Thu, 10/04/2018 - 7:00pm

Sarah Thompson

Ian Stewart, director of Coastal Mountains Land Trust, Oct. 4. (Photo by Sarah Thompson)

Kurt Klebe. (Photo by Sarah Thompson)

Carol Chen. (Photo by Sarah Thompson)

(Photo by Sarah Thompson)

Chen believed at first that her pro bono hours assessing deeds would be brief and easy....until she saw an old Rockport map. (Photo by Sarah Thompson)

Rick Knowlton, president of Maine Water Company. (Photo by Sarah Thompson)

(Photo by Sarah Thompson)

The parking lot for the dam is just down the street. (Photo by Sarah Thompson)

The future parking lot. (Photo by Sarah Thompson)

(Photo by Sarah Thompson)

What started in 2003 as an attempt to conserve 35 acres has grown to 786 acres, including a future trailhead on Hope Street. (Photo by Sarah Thompson)

Mirror Lake (Photo courtesy Coastal Mountains Land Trust)

Ian Stewart, director of Coastal Mountains Land Trust, Oct. 4. (Photo by Sarah Thompson)

Kurt Klebe. (Photo by Sarah Thompson)

Carol Chen. (Photo by Sarah Thompson)

(Photo by Sarah Thompson)

Chen believed at first that her pro bono hours assessing deeds would be brief and easy....until she saw an old Rockport map. (Photo by Sarah Thompson)

Rick Knowlton, president of Maine Water Company. (Photo by Sarah Thompson)

(Photo by Sarah Thompson)

The parking lot for the dam is just down the street. (Photo by Sarah Thompson)

The future parking lot. (Photo by Sarah Thompson)

(Photo by Sarah Thompson)

What started in 2003 as an attempt to conserve 35 acres has grown to 786 acres, including a future trailhead on Hope Street. (Photo by Sarah Thompson)

Mirror Lake (Photo courtesy Coastal Mountains Land Trust)

ROCKPORT — Trail creation is set to begin in a few weeks along 5.5 miles connecting the Camden Snow Bowl to a future parking lot at 87 Hope Street near the Thorndike Brook Dam, in Rockport. This trail head will extend year-round access for pedestrians, cyclists, and skiers.

On Thursday, Oct. 4, members of the Round the Mountain conservation and recreation collaborative celebrated the trail’s progress, as well as the purchase of a 786-acre conservation easement from Maine Water Company, Thursday, Sept. 27.

That larger easement, ‘the Keystone Project,’ will help protect drinking water, wildlife, and community access starting at Gilette Road, extending to just short of the Maine Water Company facility on Mirror Lake. And then up the side of Ragged Mountain to the ridge line, according to Ian Stewart, executive director of Coastal Mountains Land Trust.

“This is a project of statewide significance,” said Kurt Klebe, Maine Coast Heritage Trust board chairman. “If I’m correct, it is the largest conservation project on the coast between Portland and the Penobscot River.”

Klebe said that localities wanting to attract a certain quality of workforce have to provide what those employees value.

“The people attracted to the Midcoast are people who care about the outdoors, and they have to have these amenities protected,” he said.

Ragged Mountain is the fourth highest mountains on the eastern seaboard, according to Stewart.

“When you drive from Texas, north, the first mountain you find on the coast is Ragged Mountain,” he said.

For the trail itself, OBP Trailworks, LLC, won the contractor bid.

The New England Mountain Bike Club, the Trail Runners of Midcoast Maine, and others assisted in trail design, as well as fundraising efforts toward the $4.5 million goal. Already, $3.5 million has been raised since fundraising started in 2003 with $8 in dimes from the daughter of a committee member.

Gartley and Dorsky Engineering, in Rockport, donated many hours to the trail design, and so too has local attorney Carol Chen.

“Gartley and Dorsky Engineering and Surveying generously donated their time and expertise to the Land Trust to develop the comprehensive set of trail design, construction, and erosion control plans for this large project,” according to Coastal Mountains Land Trust. “When completed, the Round the Mountain Trail will connect with a growing network of more than 20 miles of trail, including the Georges Highland Path on Ragged Mountain.”

The trail will be six to eight feet wide. The grade will be steady that users of all abilities can enjoy.

Another four miles of trail, beginning at the Camden Snow Bowl, will eventually go around the north side of the mountain, with finalization expected in 2020.

“Anything to get people outside,” Klebe said.

The northeastern slopes of Ragged Mountain are home to the municipally-owned Camden Snow Bowl; its western cliffs descend toward Rockport and Route 17, and its gentler northern slopes end in Hope, on the Gillette Road where old farms nestle onto its lower hills. Ragged Mountain has been well explored for centuries, with hikers, bikers, hunters and adventurers winding on the old trails to a summit that extends views over the Gulf of Maine.

The Round the Mountain Trail is part of the land trust’s 13-year-old vision to conserve the Bald and Ragged Mountains, a 3,470-acre area in Camden, Hope, and Rockport.

Three years ago, the land trust began planning its nine-mile Round the Mountain Trail. In June 2016, the land trust and Maine Water announced a major real estate agreement by which the land trust would buy easements of 1,405 acres of Maine Water-owned land in West Rockport and Hope which protects the drinking water supply of many in the Midcoast. (Read more: Maine Water Co., Coastal Mountains Land Trust seal a deal for outdoor recreation, conservation)

The project grew to include collaborating with Camden, in particular the Camden Snow Bowl, as Nordic ski trails were extended along land on nearby private property parcels that had one-by-one been secured by Coastal Mountains Land Trust.

The Round the Mountain trail project price is estimated at $4.2 million, with trail-making costs estimated to be another $700,000, and trail stewardship at $300,000. A conservation fund for the Round the Mountain Trail land is also to be established, with $550,000.

Under the terms of the transaction, the Maine Water Company has agreed to directly investing in the local community in a variety of ways. Last week, Maine Water gifted $250,000 to Coastal Mountains Land Trust in support of the construction of the Round the Mountain Trail and future stewardship of the land. Futhermore, half of the net proceeds from the sale of the easement will be returned as a rebate to their customers in the form of a credit on their monthly bills. Starting in 2019, customers of Maine Water Company in the Camden Rockland division will share in the benefits of the collaboration through rebate credits totaling over $400,000 applied to all water bills, according to a news release from the Coastal Mountains Land Trust.

The other half of the net proceeds will be reinvested in infrastructure improvements and upgrades within the Mirror Lake water system.

The Land Trust is also actively preparing to begin construction of the future nine-mile Round the Mountain Trail. With support from Maine Water and grants from the Recreational Trails Program, Maine Outdoor Heritage Fund and Quimby Foundation, the Land Trust will complete the layout of the final trail corridor as early as November.

According to a news release: The Round the Mountain Collaboration, initiated in 2016 and publicly launched in 2017, is an historic partnership among Coastal Mountains Land Trust, Maine Coast Heritage Trust, Maine Water Company, and several recreation and community groups to permanently protect the water supply for six Midcoast communities, develop a four-season recreational trail system, and conserve habitat and open space at a landscape scale on Ragged Mountain.