The 2014 Rangeley Trail Town Festival, which is an annual celebration of towns along the Appalachian Trail that support hikers and work to protect the land and trails, was held this past Saturday in downtown Rangeley.  It was a beautiful day and lots of people came out to see what different groups who work on the trail do.  Among the crowd were many thru hikers who were happy to spend an afternoon off the trail.  Also, they got to join the ice cream eating contest for free (courtesy of Gifford’s).

Special thanks to Linda Dexter of Ecopelagicon for organizing the festival.  This year will be hard to top but we can’t wait for next year!

 

 

 

Congratulations to the Kallin family!  They completed their hike ahead of schedule and became just the sixteenth family to hike the entire Appalachian Trail.  You can read more about their final day on the trail here.

We had a nice article appear in The Irregular last week!

Maine Appalachian Trail Land Trust will be at the Rangeley Trail Town Festival on August 30th.  You can check the event website for more info (it will be updated periodically).

After an exhaustive search, Maine Appalachian Trail Land Trust hired a new executive director in March.  Simon Rucker grew up hiking in the mountains of Maine and after living in New York City for ten years, he decided he wanted to settle in a place with clean air, tall trees and over 281 miles of Appalachian Trail to hike on with his wife and two children.  He comes to Maine A.T. Land Trust from one of our partner organizations, The Trust for Public Land.  In his project work in New York, Simon saw first-hand how deeply development and incompatible uses can effect conservation land.  Land along the Appalachian Trail corridor in Maine is largely unprotected.  Under Simon’s leadership we hope Maine A.T. Land Trust can help to conserve vulnerable lands for use by future generations.  And we need your support!

We will be giving away copies of our laminated, rolled High Peaks Initiative maps.  To enter to win yours, all you have to do is sign up for our newsletter if you are not a member.  If you are a member you are automatically eligible to win one.  You can also enter by signing up at our booth at the Rangeley Trail Town Festival on August 30th.

On behalf of the Maine Appalachian Trail Land Trust, I would like to welcome you to our redesigned website. The site will be continually updated with information about our organization, our events and the places we work. Our resources section has plenty of things about the trail to help you plan a hike – you can see routes on Maine Trail Finder, read about the ecology of the High Peaks Region and find notable features to find when you are out there. We’ll also have some interactive maps and videos posted in the next few weeks.

Check our calendar for updates and add this section to your news feed for up to date information.