Downeast Sunrise Trail System

I found this video link on an ATV site I frequent . . . thought it might be of interest to sledders as well as this is a multi-use trail and as some of you know there are issues with at least one landowner who is fighting the State. If you watch the whole thing you'll see some sledders who used part of the trail system this past winter.

This link is to a great video . . . it really shows how much good is being done for this area -- 1) for the ecology of the area by fixing salmon spawning areas and turtle breeding areas, 2) removing creosote-laden areas and 3) making this area useful for both motorized and non-motorized activities (i.e. seeing sledders and skiers in the same pic!)

While I will not go as far as to say this will revitalize the area, I will say that I suspect it has the potential to bring in some more money to area businesses that are trail-side . . . I mean, it has to bring in more revenue than what the railroad has been bringing in during the past few years judging by the poor condition of the tracks.

And that reminds me . . . for the naysayers who were claiming that the trains should come back and making this into a multi-use trail system would be a bad idea . . . I wonder how many of them saw how terrible these tracks and the bed were? I was blown away by the amont of damage -- there is no way the trains could have come back without a lot of money going into fixing up both the bed and the rails.

As for the poor turtles . . . I remember folks crying about how the project would hurt the turtles . . . appears to me that this project has the potential to actually improve things for the wildlife in the future.

I highly recommend folks take a minute to watch this video -- very eye-opening.

http://www.maine.gov/doc/parks/programs/snowmobile/suntrail.html

For some reason I cannot edit my own post so I forgot to change a few things . . . I thought this may be of interest to some geocachers as a) some of us snowmobile, b) some of us ATV and c) all of us pretty much geocache and there are several geocaches already placed along this trail system.

Last year when they began pulling up the tracks I spoke to the President of the Trail System. She said that they were very much on board with people placing caches along the trail. They just wanted people to be aware the state only owns a 60 ft corridor along the trial. Anymore then 30 ft from the center of the trail and you are on private property.

Good to see a trail system like this put into use for many purposes.