FORILLON NATIONAL PARK, Quebec — Atop a wooden observation tower high above the Gaspe Peninsula with mountains and ocean spilling off in every direction, Dick Anderson was ecstatic. He pumped his fist in the air as he looked to the east where the Appalachian Mountains come to an abrupt end at Cap Gaspe with gray cliffs plunging into the Gulf of St. Lawrence. “Isn’t this great?” he said over and over Friday as he looked out over the green, tree-covered mountains that fill the western horizon and then stretch more than 3,000 miles to Maine, and, ultimately, Alabama.
Ten years ago, Anderson, a former commissioner of the Maine Department of Conservation, had a dream of a trail traversing these mountains and connecting with the venerable Appalachian Trail, the footpath that links the southern Appalachians from Springer Mountain, Ga., to Mount Katahdin. The International Appalachian Trail, which would wend its way through Maine, New Brunswick and Quebec, also would link the United States and Canada. [Note: Map is linked to the IAT home page.]
Anderson, 64, who retired last week as an executive with the Portland public relations firm of Barton & Gingold, wiped tears from his eyes Friday as he read a sign on the observation tower that crystallized his vision. The placard told of the Appalachian Mountains stretching from Alabama to Forillon National Park on the Gaspe Peninsula in Quebec. It showed a map with no national or state boundaries.
“I can’t read it without crying,” he said, stepping away from the sign. “It’s so beautiful.”
His dream took another step toward reality Saturday when the northern terminus of the International Appalachian Trail was dedicated at Cap Gaspe in a ceremony attended by government officials from Quebec and New Brunswick and trail representatives from as far away as Georgia. On a windswept bluff next to a lighthouse, the officials talked of the trail’s ability to unite the two countries and stimulate tourism in both. “Just a few years ago, the International Appalachian Trail seemed like an impossible dream,” said Laurent Tremblay, a representative of Quebec’s secretary of parks. Now, it “transcends human and political borders,” he said. Gov. Angus King sent along a proclamation declaring June 5, which is National Trails Day in the United States and Canada, as International Appalachian Trail Day in Maine, which Anderson read to the crowd on the windy hilltop just above the IAT/SIA’s official beginning at the water’s edge. A plaque depicting a woman hiker was unveiled. It was modeled after a similar plaque at the start of the AT in Georgia. After the ceremony, two hikers set off on the trail hoping to become the first people to hike the IAT/SIA and AT from north to south. Two years ago, the first person completed a trek from Key West, Fla., to Cap Gaspe. “Is that where I’m starting?” Glenn Figard of Allentown, Pa., asked in disbelief as he looked at the cliffs of Cap Gaspe rising above the crashing waves. “I have to keep pinching myself to make sure this is real,” said the 66-year-old retired Mack Truck employee, who saved cans and did odd jobs for years to save up money for a trek he said he’s dreamed of since high school. He was joined at the start of the trail by Scott Galloway, 27, of Wyoming, Mich. They expect their journey to take about seven months. Despite this weekend’s enthusiasm, however, there isn’t much of a trail in Maine. Only a couple dozen miles of trail, mainly around Mars Hill, are complete. For the rest of the journey through Maine, hikers must walk on existing roads and an abandoned railroad bed. Landowners in Maine — timber companies and Baxter State Park — are reluctant to accept the new trail. “We’re hesitant about the trail crossing our land,” said David Carlisle, president of Prentiss and Carlisle in Bangor, which manages parcels east of Baxter State Park that Anderson would like the IAT/SIA to cross. “We had an experience with the Appalachian Trail that wasn’t very good.” In that case, the National Park Service, which was charged 20 years ago with protecting the AT, negotiated with Prentiss and Carlisle to buy some of their land to create a corridor around the trail. Unable to agree on a price for one parcel, the parties went to court and the park service ultimately took some of the land by eminent domain. In addition to his company’s own experience with the AT, Carlisle said the prolonged battle between the park service and the owners of Saddleback Ski Area in western Maine, which has gotten quite a bit of media coverage of late, is not helping the International Appalachian Trail in its talks with private landowners. Joel Swanton, a forester with Champion International, another company whose land the IAT/SIA hopes to cross, said the Saddleback situation is among “some of the things we’re looking at” in determining whether to allow passage of the trail. Buzz Caverly, superintendent of Baxter State Park, home to the northern end of the Appalachian Trail atop Mount Katahdin, has made it clear he wants the IAT/SIA to go around the park, not through it. He said the trip up Katahdin should be a side trip, with the trail skirting the park boundary — and crossing more Prentiss and Carlisle land. Although a current map of the trail does show it going around Baxter, a written trail guide describes a possible route from the top of Katahdin through the northern part of the park. Despite landowner hesitation, Anderson persists in his dream, which was propelled into the international spotlight when Anderson prompted his former boss, Joe Brennan, to tout the trail in his unsuccessful 1996 campaign to reclaim the governorship. Because the New Brunswick, Quebec and Canadian governments have gotten behind the IAT/SIA project, hundreds of miles of trail in these provinces are completed. This prompts Anderson to conclude that there will be 2,200 miles of trail from Georgia to Katahdin and 550 miles from Bridgewater to Cap Gaspe. It’s the piece in the middle — about 100 miles — that’s problematic. “I’m very confident it will happen, but it could take awhile,” he said, noting that the Appalachian Trail has been in existence for 70 years and its land acquisitions aren’t yet complete. “In the next year, I’m not too optimistic. In 25 years, I’m optimistic.” As he hiked up a stretch of the trail near Cap Gaspe, his spirits brightened. He jubilantly pointed to a white and blue sign with the letters IAT/SIA (International Appalachian Trail-Sentier International des Appalaches) fastened to a tree. “There are 10,000 of these scattered between here and Mars Hill, and I don’t think someone is going to take them all down,” he said with a wry chuckle.
Map is compliments of the IAT/SIA Web site, located at
http://www.gorp.com/gorp/location/canada/can_iat.htm
