to put the Eastern Trail on the map throughout southern Maine. Today, hundreds of thousands of visitors enjoy the trail every year. Your participation in this race and generous support enables the Eastern Trail Alliance to continue John’s mission, working to ensure the existing trail is well maintained, safe, and clean, and ultimately extended to Kittery through ongoing trail-building campaigns.

Register now for the 2025 Maine Lighthouse Ride!

Join us on Saturday, September 13, 2025 for the 22nd annual Maine Lighthouse Ride!

True to its name, MLR highlights the breathtaking views of coastal southern Maine, including multiple lighthouses, rolling terrain, and stunning views of the Atlantic Ocean and the iconic Scarborough Marsh.

MLR offers four routes to challenge riders of all abilities – 25 miles, 40 miles, 62 miles, and 100 miles!

Go here to Register Now!

Your participation supports the Eastern Trail Alliance, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that builds, maintains, and promotes the Eastern Trail, southern Maine’s premier multi-use greenway.

Turbocharge your ride! By choosing the Become a Fundraiser option during registration process, you can rally your friends, family, and community to support your participation and a great cause – the Eastern Trail.

The Eastern Trail Alliance is recruiting new board members to join our board this year. If you are looking for a way to make a difference in southern Maine and have a passion for trails or active transportation, we’d like to hear from you!

Click here to access the board member application form.

Please then complete it by the March 3, 2025 for full consideration. In particular, skills and experience sought include accounting/audit, fundraising, and previous board service. Given our active trail-building campaigns south of Kennebunk, residents of southern York County are encouraged to apply.

Dear Friend of the Eastern Trail:

As the new board president of the Eastern Trail Alliance, I am proud to support the Eastern Trail because of the transformative impact it has on my life. The Eastern Trail provides me a spectacular car-free and stress-free commute option to the office. On days that I do drive to work, the Eastern Trail provides a much-needed reprieve from screens during my lunch break.

When not working, walking on the Eastern Trail provides my family the space to connect with each other, our surroundings, and our community.

As a trail user first, I know the incredible impact the Eastern Trail has on individuals, businesses, and communities across southern Maine. Your previous support made the following achievements possible in 2024:

• 3 active trail expansion projects including persistent efforts to close the gap between South Portland and Scarborough; engineering design on 0.7 miles of new trail in West Kennebunk and 2.0 miles in Wells and North Berwick, and an ongoing initial feasibility study from North Berwick to Kittery.
• 850 Maine Lighthouse Ride participants, representing 33 states and spanning the ages from 10 to 87, sold-out this event and raised significant resources for the Eastern Trail Alliance to invest into the trail.
• 20 miles of off-road trail maintained and preserved including routine monitoring and maintenance, and in response to increasingly extreme and unseasonable winter weather.

We need your support to continue this critical work, and your investment to ensure we do not lose access to federal funding for trail design and construction in Kennebunk, Wells, and North Berwick that requires local matching funds. Every dollar goes toward our mission to maintain, build, and promote the Eastern Trail. Will you be one of the trail users and supporters we need to chip in to meet our goals?

In 2025, the Eastern Trail Alliance will continue to ensure that you have a safe and accessible place to walk, cycle, and run in southern Maine. Please join us in making that possible by making a year-end contribution today. Your support is critical to our ongoing work.

Doug Smith
Board President
Eastern Trail Alliance

Trail Manager Patrick Conlon retrieves a safety pylon from the Scarborough Marsh adjacent to the Eastern Trail in August 2024. A trail manager’s work is never done and is different every day!

Dear Friend of the Eastern Trail,

One of the best parts of my job as the Trail Manager for the Eastern Trail Alliance is seeing you and thousands of people like you enjoying the Eastern Trail each year. And wow, do I love my job!

When I see families out enjoying the trail together or folks walking their dogs, I think about what an extraordinary asset the Eastern Trail is to southern Maine. Whether you cycle for daily exercise, walk to clear your mind, or run to meet your training goals, the Eastern Trail provides a car-free, nature-filled environment to make it possible.

You can safely use the Eastern Trail because I remove downed trees, clean drainage ditches, pick up trash, and so much more. Your contribution to the Eastern Trail Alliance helps make my work possible and protects the safety and natural beauty of the Eastern Trail.

Just yesterday, a trail user passed while I was working trail side and said, “I guess your work is never done.” He couldn’t have been more right. The challenges of 2024 tested us in new ways: rising tides, increasingly severe storm surges, and more frequent freeze-thaw cycles caused extensive damage to the Eastern Trail.

The ETA adapted quickly. We launched a new Trail Conditions page on our website to keep you informed and safe. We monitored the trail closely, working with our municipal partners to address conditions and tackle larger maintenance projects. On a tight budget, we kept up with essential repairs – fixing fencing, bollards, signage, and more – and removing graffiti, trash, and pet waste aplenty.

In short, what that trail user said to me is this work is needed – it matters. Please make a year-end gift to the Eastern Trail Alliance today. The challenges of 2025 are already on the horizon, and we need your help to weather whatever nature throws our way. Your support ensures that we can continue to monitor, maintain, and protect this incredible resource. Your generosity keeps the Eastern Trail beautiful and open to all. Please make a generous donation today and help us preserve this vital community asset.

See you on the trail!

Thank you,

Patrick Conlon
Trail Manager
Eastern Trail Alliance

We need your help, trail users! Are you a photographer? Have great photos?

We are looking for photos of the Eastern Trail and supporters enjoying the trail to publish on our website, social media, and in other materials.

For more information or to submit your images, please contact communications@easterntrail.org.

We are happy to announce the creation of a new web page on this site to provide updates on known conditions along the Eastern Trail.

This will include updates on temporary trail closures and detours, changes in surface conditions and other issues following storms or other events, and other situations that trail users should be aware of.

Our small team relies on trail users to share their trail observations and report problems by filling out this form. Trail conditions are always subject to change, be alert and use caution while on the trail.

On July 15, the Maine Department of Transportation (MDOT) launched its public project on the two end segments (2.7 miles of new trail) of the Eastern Trail’s Blaze the Trail South campaign.

From now until August 7, the public will be able to learn more and comment on this process. Go here to get more information, which will include an asynchronous virtual meeting, a storymap, and other information to help you learn more about the project and to submit input prior to construction in late 2025/early 2026.

MaineDOT wants to hear from you. Click here to submit your comments formally.

Stay tuned on our Facebook Page and on this website for updates about this project.