SANDY RIVER PLANTATION — Sunday, June 13, members of the High Peaks Alliance, local ATV clubs, and the Maine Appalachian Trail Club (responsible for maintenance of the AT from the Mahoosucs to Baxter State Park) got together for a volunteer work day on Saddleback Mountain. ATV club members, from the Narrow Gauge Riders and the Camp Two Riders, ferried in bog bridging materials, tools, and supplies to the Appalachian Trail. A bog bridge is a cedar board positioned to keep hiking traffic above wet marshy areas of a trail. High Peaks Alliance members helped install the bridges on the trail.
The High Peaks Alliance is a diverse group of local people interested in working on forest conservation and preserving public access to the backcountry in the High Peaks Region. This is the area between routes 4, 142, 27, and 16 that has eight of Maine’s 14 Mountains above 4,000 feet. Alliance meetings are held monthly, every second Friday, at the Phillips Public Library at 6:00 pm (meetings are open to everyone). Members of the alliance are skiers, bikers, hikers, ATVs, snowmobilers, equestrians, dog-sledders, Maine guides, teachers, farmers, small businesses, and land owners.
The Alliance organized this event to proactively help develop goodwill between motorized and non-motorized recreational trail groups operating in the High Peaks Region. Trail groups can successfully work together to improve the multi-trail network and create positive recreational experiences for all trail users in the High Peaks.
At the end of the day, twenty spans of bog bridging had been transported to and installed on the Appalachian Trail with enthusiastic help from local volunteers. Thanks to everyone who volunteered for a great day!
200-mile High Peaks bike loop over the holiday weekend
Hope Strode surveying the Rangeley Lakes at an overlook on a 90-mile loop from Phillips to Weld, Rumford, Rangeley, and home.
Her husband Daniel H. Watts after just finishing the ride. He is a bicycle planning consultant in Boston in training for the 2010 season.
Hope takes Memorial Weekend in Phillips to train as a member of the Wheelworks Women’s Racing Team in Maine’s beautiful and challenging High Peaks Region. Their bike route information will be available to those interested in great loops in the High Peaks.
