Mountain bikers can ride the trails in Greenville

GREENVILLE — Through a partnership between the Maine Bureau of Parks and Lands and the nonprofit Moosehead Outdoor Alliance, mountain bikers have been able to traverse about a dozen miles of free-to-ride trails in the first of three planned zones in Greenville. More mileage is planned with a portion of the zone 2 trails now open to bikes and construction on additional mileage there underway.

A ribbon-cutting ceremony opened zone 2 on the afternoon of Saturday, July 1.

“This project has been kind of in the making for seven years because we actually changed the management plan in the Little Moose Mountain Public Reserved Land,”  Moosehead Outdoor Alliance President Chuck Wagenheim said several days after the ribbon cutting, which was followed by a community presentation at Bartley’s Event Center. “There’s 15,000 acres that is very close to the town of Greenville that is state land.”

“Initially one of the uses was not mountain biking and they did an amendment, had community meetings about it, and overwhelmingly the community wanted to see mountain bike trails,” he said. Soon after the Moosehead Outdoor Alliance was formed with a mission “to build a world class mountain bike trail system in Greenville.”   

The organization has a mission statement of bringing economic stimulus to the Greenville area; bringing in a younger demographic for permanent residence; providing active lifestyle opportunities for healthy living; providing youth training and teaching programs; and to put on events and festivals to draw tourists and active participants.

Wagenheim said once the land use amendment went into effect, three different zones for trails were identified. 

He said zone 1 is called Gravel Pit Pond, located about a mile from town. “There’s about 12 miles of riding in zone 1,” Wagenheim said between what was already in place and what has been built.

Five miles of trails were constructed in accordance with safety and environmental guidelines, along with an additional four miles on other private land, to join an existing 3-mile rim trail for 12 total miles for mountain biking. The mountain bike trails cross existing ATV/snowmobile trails so signage lets motorized and non-motorized riders know of each other’s presence.

The routes are marked and maps are available at Northwoods Outfitters and the Destination Moosehead Lake office.

“That we would consider beginner and intermediate trails, you can ride right from town right to that zone,” Wagenheim said.

The state wanted the first trails to be highly accessible to see how the arrangement would go and Wagenheim said the state has been extremely happy with the partnership.

“The ribbon cutting was for the start of zone 2,” he said. “Zone 2 is going to be a professionally built, world-class trail system on the Little Moose Eastern Ridge and it will connect to zone 1 so you can ride from zone 1 to zone 2 but this one will have beginner, intermediate, advanced, and expert trails on it.”

The second zone construction is a 2-year project and when completed there will be 13-15 miles in that zone, Wagenheim said. He said another 12-15 miles of trails will be in the future zone 3.

“When the whole project’s completed we think Greenville’s going to be a destination mountain bike center for New England riders and Quebec,” Wagenheim said. “All professionally-built, professionally-designed trails on what the trail designers are telling us are spectacular terrain for mountain biking.”

The trail system has been funded through a combination of federal and state grants, community donations, and fundraisers.

“When completed it will probably be somewhere between $1.2 and $1.5 million but we have already paid for zone 1 and zone 2 we have the money designated for the next two years of building,” Wagenheim said, saying more fundraising will cover the zone 2 completion and then zone 3 work.

A Piscataquis County chapter of the New England Mountain Bike Association has been formed. The bike association is a non-profit recreational trail advocate with more than 7,000 members and close to three dozen chapters, including others across Maine. The local chapter will be involved in trail maintenance.

A pump track is planned for Greenville with this shorter course to be part of a Red Cross beach revitalization project as riders can practice their balance, jumping over logs, cornering skills,  and more on the specially-designed skill course.

Wagenheim said before the ribbon cutting a group ride traveled around zone 1, and the plan is to hold these regularly. 

The Moosehead Outdoor Alliance will have some organization-owned bikes that high-schoolers can use to get them excited and interested in the sport. Programs will teach how to safely mountain bike.