The Maine Appalachian Trail Land Trust conserved the land on the east side of Saddleback Mountain in 2004, and there’s a recently-opened trail through the property to the Appalachian Trail in the section between Saddleback and The Horn (two of Maine’s 4,000-footers in the High Peaks region).  As part of the land trust’s stewardship duties, we send volunteers to help maintain the trail under the leadership of Maine Appalachian Trail Club.  MATC maintainers maintain and manager 267 miles of the A.T. in Maine.  Many of the land trust’s members, directors and staff are members of MATC.  Some maintain sections of the A.T. in their own right.

Maintenance trips are usually done 2-3 times per year, depending on the condition of the trail.  Both the A.T. (white blazes) and official A.T. side trails (blue blazes) are maintained by these volunteers.  Being a relatively new trail, the Berry Pickers Trail did not require much maintenance this year – just a few blowdowns and encroaching spruce branches.  The land trust will have another trip in September to tackle low-growing vegetation and generally check in the trail.

If you are interested in maintaining a section of the A.T. or a side trail, or in corridor boundary monitoring, you can find more info at matc.org.  This article is a pretty good summary, too.