JAY – In 2021, the town of Jay was the recipient of the Maine Trails Coalition’s inaugural “Ugly Duckling” award, in regards to the Apple Blossom Trail located near Spruce Mountain High School. The award-winning trail has received a trail assessment along with the help of a team of six people from the Maine Conservation Corps (MCC), valued at $5,000.
Town Manager Shiloh LaFreniere applied for the award in hopes to receive help revitalizing the trail from an outside organization with more resources.
“I hope the award will help bring more visibility to the trail,” LaFreniere said. “I think there are a lot of people that don’t know these trails and the trails at French Falls are even here.”
The trail is used regularly by the cross country team in the fall along with the ski team for cross country skiing in the winter. However, once the trail clean-up is complete, the trail will be dryer and more accessible to the general public.
“We’ve got a good group of people on our recreation committee that are really dedicated and do a lot for the trails in the area,” LaFreniere said. “We have a group of three people who do the majority of the trail work, but a project of this size is not something that would easily be completed with such a small team.”
Members of the MCC were sent to assist with the trail’s revitalization efforts, and they spent five days working on the Apple Blossom Trail.
“We have some projects that are like this that impact a very local community, and we have other projects that are on the Appalachian Trail where the impacted community is much wider” MCC member Andrew Olcott said. “Based on the amount of use this trail gets, I believe it will have a great impact on the recreational opportunities for the community.”
“Now and in the past couple of decades, there are more users every year and there are fewer public funds to keep up with that,” Olcott said. “We continue to have this issue of more users and fewer funds, so more trails can become run out due to erosion.”
Crew members spent their time shoveling wheelbarrows of gravel into the wet areas of the trail, and they also worked on improving the area near the bridge towards the bottom of the trail.
“It has been so rewarding to see all of these people come to help our community,” LaFreniere said. “It’s amazing to know that there are different groups of people out there who are willing to come in and make a difference here.”
