MILLINOCKET – The Katahdin region has a national reputation for excellent snowmobile riding. To John Raymond, there’s no reason why similar excellence cannot be created around the area’s ATV trail-riding possibilities.

“It’s a no-brainer,” Raymond said Tuesday. “The same people that snowmobile around here also ride ATVs, and the same conditions that exist for snowsledding can exist for ATVs.

“We’re kind of at the same impasse that snowmobile riders were at 35 years ago but we’re on a different device,” he said. “We have to get together with the landowners [in Katahdin] and show that we’re going to respect their land like the snowsledders do.”

That’s why the Highland Avenue resident is pushing for what he calls a Pinetree Trail Summit.

The summit would gather landowners, ATV riders and clubs, state recreation and conservation officials, insurance agents, town officials and the Katahdin Area Chamber of Commerce to overcome roadblocks that inhibit the creation of a system of trails for all-terrain vehicles, he said.

Raymond is not the first to note that Katahdin is a doughnut hole within a network of trails that run in or near Lincoln and Chester to the south and resume north of Millinocket, trail advocates say.

Nor is he the first to advocate stitching together a trail network through the region. The Katahdin Trails Alliance cycling club and Northern Timber Cruisers Club are among those that are in discussions with landowners.

The trails end in Katahdin because landowners – particularly Katahdin Timberlands LLC, the area’s largest landowner – are leery of insurance liability and damage caused by the heavy tracks ATVs leave. State trespass laws are another factor.

Yet Raymond might have been the first to discuss the Hatfield-McCoy Trails of West Virginia. That is a 500-mile system open to ATVs, motorbikes, horse riders, mountain bikers and hikers in the eight southern counties of West Virginia, thanks to cooperation between that state and more than 250 private landowners, Raymond told the Town Council during a presentation last week.

Hatfield-McCoy generates more than $500,000 in state ATV licensing fees and millions more in tourism dollars annually, he said.

Patrolled by state police-certified rangers, Hatfield-McCoy features safe riding on erosion- and track-resistant trails, Raymond said. With about 2,400 ATVs sold daily nationwide, ATV riding could be a three-season complement to snowmobiling.

Councilors supported Raymond’s idea. They said they would issue a resolve favoring it at their next meeting.

“We need to demonstrate that we could be good trail stewards,” Chairman David Nelson said. “If we can do it in a multiuse format, that would be best. There will be less damage for the land if there’s only one trail.”

“We know what snowmobiling does and I totally agree that this could go on for 10 months out of the year,” Councilor Jimmy Busque said.

“There has been such a groundswell for just this type of program,” Councilor Wallace Paul said. “This is low-hanging fruit that we have left on the vine for too long.”

No summit date has been set. Raymond is working with the Chamber of Commerce to find a meeting place and time, he said Tuesday.

“We’re in one of the few areas left out of the whole deal. If we don’t do this, probably not much will happen around here for economic development,” he said.

Hatfield-McCoy Trails

WHAT: A 500-mile ATV, hiking, motorbike, horse, mountain bike system

WHERE: Eight West Virginia counties

WHEN: Year-round

WHO: 250-plus private landowners, state officials, recreation advocates

HOW MUCH: More than $500,000 in state revenues, millions more in tourism dollars

FOR MORE INFORMATION: Visit www.trailsheaven.com

SOURCE: John Raymond and trailsheaven.com