Maine Island Trail Association

Sunday’s Warren Island Dock & Dine was just outrageous. Perfect weather, mind-blowing food, and a setting worthy of the trip to get there. We give a major shoutout to , who graciously volunteered their time in catering this special fundraiser for us. They were out on the island the night before while getting ready for us, and in true MITA fashion camped out!

Thanks also to and for their donation of beverages for the event!

If you weren’t able to join us, then we hope you’ll be able to come out next year. It was special in every way, and we want you to be a part of it.

Go to mita.org/newsletters to check out the digital version of our latest edition of The Island Trail! This summer’s newsletter features stories about:

🔹 January’s devastating storms and MITA’s role in recovery along the Trail

🔹 The MITA Milers marathon team!

🔹 A new Maine Island Trail site in the Western Rivers region

🔹 An 1,800-mile journey by canoe that traced ancient routes and touched the Maine Island Trail

🔹 How Oar Island became a site on the Trail

🔹 MITA’s newest collaboration, Maine Island Trail Blend coffee

🔹 Our impactful work with

🔹 A magical evening on Little Diamond Island with

All photos by MITA staff except #3 (Mark Jones for ) and #4 (Freddie Wilkinson).

It’s late July. Time to go ashore and make camp somewhere on the Maine Island Trail.

Warren Island State Park. Sunday, August 11, 12-3pm. Us, and the James Beard Award-winning crew from . There’s never been a MITA gathering quite like this one. Link in bio.

New. Blue. Jellyfish. Woo.

Two drops, link in bio!

What a special evening we had last night on Little Diamond Island as the featured non-profit for June’s event. Thank you so much to everyone who turned out for it. We made so many new friends. See you on an island sometime soon!

This month, we are partnering with the incredible folks at on four different work days in the Downeast region. And guess what… we need more volunteers!

Check the link in our bio or go to mita.org/volunteer to sign up. Rozalia Project does some really important work that not only leaves the islands cleaner, but provides data that is used in addressing the plastics crisis further upstream. Even cooler, their operations are conducted from their sailing research vessel American Promise. Learn more about them at rozaliaproject.org, or sign up to be a part of our work with them this month. We need your help!

Spring Cleanup #1 (Casco Bay) is in the books. Taking some satisfaction from trash-filled boats 🙌🏻

Want to be a part of what we do? Go find an event at mita.org/volunteer and come join us!

UPF 50+ sun protection ✔️☀️

Want one? Snag one! Link in bio.

We’re a week away from Splash! Are you coming?!

Ridiculously good food and drink, live music, and a silent auction are all highlights of MITA’s largest annual fundraising event. All going down at East Coast Yacht Sales in Yarmouth on Thursday, May 16 from 6-9pm.

Oh, and a freakin’ ton of oysters will be shucked. Can’t beat it. Link in bio or mita.org/splash for tix!

Thanks so much to our Splash! sponsors: Spinnaker Trust .insurance.1931 Johnson & Jordan Springtide Studio

The 2024 Maine Island Trail Guide has been printed, and it’ll be hitting mailboxes VERY soon!

This year’s edition has 372 pages that are bursting with information for exploring the 220 sites and 233 resources of the Maine Island Trail. Use it to plan the best summer of your life! ☀️🌊

Want one? Well, then join MITA! Full ($55) and Sustaining ($75) level memberships include the option to receive a copy of the Guide, and you can sign up at mita.org/join (link in bio). See you on the Trail.

Ticket link in bio: Join us for an incredible presentation that we will host at MITA HQ in Portland (100 Kensington St, 2nd floor) on Thursday, April 18 from 6-8pm: “Racing to Alaska: How the Maine Island Trail Led Us to Ketchikan” with Leigh Dorsey and Dameon Colbry.

The Race to Alaska () is a 750-mile unsupported, motorless boat race from Port Townsend, Washington to Ketchikan, Alaska. In 2019, Leigh Dorsey and Dameon Colbry completed the race in a bright yellow rowboat named Mursu. Since then, they have each, separately, completed the race by rowboat a second time. They credit the Maine Island Trail with preparing them for the many challenges of traveling long distances by rowboat, having completed an unsupported thru-row of the Trail in 2018, along with many shorter escapes to their favorite wild islands. Join them as they share their Race to Alaska highlights, tips, and photos.

Tickets are $10, and we will be serving refreshments from our good friends at . We expect tickets to sell out, so don’t delay! Please email us if you have any questions, and we’ll see you on April 18th.

Photo: Drew Malcolm

Before heading over to Maine Oyster Company at 5pm for Islands & Oysters, get your MITA day started tomorrow (Thursday, March 7) with a Lunch & Learn webinar with Friends of Casco Bay from 12-1pm on Zoom! Link in bio to register.

Sara Freshley, Friends of Casco Bay’s community organizer and volunteer coordinator, will discuss the organization’s mission to improve and protect the environmental health of Casco Bay. Importantly, she’ll cover how you as a MITA member might be able to help them with this mission as you explore the Maine Island Trail. See you online!

Do you love islands? Do you want to live on one this coming summer? Do you want to get paid for it? If you’ve said yes to all three… then we may have an opportunity for you!

MITA is seeking qualified candidates for a seasonal caretaker position on Little Chebeague Island in Casco Bay. The caretaker will be primarily responsible for monitoring recreational activity, providing stewardship services, and educating island visitors about Leave No Trace practices when camping.

If you’ve got some coastal boating experience (the boat in the photo is what you’d be getting around in!) and would be enthusiastic about interfacing with visitors and campers as an ambassador for Little Chebeague and MITA, then please follow the link in our bio to see the full job description, qualifications, and application instructions. We appreciate your interest, and good luck!

Alright guys, we’re doing the oyster thing again because we just love these little offseason get-togethers so much! This time we’ll be hanging out with our friends at , 38 Portland Street in Portland on Thursday, March 7 from 5-9pm.

They’ll be offering up oysters at a discounted $2 a shuck, and MITA staff will be on hand to talk all things Maine Island Trail, answer questions, and get you into some fresh MITA gear. If you haven’t joined MITA or renewed for 2024 yet, then you should definitely come on down and sign up at a discounted event rate!

We’re going to have a little Maine Island Trail / oyster-themed trivia game too, so come ready to learn a few things. We’ll be super stoked to see you!

Thanks to the support of the MITA community, we are proud to announce a donation of $8,500 to the Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association’s Working Waterfront Support Fund from our benefit tee proceeds!

We are absolutely floored over how you all showed up for this. We really hope you love the shirts, and we’re so excited to see them all up and down the coast of Maine for years to come.

If you’re still waiting on yours, don’t despair! We had a huge batch go out yesterday, and the third and final batch will be headed out the door next week at some point. Thank you so much for your patience!

Oh, and of course… once you get your shirt, take a pic and tag us 😊

You guys ready for some ✨lunch and learn✨ next week? Join us online next Friday, February 16 at noon for “Kelp Farming for People and Planet”, hosted by Liz MacDonald, seaweed supply director for Atlantic Sea Farms.

If you spend a lot of time on the Maine Island Trail, then you’re sure to witness kelp farming in action. Join us to learn all about it, straight from the source! Registration link in bio. See you there! 🤗

The response to these shirts to benefit has been absolutely incredible. Thank you all so, so much! Our first round of orders has been printed and shipped off, and round two is headed out the door late next week! 🙌🏻

We are still taking orders (link in bio) until NOON on Thursday, February 8. 100% of all proceeds will be donated to MCFA’s Working Waterfront Support Fund to aid in the recovery from January’s devastating coastal storms. We are so proud of our community for stepping up and supporting this.

The weather events that battered the Maine coast this past week have left many of our state’s waterfront communities in literal shambles.

The same ocean that we love so dearly rose up and took from us. Piers, wharves, businesses, iconic landmarks… on Wednesday and again today, we saw many of each ripped from their longstanding foundations and swallowed by the waves.

While MITA’s official address is in Portland, we have a presence in and a connection to nearly every coastal town in our state. We stand with them not only in a shared sense of loss, but in solidarity as the recovery effort begins.

We know that many islands on the Maine Island Trail have been affected by these storms and the tremendous amount of debris that has entered the sea. Hundreds of MITA volunteers will play a role, however large or small, in picking up the pieces when it’s time to begin our 2024 stewardship season in the spring. We hope you’ll join us when that time comes.

Until then, all of us on the coast will help in whatever ways we can. The water has receded, and now we begin to heal. Take care of yourselves, and we’ll see you on the Trail some warm, sunny July day when all is calm, beautiful, and well.

Winter has arrived on the Maine Island Trail!

While we love being in the boats and on the Trail more than anything, the colder months offer us some valuable time to dive into the “office work” that it takes to keep the Maine Island Trail alive and thriving.

Recently, we announced a whole slate of updates to our membership program (none of which include a price increase—memberships still start at $35!). You can read all about them by clicking the link in our bio. We’ve added benefits, renamed our tiers to be more clear and accessible, and at long last are offering online member accounts through which you can update your information and membership status. You can even set your membership to renew automatically each year!

Thank you all so much for the support as we work to make the MITA member experience better and better. It’s chilly out there now, but it’s never too early to start planning your fantastic coastal adventures for 2024! We’ll see you out there before too long.

It’s a little cold out to be camping on an island this weekend… so, we’ve got a few MITA Gear Shop updates for you this evening 😊

• Beanies are 25% off this month! Use code CHILLY25 at checkout!

• Free shipping on all orders over $75! Use code FREE75 at checkout. This code can be combined with other discounts! 🤗

• And finally, products from our amazing collaboration with are now LIVE at shop.mita.org.

Stay warm, everyone!

The latest edition of The Island Trail, MITA’s bi-annual newsletter, is now live on our website! Click the link in our bio to read all about the conservation story of Sheep Island, a family sailing cruise on the Maine Island Trail, a wrap of our first-ever Logbook Challenge, and the curious discovery of a floating artifact from yesteryear… 👀

Yep, it’s time for a MITA holiday flash sale! Get ANY MITA hat (beanie, classic, or trucker) and a MITA x MiiR water bottle (23 oz.) together for 25% off the regular price! Buy now at shop.mita.org, deal expires at noon on Friday, Dec. 15.

Thankful for the islands, and for all of the visitors and volunteers on the Maine Island Trail who do so much for them!

We’re going to get a bit of a head start on the Cyber Monday thing, if that’s alright with you… buy any item at the MITA Gear Shop (shop.mita.org, or link in bio) now through Monday, November 27 and get a FREE embroidered patch and sunglass strap! Just add the “Cyber Monday Combo” to your cart along with your other items, and you’ll score this sweet little deal!

100% of the proceeds from your purchase go towards supporting our mission, so THANK YOU ALL from the bottom of our salty, piney, Maine coastal hearts!

Trying to get ahead on gifts, but nothing is jumping out at you? Get them a MITA membership! Click the link in our bio and use code GIFT2024 to get 20% off any level of membership now through Monday, November 27!

While you’re at it… maybe get them something from the MITA Gear Shop at shop.mita.org! It’s a perfect pairing ☺️

Finishing in 🏆FIRST🏆 place in the 2023 Photo Contest, presented by Hamilton Marine, is Evan Kay with this photo taken at Little Hens! Evan’s photo will be published in the Winter 2024 edition of The Island Trail, our biannual print newsletter.

“My wife and I were on a circumnavigation of Vinalhaven when I took this photo. This was our second night of the trip, having stayed the night before on Ram Island where I had proposed by placing a floating message in a bottle at low tide, which she spotted after dinner. She said yes!

This was our first adventure to Vinalhaven and we lucked out with some amazing conditions and weather, including the epic sunset I captured in this photo. We felt like we were in a painting as the sky turned pink and the colors reflected off the water. I couldn’t help but capture a few stills before joining my fiancé on the rock. Since then it’s become our tradition to plan a trip at least once a year on the Maine Island Trail, exploring different areas and islands each time. Every time we get on the water we experience something new… and that’s why I love coming back year after year. The weather is always different—conditions, temps, etc. The feeling of adventure you experience on the Maine Island Trail is unparalleled, and that’s why I love it so much. It’s truly a magical experience.”

Congratulation, Evan! And thank you so much to all of the entrants who made the 2023 Photo Contest such a fun and beautiful success!

Finishing in second place in the 2023 Photo Contest, presented by Hamilton Marine, is Bryan Delaney with this photo taken at Weir Island.

“Even in foggy weather, Weir Island is a favorite landing point for stand-up paddleboarders and kayakers. I never shy away from an opportunity to photograph Maine in what some might consider bad weather. A foggy, rainy, or cloudy day is mother nature’s way of revealing the true beauty of the land and sea. The evergreen trees, sandpaper-like rocks, and ocean blue waters finally show their true colors. Thanks to Maine Island Trail Association, this picturesque island (one of my favorite coastal Maine landmarks) will continue to serve as a place of peace and silence for Mainers and those from away.”

Congratulations, Bryan!

Finishing in third place in the 2023 Photo Contest, presented by Hamilton Marine, is Brian Threlkeld with this photo taken at Hells Half Acre Island.

“This shot from Hells Half Acre wasn't planned, but rather an iteration while I searched for a nice composition with the setting sun. I wanted to capture the reflection in the tidal pool and have the sun create a star effect, so I hastily set my camera on a jacket in lieu of a tripod, stopped down my aperture to f/22, set a two-second shutter delay, and pushed the button.”

Congratulations, Brian!