A well-known hiking trail in southeastern New Brunswick is celebrating its golden anniversary Saturday with the unveiling of a monument dedicated to the man who built it.

Dr. Art Dobson built the Dobson Trail 50 years ago with the help of boy scouts and other volunteers.

The trail stretches 58 kilometres through rolling hills and stunning scenery from Riverview, through the Albert County Caledonia Highlands, to the eastern boundary of Fundy National Park.

Rodney Steeves uses the trail every day and sometimes thinks about what it must have been like for Dobson when he started to clear the land back in the 1950s.

"When he started this and his vision — this was just a patch of woods, miles and miles," Steeves said. "And he decided he would like to have a place to hike and this was his ambition and dream, and here we are 50 years later, and this is the result."

The Dobson Hiking Trail Association decided to honour Dobson with a monument at the beginning of the trail, said Steeves, who is the association's president.

The monument is a plaque on a stone from the old Gunningsville Bridge across the Petitcodiac River.

Dobson, who is now in his 80s and still hikes the trail, was expected to attend the ceremony.

Dobson Trail is the longest trail in Eastern Canada maintained by volunteers, Steeves said. It takes about three days to hike and is open year-round.