Gabe Perkins is pursuing an ambitious vision for Bethel as a recreation mecca: connecting Greenwood’s Mt. Abram Ski Area and Bike Park to Newry’s Sunday River Resort through a roughly 13-mile corridor of year-round recreation that would run through the heart of Bethel Village.

The proposed route would incorporate North Road, the Bethel Regional Airport, Valentine Farm, Davis Park and other community landmarks, creating a recreational spine linking Greenwood, Newry and Bethel. Along the way, Perkins imagines additions — both practical and playful — perhaps a sledding hill, or even a snowmobile-powered shuttle to move visitors along the route in winter.

For Perkins, the concept is bigger than a trail.

“It’s a state of mind,” he said.

During a recent early morning tour of Bethel Community Forest, off North Road in Bethel, and sections of the developing Community Access Trail System, or CATS, Perkins described a future where visitors choose Bethel specifically because of its interconnected outdoor recreation network. 

“I am coming here for this. I am moving here for this,” he said, describing the reaction he hopes the trail system will inspire.

His vision extends beyond the existing patchwork of trails — what he affectionately calls a “hodgepodge and delightful potpourri” — to include sections of 6-foot-wide crushed stone pathway accessible to disabled users, including Nordic skiers and hikers traveling from Newry’s Maine Adaptive and elsewhere.

As the conversation turned to climate change, Bethel Select Board member Faye Christoforo asked how changing weather patterns might affect the project’s future.

Perkins pointed to the success of Bethel Village Trails, off Paradise Road, as evidence that stewardship matters as much as snowfall.

“It’s not just raking and riding,” he said. It’s building bigger culverts and clearing trails off-season, too.

That attention to infrastructure, he argues, allows trails to withstand increasingly volatile weather while remaining usable in all seasons.

The scale of the project becomes more apparent during a drive through the forestland owned or managed by Inland Woods + Trails. Surveying the landscape, Executive Director Perkins emphasized just how much territory is involved.

Referring to the massive 2,358-acre Bingham Forest property, Perkins said, “Sunday River fits into its footprint.”

The roots of the project stretch back decades. Looking over at Christoforo — whose board recently recruited a team to develop a new comprehensive plan for Bethel — Perkins noted that the idea to connect Mt. Abram to Sunday River first surfaced during a different comprehensive planning effort in the 1990s.

Part of today’s trail network grew from the town’s Bingham Forest water district property, with its origins tracing back to a natural disaster, Perkins said.

“We would not exist if not for a flood and microburst in 2007,” he said.

The storm damaged large sections of forest, creating opportunities for timber harvesting and trail development. Today, timber revenue helps pay taxes to landowner Newry and supports trail construction.

As the day unfolds and bikers unload in the parking lot of the community forest, Perkins notes that the bike trails Inland Woods + Trails has created fill a gap. They are family friendly and serve the 99% who want something not too technical.

Still, funding remains a challenge.

About $185,000 sits in the bank, Perkins said, but it is not enough to fully realize the vision. Municipal support and federal grant funding could accelerate progress dramatically.

“We believe this is a national story worthy of a real investment. If we had $4 million, we would hire 30 people for three years and build it. Crank it out. Let’s go.”

In the meantime, optimism is visible along the pin-flagged corridors marking future trails.

Despite the challenges, he enjoys partnering with what he calls “the big wheel of bureaucracy,” including towns, states and land trusts in both Bethel and Rumford, where he partnered with other agencies to create an all-access community trail system in 2025.

The organization has learned from its setbacks. Perkins said Inland Woods + Trails no longer tries to be a programming organization, instead encouraging others to host events on CATS properties. Along the way, a truck body used as a bridge sank into Kendall Brook, and a proposed Vernon Street sidewalk connection was shelved before Perkins arrived — a missed opportunity he still regrets.

As the tour ends, Perkins drives downhill to an area out of view from the Bethel Community Forest parking lot. He points out two side projects: a Christmas tree farm and a small apple orchard where the organization hopes to host a future cider jam. He also highlights preview strips — narrow views through the trees of Bethel Village and Gould Academy.

A little farther down the hill is an opening where Gilead’s snowmobile trail meets Inland Woods + Trails’ 65-mile multiuse trail plan. Nearby are a half-acre field and a cleared area.

“Amazing,” says Christoforo when the clearing comes into view.

Perkins explains that a future 6,500-square-foot trail center, nestled into the hillside, and a nearby campground will serve trail users. The project is temporarily stalled as Inland Woods + Trails seeks funding for the drawings needed to present the proposal to the Bethel Planning Board.

While the undertaking is in its infancy, Perkins remains undeterred. He said he is looking 10 years into the future for the project’s full realization.

“We haven’t even started yet,” he said. “This is the long view.”