PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • September 21, 2022
In Maine, where 90 percent of the land is privately owned, there’s a long tradition of property owners allowing hikers and hunters on their land. That public access is what led 54-year-old Romona Gowens, of Calhoun, Georgia, to the Prouts Neck Cliff Walk on Monday morning. She fell 30 feet to her death after a fence she was leaning on broke. The 2-mile trail where Gowens was walking runs across private property, but has been used by the public for decades. It is posted with notices about the dangers walkers could face and their own assumption of risk as they traverse the trail. When people are coming onto land for recreational and harvesting reasons, state law does away with some of the liability.