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The pandemic fueled a hiking boom, but there are still places to avoid a crowd on the trail
Foot traffic on Maine trails is has trailed off from the pandemic-crazed high of 2020, but still higher that before COVID-19. Here are some hidden gems.
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Hikers revel in the views while hiking theParks Bennett Loop in Bethel. With such an increased demand on trails, folks at Inland Woods + Trails took the initiative and in April constructed a 3-mile loop trail in the newly conserved Bethel Community Forest.
Photo by Gabe Perkins
From the North Maine Woods to western Maine, down through southern Maine and along the coast to the Downeast region, land managers echo similar reports on hiker traffic: It is down from the wild spike that occurred in 2020 due to COVID-19 – when trail use doubled in many places – but Maine’s trails are still busy.
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RUMFORD A $50,000 grant will extend a mountain bike trail, from Mountain Valley High School to Rumford Water District and town lands.
Volunteers work in 2019 on the mountain bike trail in Rumford.
Submitted photo
Inland Woods + Trails , a 501(c)(3) nonprofit based in Bethel, announced the award from the Federal Highway Recreational Trails Program and the Maine Trails Advisory Committee, a committee of the Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation & Forestry.
The grant will allow Inland Woods + Trails to design and construct up to four miles of mountain bike trail in Rumford for its Pennacook Area Community Trails phased extension.
Karen Wilson, an Inland Woods + Trails board member and PACT committee chairperson, said, “With this grant money, we will be able to connect the current trail to Scotties Brook, where we want to build a bench and picnic spot by the river, which is really beautiful.”
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Bethel has been an increasingly popular spot for people to visit, largely due to its many different outdoor recreation activities.
Bethel Citizen photo by Samuel Wheeler
BETHEL Last Wednesday, via Zoom, a group of business, municipal and non-profit leaders launched mahoosucway.com, and with it, the websites pledge to “embrace our place.”
The website said the pledge “helps us communicate our community values to newcomers and visitors.” The five major points of the pledge are to “honor the land, explore wisely, show respect, cultivate community and be climate conscious.”
“This pledge represents a new way of thinking about how locals and visitors alike can interact with our environment and community and its getting some attention at a level statewide and beyond as a leader,” executive director of the Bethel Chamber of Commerce, Jessie Perkins, said via Zoom. “We’re not the only ones concerned with tourism’s impact on our resources and we hope