Les Heilakka
Hiker, trail researcher and community volunteer, and the person behind Lost Trails and Paths of Acadia.
Les Heilakka has walked, recorded and researched the forgotten paths of Mount Desert Island since 1994. An avid hiker, he carries a handheld GPS on every outing, logging old roads, cellar holes, quarry tracks and faded village-society trails. He matches them against the 1942 USGS map, period path guides, deeds and newspaper archives. He first shared the work online as GPS Acadia. It has grown into Lost Trails and Paths of Acadia, a field atlas, research library and companion book. Much of the field work was done with David Goodrich, his hiking partner for two decades, and the rest of the Lost Trails crew.
Les is a member of the Mount Desert Island Historical Society, the Southwest Harbor Historical Society, Friends of Acadia, and Woodlawn Museum, Gardens & Park in Ellsworth.
He splits his time between Delray Beach, Florida, and Southwest Harbor, Maine, where he serves as Vice Chair of the town’s Sustainability Committee. There he organizes its solid-waste and environmental-vulnerability workgroups. He also writes an independent weekly civic and environmental briefing and keeps a public website on local resilience. In both his trail research and his civic work, he aims to turn scattered records into clear, sourced information anyone can use.
Off the trail he is a keen croquet player and serves as Co-Chair of Croquet at the St. Andrews Club in Delray Beach. He is also a gardener, a photographer and a backyard bird watcher.
Get in touch
Corrections, questions and memories of old paths are welcome at info@losttrailsofacadia.com. To see how the trails were found and mapped, read About this site.