A newly inaugurated network of trails in Liberty offers 5.5 miles of footpaths that traverse mature forest and gorges, and in places skirts the Sheepscot River.
The Bolen Hill trail network features three different loops within more than 1,100 conserved acres, including part of Lake St. George State Park, which some of the trails cross, and land held by the Midcoast Conservancy.
“There’s a lot of mature forest in there with a beautiful, open understory,” said Buck O’Herin, the coordinator of the Hills to Sea Trail Coalition, which built the trails in collaboration with the Midcoast Conservancy and the state of Maine.
The land around the trails has many large old Hemlock trees and includes about 5 miles of protected river frontage.
Spring and early summer are especially good times to visit, O’Herin said, because the river is full.
Some of the area around the trails is part of the headwaters of the Sheepscot River, which provides important habitat for Atlantic Salmon, freshwater mussels, Bald Eagles, and many other land and aquatic species.
The Bolen Hill project was complex because it involved getting the permission to build trails across state park land. The trails, which were built mostly by volunteers, feature a lot of stonework and were designed to hold up to heavy use from state park visitors.
Both the needs of wildlife and providing public access were kept in mind when the trails were planned, O’Herin said.
A lot has been learned over the past decade or so about the ways trails can negatively affect wildlife, O’Herin said. After consulting with an ecologist, the initial plan for trails was altered in places to make sure wildlife has undisturbed access to the river.
“We tried to lay out the trails to maybe have a little bit less impact so that people can still enjoy the area, but so it also works for most of the wildlife,” he said.
The Hills to Sea Trail Coalition builds trails in Waldo County, including on and near school grounds. Its flagship trail is a 47-mile trail connecting Unity to Belfast.
The Bolen Hill trails can be accessed from Route 3 in Liberty just west of the Lake St. George State Park entrance.