08/18/2026
Nordic Trail Festival 2026 - We Saved the Trails
This year’s Nordic Trail Festival was a special one.
After a two year absence from our local community and the wider mountain biking and trail running community the festival was back. The trails and facility are now under local ownership and stewardship through Northern Maine Community Trails, and the words we put on the back of this year’s shirts, “We Saved the Trails,” carried a lot of extra meaning for many of us.
It really felt like a homecoming. Some of our best biking and running friends came back from away, but it was also a chance for so many of us locally to spend time together in a way we often do not get to. We ran, biked, hiked, ate together, listened to music, watched the kids play and spent an entire weekend outside enjoying this place and each other.
Registrations were higher than in past years, with people traveling from as far away as Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Moncton, New Brunswick. We also had strong groups come from Bangor and Orono, Farmington and Skowhegan, Portland, Belfast, Augusta, Blue Hill and communities throughout Northern Maine.
Friday night we shared a home cooked meal with around 100 people. More than 40 people camped at the facility and many others stayed in local hotels. At one point Saturday night, the volunteer at the access road called with an SOS that we were running out of parking space.
Music started with some folk and bluegrass from one of our trail volunteers Doug and Prof Putnam, followed by Travis and Laura of 40 Thieves, and then French Toast finishing out the night. People danced under the tent, hung out around the fire pits, ate some really good local food and enjoyed a beer from Orono Brewing Company. It was just a really good night with a lot of good people.
If you have ever run a large event, you know the range of emotions you feel when it is finally over. You are exhausted, a little peopled out and ready not to think about the event for a while. At the same time, I left this one incredibly grateful and with a lot of hope for what this facility and trail system is becoming.
The number of people who have stepped up to help save this place has been incredible. People have donated money, equipment, materials and thousands of hours of their own time. To date, we have raised $645,000 and seen more than 3,000 hours of volunteer effort go into bringing this place back to life.
But we are not just trying to save what was here before. We are trying to build something even better, with a stronger focus on our community, our kids and our families.
That is why this place matters.
There was a time when we did not know whether these trails would still be here. A whole lot of people decided they were worth fighting for, and because of that effort they are.
We saved the trails.
Now the goal is to make sure they are used, loved and passed on to the next generation.
To everyone who volunteered, donated, sponsored, raced, ran, biked, camped, cooked, played music, traveled from away or simply showed up - thank you.
For those of us who have spent the last year trying to save this place, this weekend meant more than I can put to words.
We saved the trails, and this weekend showed us exactly why it was worth doing.
