Originally Posted by
weary
ME
Baxter SP
Bigelow Preserve
Grafton Notch SP
White Mountain NF
This list has major omissions and the trail in Maine does not go through the White Mountain National Forest.
The major omissions include:
Mahoosuc Preserve, Four Ponds Preserve and Nahmakanta Preserve. Mahoosuc runs from the New Hampshire border to the East B Hill Road north of the multiple Baldpate summits. The relatively small Grafton Notch State Park divides the Mahoosuc Preserve, which totals around 40,000 acres.
Four Ponds is around 15,000 acres between Route 17 and Route 4 south of Saddleback. Nahmakanta is about 40,000 acres located south of Baxter State Park in the so called "100-mile-wilderness."
All three, along with Bigelow, were created in part out of the recovery of 400,000 acres of land that Maine reserved when it sold its public domain during the first half of the 19th century -- and then forgot what it had done. The scattered acres were treated as private lands for more than a century.
Out of court settlements and eventually a Maine Supreme Court decision resulted in the swapping of scattered 1,000+ acre parcels for larger parcels of equal value and more suited for public recreation and state forest management.
There are a number of smaller state preserves through which the trail runs. I don't have a complete list.
Weary
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