Many articles about the Eastern Trail are organized on this news archives page. The most recent articles appear immediately below, with the first part of each article displayed. Click on any article title, or the “Read More..” link to read the full text of that article.
There are trails to walk or bike on, marshes to paddle in, beaches to swim off or relax on and plenty of spectacular natural beauty to see.
[Ed. note: The Eastern Trail gets some nice plugs throughout this article]
This summer marks the 45th anniversary of the Scarborough Marsh Audubon Center on Pine Point Road in Scarborough – an incredible resource that puts Maine’s largest salt marsh right at visitors’ fingertips.
BY RON CHASE – Seniors Not Acting Their Age
The Times Record – September 22, 2017
Cycling is one of my favorite activities and a primary source of aerobic exercise. The older I get the more I enjoy it. A runner for almost forty years, a knee replacement compelled me to quit. The knee guy said that if I kept running, I’d soon be back for another one. A certified sissy, I’m not suffering that very painful rehabilitation again if I can avoid it.
By Sally McMurdo | The Conway Daily Sun | June 2, 2017
This spring, Peter and I explored the southern Maine coast from Cape Elizabeth to Cape Neddick. After our daily weekday trips from Conway to Scarborough for medical treatments, we picked places to go afterwards, depending on the weather and our energy. Sometimes, we chose a beach day at Higgins, Ferry, Wells, Crescent Beach or Kettle Cove, where we’d bird watch, sea glass hunt or just walk.
On foul weather days, we might head inland to explore. But the one place we visited the most was the Eastern Trail in Southern Maine. We especially liked the section from Black Point Road in Scarborough to Pine Point Road. There was something about walking out this rail trail across the marsh that called to us. Maybe it was the ease of the walk and later the ride, maybe it was the abundant bird life we saw or maybe it was just the constant flowing and ebbing of the tide that calmed and renewed our spirits.
The children of Dr. Philip Thompson made the contribution to the Eastern Trail Alliance to celebrate his 100th birthday.
By Kelley Bouchard | Staff Writer | Published in the Portland Press Herald 5/17/2017
The children of Dr. Philip Thompson, a retired rheumatologist who celebrated his 100th birthday last weekend, have donated $25,000 in his honor to the “Close the Gap” campaign of the Eastern Trail Alliance. The alliance is raising $3.8 million to complete a 1.6-mile, off-road section of the recreational trail in Scarborough, including bridges over the Nonesuch River near Eastern Road and railroad tracks near Pleasant Hill Road.
The founder of the Eastern Trail Alliance remembered as a patience, persistence and passionate outdoor leader.
By Deidre Fleming, Staff Writer. Published in the Portland Press Herald 3/5/2017
In the nearly 20 years I’ve reported on the Maine outdoors, there were three times I nearly cried while working. Once was when I was telling a civic group a story about a young man who was dying of cancer who came to Maine to hunt. The second was late at night while doing a phone interview for an obituary. And the third was standing in the Arundel woods listening to John Andrews talk about the Eastern Trail.
Published online by the Portland Press Herald, 2/24/2017 | by Melanie Creamer, Staff Writer
The director of the Eastern Trail Alliance says that without Andrews’ efforts, the 65-mile trail from Kittery to South Portland wouldn’t exist.
FROM STAFF REPORTS – Journal Tribune
BIDDEFORD — A new trail sign was installed recently on the Biddeford portion of the Eastern Trail.
When completed, the trail will run 65 miles from Kittery to South Portland.
The artwork on the new sign depicts beavers and other area wildlife, and was created by artist Jada Fitch.
This article, written by Saco City Planner Bob Hamblen, appeared August 2016 in the City of Saco’s “Pepperrell Post” newsletter
Walkers, bicyclists and runners using the Eastern Trail in Saco have one more reason to get out and enjoy the trail: a new water fountain and water bottle fill-up station has been installed on the trail just off Mill Brook Road.
The new water station, a first along the twenty miles of Eastern Trail that runs from Bug Light Park in South Portland to Rte. 35 in Kennebunk, is the result of local trail users asking, “could a water fountain be installed on the trail? It’s hot out out there and we’re thirsty!” Eastern Trail Alliance trustee Bob Lanigra, a former Saco resident who now lives in Scarborough, met several people along the trail who mentioned how welcome a source of water would be, particularly in warm weather.
Lanigra first looked into a possible fountain location off Pine Point Road, near the Scarborough Marsh. Water service was not available off the exiting parking lot that services trail users. His search for a suitable location headed south, to a section of trail that is owned by the Maine Water Company.
“Maine Water was very open to working with us when they heard about the water fountain idea,” said Lanigra, a long-time runner and cyclist who participated in his 24th Trek Across Maine in June. “They own the property where Mill Brook Road narrows to an entrance to the trail, and were willing to do the installation if we bought the fountain.”
Lanigra swung into action. He contacted Maine Molecular Quality Controls, Inc., which recently completed a new building in the City’s Mill Brook Business Park. Joan Gordon, president of MMQCI, is a fan of the Eastern Trail, and in fact chose the Mill Brook location due to its proximity to the trail. Ms. Gordon confirmed her support for the fountain by offering to pay half the cost of the new unit.
Who would pay for the other half of the new fountain? Lanigra, who retired from a career in sales, next approached the Chiropractic Family Wellness Center in Scarborough, whom he is familiar with through his interest in running. They were willing to help with the project by contributing the remainder of the cost.
Maine Water Company then needed a base for the fountain to be installed on. They reached out to a vendor, American Concrete Industries, Inc., of Auburn, which was willing to donate a concrete base. With that, the fountain was ordered, and in a few weeks time, a Maine Water crew installed the base, made the connection to an existing water main, and the fountain was dropped into place.
“I was by the fountain last week, and while I was there two people stopped and drank and filled their water bottles,” said Carole Brush, executive director of the Eastern Trail Alliance. “They said they really appreciated having the fountain available.”
Thank you to all who made Saco’s newest “hydration station” a reality. Let’s put that fountain to good use!
Posted: Thursday, November 19, 2015 11:38 am – By Kate Irish Collins
Images of snowy egrets, glossy ibis and great blue herons, along with other marsh animals, now grace a new art installation along the Scarborough Marsh section of the Eastern Trail.
The new informational sign, which was created by local artist Jada Fitch, teaches trail users about the various marsh animals, as well as offering a bit of information about the marsh itself, including its historic Native American name – Owascoag, or Land of Many Grasses.
The sign is located just north of the bridge over the Scarborough River in a spot that overlooks a bend in the river, which is a popular spot for bird watching.
The goal of the project is for the artwork to “mimic what you see” out on the marsh, according to Bob Bowker, vice president of the Eastern Trail Alliance and a Scarborough resident.
“We just thought it would be a good enhancement to the trail,” he added.
The interpretative sign is the first in a series that the trail alliance has planned, Bowker said.
The next sign will likely be placed on the Biddeford section of the Eastern Trail, which runs from Kittery to Bug Light in South Portland and which is part of the larger East Coast Greenway.
The signs are being paid for through a $7,000 donation that the trail group received anonymously last fall, Bowker said.
There were no strings attached to the money, and, Bowker said, trail overseers agreed that creating and installing interpretative signs depicting the wildlife that can be seen along the Eastern Trail, as well as sharing trail history, would be a good use of the funds.
Bowker said the sign recently installed on the Scarborough Marsh section of the trail meets National Park Service standards and should therefore stand the test of time.
He also said trail overseers were “very happy” with Fitch’s work and said the alliance is “considering further collaborations with Jada.”
Bowker said that while most of the feedback on the new interpretative sign has been from Eastern Trail board members, overall it’s been “very well received and we will definitely be doing more of these.”
Posted: Wednesday, April 29, 2015 4:26 pm
Congratulations to the Sebago to the Sea Trail Coalition, which has finally realized its dream of creating a continuous trail from Sebago Lake to the Atlantic Ocean. Now, we’d like to see the Eastern Trail Alliance, which has made equally great strides in recent years connecting sections of former rail line along the southern coast of Maine, finally create an unbroken link from Kittery to South Portland.
The Sebago to the Sea Trail has been in existence since 2012, thanks to the members of the Presumpscot Regional Land Trust, which took it upon themselves to work with landowners and the state to carve a trail from Sebago Lake to the ocean. It starts out in the woods of the Sebago Lake Land Reserve, owned by the Portland Water District, and follows the Mountain Division Rail Trail from Standish into Gorham, past the Maine Correctional Facility in Windham and then into Westbrook, where it follows Bridge Street and East Bridge Street until plunging back into the woods along the Presumpscot River. It crosses into Portland near Riverton and then follows the Presumpscot through Riverside Golf Course and into Falmouth near the highway overpass on Blackstrap Road. From there it wends its way, sometimes on streets, sometimes on paths, through residential Portland and finally meets the sea at East End Beach, where “through-hikers” can celebrate with a dip in the ocean.
While envisioned as far back as 2007, when the coalition started meeting, in 2012 the group announced that the final connection of the trail was in place. But the news carried with it a caveat, that the 5-mile section from Gorham into Westbrook had to be completed by boat along the Presumpscot since an overland route was delayed due to construction on a section of rail line. Now that rail bed reconstruction is complete, coalition members are installing signage this spring to direct trail users along the completed rail section where users will be allowed to walk alongside the new tracks. So, about a decade after their vision was born, the overland Sebago to the Sea is a reality, and we think that’s a great thing not only for local hikers and cyclists, but also for further enhancing the reputation of Greater Portland as a haven for outdoor activities. The 28-mile trail is certainly a feather in the cap of the communities it passes through.
We also hope people take advantage of this new trail and have a lot of fun along the way. There are places to swim, eat picnic lunches and, of course, observe nature. Parts of the trail, which follows about 13 miles of the pancake-flat Mountain Division rail line, already get a lot of usage, and we feel this final link in the chain will increase pedestrian and bicycle traffic even more.
Read the full article on-line here.
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