The Eastern Trail is a 62 mile multi-use, non-motorized greenway, that connects Bug Light in Casco Bay, South Portland to Kittery, Maine. Approximately thirty percent of the trail is off-road, and the trail is a part of the East Coast Greenway which will eventually connect Calais, Maine to Key West, Florida, approximately 3000 miles. The Eastern Trail is currently composed of 21 miles of off-road trails on the former Eastern Railroad bed with the remainder 41 miles on public roads.
The entirety of the Eastern Trail is built to ADA standards. The trail surface varies between pavement and stone dust/gravel. Most of the trail is 10-12 feet wide, with some sections with an 8-foot width. There is a 30-inch opening between the bollards at entrances to keep out motorized vehicles, but wide enough to allow access for wheelchairs.
The off-road section connecting Scarbrough to Saco privdes access to the 2200-acre Scarborough Marsh, which is Maine's largest salt marsh. Heading north on the trail from Pine Point (ME-9) or south from Eastern Road in Scarborough provides access to this 2.5 mile stretch of trail.
Heading south from Pine Point Road, the trail crosses the York County and Cumberland County boundaries and users can walk/bike from Scarborough, through Old Orchard Beach to Saco, where the current-off-road trail ends at Thornton Academy in Saco, approximately 6 miles from the Pine Point kiosk.
There are kiosks at 3 parking areas, that give some history and points of interest along the trail. For example, the Eastern Trail is built on the old Eastern Railroad line that was built in 1840 and abandoned in 1945. Also, Charles Lindberg flew into the now abandoned Scarborough airport several times. And, a trestle once carried open air trolleys from the rail line to Old Orchard Beach for summer tourists.
Equestrian use is allowed in some areas during the spring through fall seasons.
Natural Heritage Hikes is a project of the Maine Natural Areas Program in partnership with Maine Trail Finder. View the "Eastern Trail" guide online here.
Visit the Eastern Trail Alliance online for more information and a printable map or contact:
There are multiple access points along the trail with five primary accesses points in Saco and Scarborough.
In Scarborough, the northern end of the trail can be accessed from the southern end of Eastern Road, off of ME-207/Black Point Road Scarborough. Eastern trail leaves ME-207 on the right, 0.4 miles from US-1.
For parking on the Scarborough Marsh, from US-1 in Scarborough, turn east onto ME-9/Pine Point Road. In 1.1 miles the Eastern Trail crosses ME-9; look for parking and the trailhead on the left at at the brick pump station.
Parking is also available at the Scarbrough Cemetery on Old Blue Point Road 1 mile from US-1.
The southern end of this section is accessed from Thornton Academy in Saco. Thornton Academy is off the north side of US-1 in Saco approximately 0.6 miles south of I-195. Turn onto Fairfield Street and follow it to park in the parking lot at its end.
In Saco, there is also ample parking at the Millbrook Business Park, off of US-1, opposite Spring Hill Road.
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