An 84-mile mountain bike trail system is in development in Maine's remote Piscataquis County, led by the Elliotsville Foundation. The project, called the 7 Ponds Preserve, aims to provide quality trails for all skill levels and attract riders from afar, dependent on funding for completion.
Photo courtesy of Mark and Susan Adams/Elliotsville Foundation Inc.
The EFI has completed a demonstration pathway to give local residents a taste of what the trails will one day be like.
Deep in the heart of Maine stands Mount Katahdin, a 5,269-ft. peak at the end of the famous Appalachian Trail. The mountain is located in Piscataquis County, the second-largest county by area in the state at 3,960 sq. mi.
Despite its massive size, Piscataquis also is the least-populated county in the state with just over 17,000 residents.
Now, plans are afoot for an ambitious, 84-mi. mountain bike trail system to be built in the county, home to some of Maine's most wild and rugged woodlands, including the famed Hundred-Mile Wilderness.
Recently, Lucas St. Clair, president of Portland-based Elliotsville Foundation Inc. (EFI), said that while there are plenty of hiking paths in the region, opportunities for people to ride singletrack on their mountain bikes are very rare in the region.
"I love to bike, and do a lot of mountain biking, and I started to see what was happening in communities around the country where people were really upping the game with the quality of trails that they were building … [for] a variety of different ability levels," he said.
According to Singletracks, a national online news site about mountain biking, St. Clair noted that he "saw that that was lowering the barrier for entry for a lot of folks, the community was getting pretty stoked about riding, and … that people were traveling pretty long distances to come and ride a really good trail system."
When St. Clair realized the impact that mountain bike trails were having across the country, he resolved to take the lead on building bike-legal trails on EFI lands in Maine. The trail system, known as the "7 Ponds Preserve," is currently being built on a 10,000-acre parcel owned by the foundation.
The land was acquired about 15 years ago, he explained, from "a timber harvesting company [when it] was done harvesting it. We've been letting the trees grow, and then building some trails."
Only now, St. Clair added, is it suitable to begin developing recreation opportunities on the parcel.
Demonstration Project Now Done at 7 Ponds Preserve
The EFI has just completed a demonstration pathway to give local residents a taste of what the trails will one day be like. International Mountain Bicycling Association (IMBA) Trail Solutions has completed construction of about 1.5 mi. of "pretty easy" trails, St. Clair explained.
"People can come out and check it out and ride it, but it's just a real entry point for folks," he said, adding that EFI has already spent "a couple of years of planning with IMBA" to create just the start of what could be one of the largest trail building projects on the East Coast.
As for the character of the planned trails, St. Clair explained that, overall, there will be a lot of cross country-style trails that slowly climb and descend the region's mountain terrain. In addition, he said that the paths will be built to accommodate a range of skill levels, "so people will be able to get out on an e-mountain bike for the very first time, ride trails and feel pretty comfortable."
Singletracks reported Nov. 11 that although the new trails may be cross country-oriented, there is still plenty of elevation to work with on the property — roughly 1,500 to 2,000 ft., per St. Clair's estimate.
"We want to have some … vistas built in so there's some payoff for the climbs with nice views, [plus], there are several ponds on the property. We wanted to get folks out to some of the spots that we think are pretty beautiful."
Funding Will Likely Determine When Trail Is Finished
Expanding the trails from 1.5 mi. to 84 mi. will obviously be a lengthy process, and, at the moment, St. Clair is uncertain how long the construction will take before it is finished.
"I think that we'll be able to have a significant amount of rideable trails in the next couple of years [and maybe] an hour of good riding probably in the next year or two. My hunch is that we'll probably have well over a dozen miles of mountain bike trails … by year three, at least. That's my own personal goal."
When speaking with Singletracks about the planned total mileage of the new bike trails at 7 Ponds Preserve, St. Clair shared the age-old adage that riders will drive an equivalent number of hours to reach a trail system as there are hours of singletrack to ride. By that reckoning, then, if there is one hour of trails to ride, mountain bikers will travel from an hour away.
However, if it takes, say, 15-20 hours to ride 84 mi. — once a cyclist factors in backtracking to hit all of the trail segments — at that point 7 Ponds Preserve could draw riders from all over the eastern half of the United States and Canada.
Ultimately, St. Clair told the online news site, the trail system's completion date will be largely funding dependent.
"Right now, we're funding it ourselves, but we don't have a budget that's big enough for us to do it all in a couple years," he explained. "What we hope to do is … prove the concept [by saying] ‘These are pretty sweet trails. We can do more of them, or we can do it faster, if we have partners.'"
The Elliotsville Foundation was created in 1998 by Roxanne Quimby, the founder of Burt's Bees. With the proceeds from the sale of the natural skincare company, Quimby created the endowment that pays for much of EFI's operation. Since then, St. Clair said, the foundation has been purchasing timberland and managing it for recreation and conservation.
While EFI continues to own and manage large swathes of land, it also has donated vast tracts to government agencies.
For example, in 2016, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service, the Elliotsville Foundation donated 89,000 acres of land to create Maine's Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument.
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