In 1970 the Town of Gray received a
donation of 70 acres of land from the Dow Family to be used for park and recreation
activities. This property is
located on top of the ridge behind the Gray Middle and High Schools.
This land has had a number of old logging roads that were used for a
variety of activities by a wide range of citizens in Gray.
In August of 1999 the Gray Parks and Recreation department decided to
start an ad hoc committee to make a more formal trail system on the property.
The initial committee started out with a half dozen Gray residents who
were interested in finally developing the recreational area.
By January 2000 the committee had grown to over two dozen interested
members and an outline for how the property should be developed was presented to
the town council. The council
approved the project and encouraged the committee to “think big” and try and
make a first class recreation area. In February of 2000, the committee obtained a grant from the
Maine Forest Service, which has funded nearly 100% of the project.
In June of 2000, a trail designer was hired to make the trail system
blend optimally with the contours of the property.
Every Thursday evening during the summer volunteers showed to help clear
the initial brush from the newly marked trails.
A formal forest management plan was created and implemented in the fall
of 2000. Volunteers continued to
work their way up the hill that sometimes seemed much higher than its 469 feet
of elevation! Excavation began in
November for 6 weeks removing
stumps and leveling out depressions in the trails.
Between December 2000 and February 2001 the signage and mapping of the
trails were finished with the efforts of nearly 100 volunteers and over 2000
hours of volunteer time.
In 2004, an additional 46 acres were donated from the family of Harold Libbey and a new trail was created and a memorial was erected in his honor.
We are now happy to present the Libby
Hill Forest Trails to the citizens of Gray!
The trail system consists of nearly 6 miles of non-motorized trails. Trails are marked with
which type of usage is allowed (see map) and we ask that trail users respect
each other and obey the trail designations.
The trails also traverse the school property and
Hancock
Land Management Company property.
We also ask that all trail users respect the private land owners
properties and stay on the marked trails.