By Carey Kish
The Appalachian Mountain Club’s Maine Mountain Guide has been an indispensable resource for hikers since it first appeared in print way back in 1961. Twelve editions later, the venerable guide has expanded to a hefty 632 pages, which describe some 700 trails on 330 mountains ranging far and wide across the state from Aroostook to Acadia and Lovell to Lubec.
Hike everything in the current Maine Mountain Guide and you’ll have covered over 1,600 miles. Hike not only every main trail, side trail and spur trail but every mentioned distance, too, and you’ll have covered even more ground. Over the course of the guide’s 64-year history, no person is known to have accomplished this feat. Until last summer, that is.
Amy Niemczura-Sowa is a stalwart hiker from Unity, Maine. In July 2024, Sowa hiked a 2.7-mile segment of the Mahoosuc Trail—a mentioned distance that was, ostensibly, in New Hampshire—and in so doing became the first person ever to complete the entire Maine Mountain Guide. Sowa’s remarkable achievement is truly one for the hiking record books.
“I’d never hiked a guidebook. There were a lot of logistics involved. Like where to go and when, weather considerations, reservations for Baxter and Acadia. A high-clearance vehicle would have been nice, but I didn’t own one,” noted Sowa. “It helped that I’m a compulsive list maker. I focused on the end game for each section, piecing it all together, what I’d done with what remained to do. It was quite a project.”
Hiking the entire Maine Mountain Guide was a five-year obsession for the indomitable Sowa. So serious was her dedication that she took an entire year off from work to finally complete the task. During that period, the new 12th edition of the guide was published, adding more than 90 trails on 30 additional mountains to Sowa’s checklist.
Undaunted, Sowa traveled hither and yon over the Maine landscape with tireless aplomb, delving into the deep wilderness of Baxter State Park to reach wild places like Davis Pond and Russell Pond. And there were multiple trips into the 100-Mile Wilderness to tag trails and summits in the rugged terrain of the Nahmakanta Public Lands.
Winter proved to be little hindrance to Sowa. She hiked the Bethel-area trails, and ferried to Isle au Haut to knock off the Acadia National Park trails there. She even climbed Barren Mountain in Elliotsville just to capture the 250-foot spur to Barren Slide, which on a previous visit, had been closed to protect nesting peregrine falcons.
Late in the game came the Pamola Caves at 3,100 feet on Pamola Peak in Baxter, a short spur path that required slithering and scrambling through narrow passages. “I thought this might be the end of my quest,” Sowa said. “But with much profanity I made it through, and knew right then that I’d finish the book. ‘Suspend your disbelief’ replaced ‘I can’t.”
Sowa has been hiking since she was a young girl thanks to her adventurous parents. It was on a trek through the 100-Mile Wilderness at age 15 where she really caught the bug, and over the years hiked more of the Appalachian Trail in Maine and other parts of New England. “That’s when I began to think there must be more,” Sowa admitted.
Sowa began innocently enough by hiking everything listed in the Maine Atlas and Gazetteer. Then, after completing her slim 5th edition of the MMG, Sowa obtained a copy of the guide’s bulky 11th edition, taught herself how to use Excel and created a spreadsheet to track her travels. Maine’s 4,000-footers, Little Spencer’s steep chimney, the paddle to hike Sally Mountain, Sunday River Whitecap, Mount Cutler; the journey continued through the pages of the 12th edition until Sowa literally ran out of guidebook.
“The Maine Mountain Guide held my feet to the fire, forced me to figure things out, helped me to get out there and see so much,” said Sowa. “But through it all, I also learned that even though I’ve hiked the whole book, I still haven’t seen it all. I’m filled with more awe for Maine than ever. So the obsession continues.”
Adventures like Sowa’s are life-changing. They leave an imprint, for sure. You discover things about yourself. Way out there on Maine’s remote trails and roads, “it’s okay to have doubts. But you work through them,” said Sowa. “You keep moving forward. You learn it’s okay to turn back. Because you know you’ll be back. Sometimes it’s just not your moment, and I gave myself permission to listen to my myself and my body. I made peace with every hike out there.“
Carey Kish of Mount Desert Island, ME is a freelance writer, Triple Crown hiker, author of Beer Hiking New England and AMC’s Best Day Hikes Along the Maine Coast, and editor of the AMC Maine Mountain Guide.
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