A $260,000 grant is bringing 3.5 miles of new mountain bike trails to northern Maine’s Peavey Brook Outdoor Center, expanding the remote town of Patten’s trail network to as much as 10 miles and positioning this timber town-turned-outdoor-recreation hub as the next destination in the state’s growing mountain bike scene.
The expansion at Peavey Brook Outdoor Center (PBOC) will add to the existing five miles of trail on the property. PBOC was created by the Elliotsville Foundation, Inc. (EFI) and is co-managed by the Outdoor Sport Institute (OSI) and Mt. Chase Lodge.
Patten sits 40 miles northeast of Millinocket at the northern entrance to Baxter State Park. While Millinocket has seen increasing popularity as a regional riding destination in the Katahdin Area Trails network—popularity that will only grow with new trails coming to Hammond Ridge—Patten is carving out its own identity in Maine’s trail landscape.
To learn more about this project and its impact on the local community, Singletracks spoke with Steve Kasacek, the Director of Trail Development at OSI; Dan Rogan, OSI’s Katahdin Region Coordinator; and Lindsay Downing, co-owner of Mt. Chase Lodge.
Despite its small size, Patten is primed for outdoor recreation
Patten is a town of just over 800 people. Downing described the area as a very remote wilderness. “There’s a much slower way of life up here. It’s quiet. You know your neighbors and take care of them.”
Like Millinocket, Patten was heavily dependent on the timber industry before it declined in the early 2000s. Since then, the town has embraced outdoor recreation. In addition to the state park, the Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument, created in 2016 and encompassing 13 parcels of land donated by the EFI, has helped draw tourists to the area.
Mt. Chase Lodge, which has long been a base camp for outdoor recreation, was the site of Patten’s first MTB trails
Mt. Chase Lodge was established in 1960. It was originally a sporting camp for hunters and fishermen visiting the area. Downing, whose parents ran the lodge, grew up in it, often sitting around the dinner table in the evenings chatting with guests.
She left Maine for college, then took outdoor industry jobs in California and Alaska before she and her husband returned to Maine and purchased the lodge in 2016. In her previous roles, she had seen how people would pay for wilderness experiences and how trails were an important part of those experiences.
When she and her husband Mike purchased the lodge, there were no trails on the property. The only nearby trail was a very rough one located across the lake from the lodge. In their second year of operation, Downing and her husband gathered a group of local volunteers and cut a one-mile ski trail that looped around the property. Downing admits their first trail-building effort was rough, but it got people on the property.
In 2019, a local in Patten contacted Downing to inform her about a $50,000 grant available to build trails. Downing applied for it and was awarded the money in June of 2020. She was then connected with Mike Smith, the Executive Director of OSI, who put her in touch with Kasacek. Downing hired him to survey the lodge property and make a concept plan for trails.
Once that was complete, OSI helped smooth the ski loop the lodge built and add a green flow trail and a hand-built XC trail. That brought the lodge’s total trail mileage up to three miles.
In addition to the lodge’s trails, OSI helped create the Peavey Brook trail system
Starting in 2022, OSI partnered with IMBA and EFI to create a concept plan for a trail system on 300 acres of land owned by the Elliotsville Foundation — the Peavey Brook Outdoor Center (PBOC).
PBOC will be co-managed by OSI and Mt. Chase Lodge. The trailhead facility includes rental gear, restrooms and showers, a downstairs area set up for mountain biking with bikes and equipment for visitors to use, and a small shop for bike maintenance. The facility opened in summer 2025, though riders haven’t yet had a chance to use it. In addition, they are still working on signage and trail names.
Five miles of trails currently wind through the property, ranging from green XC loops to green and blue climbing trails that access a gravity hub at the top. The descents offer about 200ft of vertical drop, also on green and blue trails.
The $260,000 in grant funding will be used to build additional green and blue XC loops and another blue downhill trail, bringing the total trail network to 8-10 miles. Construction is expected to begin in 2026, with completion targeted for 2028.
Rogan told Singletracks that he has already seen the site benefiting the local community. “School groups are starting to use the site for educational purposes, getting area kids outdoors.”
Downing is particularly excited about what the Peavey Brook trail system means for local youth, saying, “It gives so many outdoor opportunities, especially for kids. That’s so important because it gives them an appreciation for the outdoors and ownership of it.”
Though nothing is concrete, it’s possible that trails could one day connect PBOC to Mt. Chase Lodge and to downtown Patten
Trails aren’t the only new project in Patten. Downing told Singletracks that Patten is about to start construction on a new library and community center. Downing is hopeful that it will one day connect downtown trails to the ones at PBOC and Mt. Chase Lodge.
“Hammond Ridge set a really great model for us,” said Downing. “My hope is that 10 years from now, we’ll have a great network of non-motorized trails that are interconnected, opening the door for a whole new group of outdoor recreation seekers.”
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