This fall, USM students have a new opportunity for outdoor recreation in Gorham. The Mountain Division Trail, connecting Gorham with Sebago Lake, is open for walking, bicycling, snowmobiling and cross-country skiing. Snowmobilers and cross-country skiers, however, are advised to wait until there is snow on the ground.
Unfortunately, it’s on the other side of town from the USM campus, and there is no public transportation to the site. The trail runs through the Little Falls and White Rock sections of Gorham, about five miles north. The easiest way to get to the trail is by taking Route 202 North to the Windham trailhead (see map). By car it takes about 15 minutes to get there from campus.
The four and-a-half mile path was completed this summer. It is the first phase of an ambitious multi-million dollar “rail-with-trail” project. The completed trail will stretch 45 miles from Windham to Fryeburg alongside abandoned former Maine Central Railroad tracks. Ultimately, advocates hope to extend it easterly to Portland, and as far as west as Vermont.
Dave Kinsman, the president of the Mountain Division Alliance, is enthusiastic about this first step. “It’s exciting to see a piece on the ground, and I think that we’re going to use that to gain momentum in getting the other parts of the trail done … now that people can actually see what it’s like.”
The next phase of the project will be a connecting trail loop through Gorham. A pedestrian easement will be placed on the old Gambo Road Bridge over the Presumpscot River. The loop will continue through a new park to be called “Shaw’s Park” before heading back to the Mountain Division Trail. Cindy Hazleton, recreation director for the town of Gorham, says she’s cautiously optimistic that this will be completed by next summer.
The Windham to Standish trail is scenic, especially where it crosses the Presumpscot River and enters Gorham. It goes through wooded areas and fields of wildflowers before ending about a tenth of a mile from the shore of Sebago Lake, the second-largest in Maine.
The Mountain Division Line once provided twice-daily train service from Portland to Montreal. That ended in the 1920s, and by 1958 regular passenger service was dropped. Freight service continued until the 1980s, but became more and more sporadic. Guilford Transportation Industries bought the line in 1981, but did little with it and abandoned it in 1994.
Soon afterwards, the Mountain Division Alliance was formed to discuss and influence the future of the line. They proposed that the Maine Department of Transportation purchase the right-of-way, which it did in 1997 for $2 million. The Alliance has been planning the trail ever since, in cooperation with the Maine DOT and the National Park Service.
The long-term goal is a multi-use trail stretching from Portland to the shore of Lake Champlain. Many would also like to see the return of rail service, for both passengers and freight. The trail is being built alongside the tracks, rather than on top of them, in order to leave that possibility open.
But the pace of progress on all of this depends on federal funding. Eighty percent of the $1.25 million it cost to build the first phase came from a U.S. government program called Transportation Enhancements. Just last week, it looked like the immediate future of the trail was in serious trouble, because the U.S. House Appropriations Committee voted to completely cut this program out of the budget. A proposal to restore funding passed the House on Thursday, but there is a chance it will be cut or reduced again.
“If the [federal] funding stays the same,” says Kinsman, the Windham to Fryeburg portion “should be finished in 10 to 12 years.” If it doesn’t, “we’re looking at other sources of funding.”
Arts and Entertainment Editor Brian O’Keefe can be contacted at [email protected]