Eastern Trail’s Off-Road Segments

The Eastern Trail stretches from South Portland to Kittery, and is a great excuse to get your bicycle chain oiled and tires inflated. While some of the 65 miles follow roads, the almost 22 miles of off-road sections are flat, easy, and well-maintained. They are either gravel or paved.

The trail passes through Kittery, Eliot, South Berwick, Wells, Kennebunk, Arundel, Biddeford, Saco, Old Orchard Beach, Scarborough, and South Portland. (Parts of the trail in Scarborough are groomed occasionally for cross-country skiing.)

The section of the trail that crosses the Scarborough Marsh is beautiful, and quite popular, and also great for bird watching. The portions between Kennebunk and Saco are bucolic and peaceful. A new section of the trail, which opened August, 6, 2026, creates about 7.4 continuous miles of off-road trail from Bug Light in South Portland to Scarborough. The other off-road sections are 8.4 miles (between Scarborough and Saco) and 6.1 miles (between Biddeford and Kennebunk).

Here’s a local map with trail distances, and here’s another map of the entire East Coast Greenway, if you get inspired to keep going!

Clark Preserve: I have also included on my map, marked in red, the paths on the 90-acre Clark Preserve in Kennebunk, close to the southern end of the Eastern Trail in my map. The best place to access Clark is near the end of Emmons Road, where there are two spots in front of a gate. Walk the straight, wide path to the Eastern Trail and directly across from you will be the start of the red trail (Emmons Road Trail), which connects to the green Center Trail (blazes colored accordingly). This semi-circle trail is about 0.6 miles (and can be noisy from the adjacent highway). The preserve also has a River Trail, blazed in blue, about 0.2 miles farther east down the Eastern Trail, which brings you to a bench overlooking a graceful bend in the Kennebunk River. The blue trail is roughly 0.35 miles from Eastern Trail to bench, and you can also make a little loop on your way back on the River Trail Extension. (In the future, the Kennebunk Land Trust means to connect the green and blue trails.)

Directions: You can pick up the trail anytime it crosses a road. But there are biggish lots at the Wainwright Sports Complex and Bug Light Park in South Portland, and on Eastern Road (off Black Point Road) in Scarborough. Also there’s a small parking lot on Pine Point Road. You can also park at Thornton Academy and Kennebunk Elementary School.