About Us

We at Maine Hikes are committed to maintaining trail quality and growing hiking across the state. After many miles on the trails, we’ve began to notice that many land trusts, private landowners, and other conservation non-profits make our favorite hikes possible. They play a pivotal role in conservation and allow access to beautiful coastal, forest, marsh, and mountain trails around the state. Although hiking in these locations is generally free, creating and maintaining trails is challenging work.

Maine Hikes’ purpose is twofold:

1) to give back to these organizations through proceeds from our art of iconic Maine trails and landmarks (part of every sale goes back to local land trust of your choice).

2) to inspire more people to get outside and on the trail - via fun articles featuring hikes across the state and our social media channels

Who We Are

Co-owners of Maine Hikes and frequently trailbound Mainers, Ashley Mehl and Nick Staples (pictured below)

Want to partner up? Have a question about hiking in Maine? Reach out to us at contact@mainehikes.org or get in touch here!

Maine Hikes’ four Guiding principles:

  1. Leave No Trace Plus. Inspired by the seven principles of LNT, we have added an an explicit 8th principle. Always pick up one piece of trash on a hike. Our goal is to leave the trail a little cleaner than we found it via small yet impactful actions. We also believe it’s our duty to practice, educate, instill the LNT+ practices to as wide a reach as possible.

  2. Giving Back. Land trusts, state parks, national parks, municipalities, private landowners, and many others each play an integral role in creating and stewarding our wonderful hiking network across Maine. Giving back our time, dollars, and labor to help is core to our organization.

  3. Boosting Small Town Economies. Many of the best hikes across Maine are in small towns that heavily depend on tourism. Our goal is to drive Mainers and visitors to explore these places while supporting local businesses.

  4. Mental Health. Time on the trail takes you away from the sometimes overwhelming and petty things of life. Grounding ourselves with a sense of awe and appreciation of our state’s natural beauty is like medicine for the soul, and we believe each hike makes the world a better place.