Rangeley, ME – Rangeley Lakes Heritage Trust and Rangeley Health and Wellness have partnered to create a greater variety of afterschool activities for the youth in the Rangeley Region.

The first endeavor was the creation of The Children’s Trail behind Rangeley Family Medicine. RLHT staff, Alyssa Andrews and Amanda Laliberte, worked with 12 children for six weeks from conception to completion to create a trail.

“First the children walked the woods, identified property boundaries, and learned about game trails, and paths of least resistance,” stated Laliberte. “They loved swamping around in the woods choosing the best path. It took us two weeks to determine the route of our proposed trail and then they really went to work.”

Children donned hard hats, safety glasses, and gloves to lop and move the tree branches and rake debris on their route. Along the way, they identified several unique features that they wanted to share with the public; natural benches, standing dead trees, and even wanting to remind visitors to look up through the canopy and breathe deeply while on the trail. Children then collected the shorter log lengths to create a “classroom” in the woods and each week showed off the progress to their parents.

The Children’s Trail is now complete and totals just over 0.2m in length. Open to the community, it is available for exploration. Please note, that solid shoes and special care should be used when walking on the root covered trails of Maine.

About Rangeley Lakes Heritage Trust

The Rangeley Lakes Heritage Trust maintains traditional public access and uses of over 14000 acres of conservation land for recreation, education, and scientific study.  They operate EcoVenture Youth Camp, Headwaters Lake Protection Program, and offer remote and traditional camping through Cupsuptic Lake Park & Campground. To learn more about RLHT or how to get involved, visit rlht.org.

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