Mad River Path Newsletters

I’ve just spent a week walking and biking on many different trails in Stonington, Maine and on Isle au Haut – a small island to the south of Stonington with only a handful of motorized (many of them non-registered) vehicles. There isn’t even a ferry that takes cars to the island. Many of the trails were narrow and rocky, with uneven footing and steep drop-offs to the cliffs below. All of the trails were protected, either privately, through the state, or federally. The sights were spectacular – birds, water, lobster boats, islands, old foundations and cellar holes.

These trails are a big tourist attraction, and I would imagine that the locals use them as well (no dogs are allowed on any of them). At the beginning of each trail is a sign-in box with a small map of the trail showing elevation contours, historic sites and mileage. Some of the trails had narrow wooden puncheons (less than 2’ wide) that were a bit slippery, and some were only a mile loop around a peninsula.

I had many thoughts about how to improve our paths – by getting more members and by increasing our financial income. We need to have maps more accessible and we also need to find ways to collect money and recruit volunteers from those who are using the path. I would like to start a “Path Walkers Club” where there is a schedule of walks available on a daily basis or weekly basis – if you would like to commit to a date and a time, let me know.

I think that we also need to keep our website current. Darlene at Mad River Web has done a great job of updating the site, and we have the option of committing another $300.00 for future website developing and updating. I am hoping to find the time to learn how to do this (I don’t think it is difficult), but just haven’t found it yet! We should have work days, other events (birding outings, educational tours, festival of the arts events), maps, ED reports and all of our old newsletters on the site. I’ve also got some great photos from the Bash and the VYCC kids that I would like to put on the website and there are many opportunities for other photo displays as well.

The maintenance of the trails will continue to be challenging. I have spoken with Jason Lisai from Sugarbush and he has agreed to have some of his employees weed wack the Kingsbury Bridge Greenway trail on the west side of the snowmaking pond. I also spoke with Cindy Hartshorn from the town of Warren to see if the town could pick up some of the mowing on the section of the path from the Golden Lion to Rt. 100 on Anna Whiteside’s property. The response that I received was that since it is not a legal trail, the town was not willing to mow it. Another great reason to get legal easements.

The VYCC group had a wet week of cutting in a new trail and building the new bridge across the street from the Fayston Elementary School. If you haven’t seen their work, it is well worth a trip. The bridge is spectacular – thank you, Fred, for your many hours of help with this project. The kids put on a wonderful show on Tuesday night, July 10th, and it was well attended by parents and board members. The hour-long presentation was a musical story about a new kid coming into the VYCC crew part-way through the summer. I was very impressed with the professionalism, hard work and the dedication of the VYCC staff and crew – we were very fortunate to have been awarded this week of work. Unfortunately, three of the crew had to go home early, so they did not have the time to do any work on re-routing of the trail behind the Tucker Hill Inn. This is still an important job that needs to be done soon. The Truckles have been VERY patient and have been waiting for two years to have the Path moved away from their personal space. We need to set a date in the near future for this work to be done.

Carl has been hard at work with the Dash – everyone has their list of duties and the registrations are starting to come in. We only have two more months to go before the Dash, and now is the time to talk to potential sponsors and sell the benefits of supporting the Path.

The Landowner Relations committee has made good progress with putting together the documents necessary for the Trail Protection Package. Thanks so much, Tara, for keeping the ball rolling and putting a lot of time and energy into making the documents readable and inclusive.

So, there is a lot of work to do for the Mad River Path Association – here’s my list:

· Make a small, foldable trail map
· Put sign-in sheets and membership forms at trail heads
· Re-route the Mill Brook trail behind Tucker Hill Inn
· Finalize documents for the Trail Protection Package and start meeting with landowners
· Find new business sponsors for the Mad Dash
· Increase community usage of the Path