The Northern Forest Canoe Trail (NFCT) celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2025, an occasion that is expected to be marked with dozens of community events throughout the Northeast.
The NFCT is an inland water trail tracing 740 miles of Indigenous and historic travel routes across New York, Vermont, Québec, New Hampshire and Maine. The canoe trail starts in Old Forge, NY, and ends in Fort Kent, Maine, traversing 23 rivers and streams, 59 lakes and ponds, 45 communities and towns, and more than 65 portages.
Established in 2000, the trail and the nonprofit responsible for stewarding and promoting it have grown significantly over the last 25 years.
“The NFCT was founded to be a destination for paddlers and an economic driver for communities along our route,” said Karrie Thomas, NFCT’s executive director. “In our early days we had our work cut out for us just to establish enough access points and campsites to allow people to paddle the route in its entirety. We have spent the past 25 years investing in infrastructure, navigational and inspirational materials and community connectivity.”
To mark 25 years, the NFCT will host its biggest slate of programs, events and activities to date.
Stewardship
Through a combination of staff, community partners and volunteers, the NFCT maintains and enhances infrastructure along all 740 miles of the canoe trail. This includes hundreds of access points, portage trails and campsites located on public and private lands.
The NFCT will perform stewardship work in all four states in 2025. In New York, the roving crew will tackle projects along the Brown’s Tract Carry in Inlet, the Lower Locks Carry in Saranac Lake, and on Lake Champlain’s Valcour Island.
In Vermont, the roving crew will take on maintenance of campsites and portage trails along the Missisquoi River, and across the border in New Hampshire, the NFCT will establish a first-of-its-kind accessible campsite on Umbagog Lake.
In Maine, the NFCT fields a second stewardship crew dedicated solely to projects on the Allagash Wilderness Waterway. This year’s work features campsite maintenance, privy installations and access point work on Chamberlain Lake. Crews will also perform critical maintenance of a portage trail that connects Haley Pond to the South Branch of the Dead River.
The NFCT invites folks to join the professional crews on Waterway Work Trips throughout the summer. To learn more, visit this website.
Races
The NFCT, in collaboration with community partners across the Northeast, will host a diverse array of community programming in 2025. This includes races, instructional courses and community paddles.
Five races are planned in three states this year. These races range from short, family-friendly challenges to multi-day stage races for more experienced paddlers. The lineup includes:
- ‘Round the Mountain Canoe & Kayak Race, May 10, Saranac Lake, NY
- Rangeley Oquossoc Adventure Rendezvous, June 21-22, Rangeley, Maine
- Missisquoi Paddle-Pedal, July 12, Richford, Vt.
- Adirondack Canoe Classic (90-Miler), Sept. 5-6, Adirondacks, NY
- Long Boat Regatta, Sept. 20, Long Lake, NY
Additionally, the NFCT will collaborate with paddesports manufacturer NRS as well as local partners and outfitters to host the Adirondack Paddling Symposium, the Youth Paddling Symposium, and Northern Forest Explorers and Teens to NFCT trips. Finally, NFCT volunteers and business partners will offer free community paddles across the entire canoe trail this summer; details for these trips will be provided later this spring.
For more information, including registration and sponsorship opportunities, is available here.
What started as an idea to inspire paddlers to explore the historic waterways and communities of the Northern Forest has grown to an institution that maintains and enhances environmentally-sustainable outdoor infrastructure, promotes accessibility in paddlesports, hosts races and community events and works to foster new generations of paddlers and outdoor enthusiasts.
For more information about the NFCT, visit northernforestcanoetrail.org
Read more stories about paddling in New York State.
Photo: Thru-paddlers Robert and Katrina Luff set out for a paddle on the Northern Forest Canoe Trail (provided by Katrina Luff).
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