State Parks

Camden Harbor (2001)

and other public outdoor recreational areas State Parks Allagash Wilderness Waterway (Aroostook County). A canoe camper’s paradise. This 92-mile corridor of lakes and river is surrounded by a vast commercial forest. If you plan to canoe the Allagash, contact the Maine Bureau of Parks and Lands. Aroostook State Park (Presque Isle). On Echo Lake. Swimming,…

Outdoor Recreation

Rafting near The Forks (2004)

in Maine is a matter of picking the freely available natural resources: streams and lakes for canoeing, nature preserves and mountains for hiking, rivers for rafting on the Penobscot River’s West Branch and the Magalloway River, forests and parks for camping, among the many non-motorized options. Not to mention hunting and fishing opportunities. The Appalachian…

Canoe Trips

Canoe trips can range from several days in the Allagash Wilderness Waterway or on the Androscoggin, Kennebec, or Penobscot Rivers, to pleasant day trips often close to home. Here are few samples of accessible canoeing in Maine. (Click the film strips.) Also visit our partners in Maine Rivers and Ridge for more canoe trips and…

Katahdin, Mount

A "Lake" of Fog under Katahdin (August 2014)

It was like sitting in a chimney and waiting for the smoke to blow away. It was, in fact, a cloud-factory,– these were the cloud-works, and the wind turned them off done from the cool, bare rocks. [Thoreau] Washington Irving described the Kaatskill Mountains as “a dismembered branch of the great Appalachian family…swelling up to…

T3 R10 WELS

      APPALACHIAN TRAIL – ABOL BRIDGE TO DAICEY POND Abol Bridge is located on the Golden Road over the West Branch of the Penobscot River in township T2 R10 WELS. A private campground and general store sits just outside the boundaries of Baxter State Park and is a major destination for those hiking to…

T2 R10 WELS

Nesowadnehunk Falls on the Penobscot West Branch (2018)

Nesowadnehunk Falls on the Penobscot West Branch (2018)     Three Routes This township, officially known as T2 R10 WELS, is the crossroad of two major “highways” in Maine: The Golden Road and the Appalachian Trail. Both travel the Abol Bridge over the West Branch of the Penobscot River. The Golden Road From east of…

T1 R11 WELS

Detail of 1952 Jo-Mary Mountain, Quadrangle Topographic Map

The township is completely within a tract of Maine Public Reserve Land and lies immediately south of Rainbow Township, host to the next northerly section of the Appalachian Trail. Traveling south, hikers encounter Nesuntabunt Mountain and Nahmakanta Lake that reaches back into Rainbow Township. According to a 1960 survey, Nahmakanta (Abenaki for “plenty of fish”)…

T1 R10 WELS

1952/1949 Topographic Map of T1 R10 WELS

The township is immediately adjacent to T1 R11 WELS, host to the next northerly section of the AT. Traveling south, hikers continue along the southern shore of Nahmakanta Stream and Pemadumcook Lake. The trail then turns south, skirting the eastern edge of steepest portion of Potaywadjo Ridge to the shore of Lower Jo-Mary Lake.  The…

TA R10 WELS

Area of TA R10 Township as represented in the 1952 Topographic Map.

                  Area of TA R10 Township as represented in the 1952 Topographic Map. This township is immediately adjacent to T1 R11 WELS, host to the next northerly section of the AT. The trail generally tracks east-west, except for a short northwest-southeast section between Mud Pond and Lower…

TA R11 WELS

View from Little Boardman Mountain

View from Little Boardman Mountain (2007) The township is immediately west of TA R10 WELS, host to the next northerly section of the Appalachian Trail. Heading south, the AT follows Cooper Brook to Crawford Pond, the to the East Branch of the Pleasant River. Two AT shelters may be found in the township, one in…

TA R12 WELS

1952 TA R12 Topographic Map

The township is immediately adjacent to T1 R11 WELS, host to the next northerly section of the AT. The Appalachian Trail cuts briefly through the southeast corner of the township, also known as Shawtown. Shawtown is a very watery township, with four of the Roach Ponds and First, Second, Third, and Fourth West Branch Ponds.…

TB R11 WELS

A view from the ridges in TB R11 WELS 2007

          A view from the Appalachian Trail on ridges in TB R11 WELS (2007) This township, in Piscataquis County, is immediately southeast of TA R12 WELS, host to the next northerly section of the Appalachian Trail. The AT briefly (about two miles) passes through the northwest corner of the township as…

Gulf Hagas

Long view of Gulf Hagas with Forested Cliffs

Gulf Hagas and The Hermitage are both located in the Bowdoin College Grant East, T7 R10 NWP, an unorganized township east of Greenville and northwest of Brownville. The area is part of the Appalachian Trail corridor owned by the National Park Service. Approaches from each town are over a private logging road on which control…

T7 R9 NWP

Historic Topographic Map of T9 R9

This township is immediately south of the Bowdoin College Grant East, host to the next northerly section of the AT. The Trail (red dots on the maps) runs from East Chairback Pond, over Chairback Mountain, past West Chairback Pond to Third Mountain and Fourth Mountain in the western edge of the township. In the 1940’s…