Agreement near on trails, access to Coburn Mt.

SKOWHEGAN – The Somerset County commissioners and the Maine Department of Conservation are in the final stages of crafting an agreement to provide safe access and new trails to Coburn Mountain, long touted as one of the most scenic areas in Maine.

Located about 14 miles south of Jackman, off Route 201, Coburn Mountain is ranked 36th highest among Maine’s 99 mountains at an elevation of 3,750 feet, and its summit provides spectacular, 360-degree panoramic views of Maine and Canada.

Somerset County officials have long looked to the state to develop trails on the mountain to lure outdoor enthusiasts and tourists.

For the past 10 years, however, money got in the way. The state owns more than 300 acres on the top of the mountain, but the only access is a county-owned road and a small piece of property owned by Plum Creek.

Because of a lack of maintenance, the access road is becoming grown over and has washed out in several places. It now is limited to four-wheel drive vehicles, James Batey of the Somerset Economic Development Corp. explained Tuesday to the commissioners.

“I think the public deserves access to that mountain,” Commissioner Gerald York said. “It is one of the most beautiful sites in the state.”

Batey, along with John Titus and Peter Smith of the Maine Department of Conservation, met with the commissioners Tuesday morning to hammer out details of a deal that would in effect swap the access to the property in exchange for state maintenance and upgrades.

Commissioner Paul Hatch told the DOC representatives that the access road “is a very valuable piece of property for the county, and in the past, I understood that the state was not willing to do anything unless it owned it.”

Titus explained that through an easement, the county still would retain ownership of the access road, but the state is willing to upgrade it, provide continued maintenance and liability.

Part of the reason the state is interested, Titus explained, is that there are 300 acres of timberland that could be managed by DOC.

“The state is willing to put improvements into the trail and road if a land easement can be accomplished,” Titus said.

Titus explained that the state would not want to lease the road, since that easily could be terminated, but would want a permanent easement.

“This is a big plus for the county,” Warren Shay of Skowhegan, the board’s attorney, said. “Right now, if people go in and out and there are problems, they are our problems. We have the liability.”

Smith explained that the improved access road would be seasonal only and would not be plowed. There is already snowmobile access to the mountain’s summit through Interstate Trail System 89, which goes to within 300 feet of the mountaintop.

Titus said one of DOC’s main concerns is working with other groups regarding stewardship of the land.

“If we are looking at considering using the land more than it is used now, for example, overnight camping and a host of other activities, we need to be concerned about stewardship,” he said.

The state will not be able to afford to assign a full-time ranger to the property so it may be up to volunteers to provide a watchful eye and possible cleanup duties.

Batey explained that DOC is still working on a companion agreement with Plum Creek and that possibly a final deal may be ready by fall.

“That’s good,” Hatch said. “That will give us some time for public input.”

“It will also give us time to get some estimates as to the cost to repair the road,” said Smith. “We need to know what we are getting into.”

Any repairs, said Smith, will not begin until next spring.