Skowhegan Maine

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After a month in St Johnsbury Vermont, it’s time to move on. Next stop Maine. Specifically Skowhegan, about 152 miles east on US Route 2. The drive is pretty but also slow going with small towns and lots of curves and turns along the way. Our destination is the Skowhegan Elks Lodge. They have fairly recently put in 4 camping spots with 50 amp electric and water. They don’t have a dump station but we only plan on spending 5 nights before we move on to another campsite with sewer hookups. We arrive on a nice Monday afternoon and we had our choice of spots other than they were having some sort of outdoor event this upcoming weekend so they suggested which site we should take.

The next day, we decide to tour the downtown area of Skowhegan. The lodge is just 3/4 miles north of the city center so we just leave the car at the rig and walk down the hill. The town is fairly big with lots of traffic. It seems like every tenth vehicle is a logging truck heading to a mill somewhere.

Nice Mural in Town

One of the first attractions is a 62 foot tall Indian statue. Erected in 1969, it was dedicated to the Maine Indians in observance of the state’s 150th anniversary. Just across the street from the statue is a business called Maine Grains. They have a specialty restaurant as well as a small store selling all sorts of grains. The sign said to ask about tours of the mill, which we did. Unfortunately they were not going to have any tours during our time in the area.

Huge Statue

Grain Mill

There was one Adventure Lab in the downtown area that helped tour us around plus we had a few geocaches we wanted to look for. We head over to the east side of town to check out Coburn Park. This place has a nice view of the Kennebec River which runs through the heart of downtown.

Nice Pond in Park

Water Lily

Kennebec River

After the park, we head back into downtown with the intent of taking a pedestrian bridge over the river. The bridge looked to be in good condition but it had cones and caution tape up to prevent people going across. Instead we had to walk along the sidewalks across the river. It turns out that there is actually a small island with a few businesses, an hydroelectric plant and an ice cream stand we likely would have stopped at if they hadn’t already closed for the season.

Unusual Mermaid Statue

Dam at Power Plant in Skowhegan

It took a bit longer this way, but we made it to the other side of the pedestrian bridge and discover a work crew installing a new retaining wall at the entrance to this side of the bridge. There is another parking area that runs along the south side of the river. It had a few geocaches to look for so we headed down the trail for a ways.

Paved Trail on South Side of River

One of the more famous businesses in town is New Balance. Chris wanted to check out their store so we figured out how to get from there park along the river to the store. It was a bit confusing at first because the signs for the store pointed to a building that was definitely still under construction. But we eventually noticed the old brick schoolhouse that has been converted into the New Balance factory store until the other one is finished. We wandered around  it did not find any footwear to our liking.

Nearly Complete New Balance Store

It was late afternoon by now and we still had a hike back up the hill to the lodge and our motorhome. We wandered up some of the residential streets west of the main street just to get away from the heavy traffic noise. We ended up walking about 6 miles and saw a lot of Skowhegan.

Another Dam View in Downtown

The next day we headed out for a bike ride. We had found two potential options. One to the east of Skowhegan and another to the north. There wasn’t great info on either trail so we just picked one and headed out. Our starting point would be in the town of North Anson Maine to ride the Kennebec Valley Trail northeast to the town of Bingham. We weren’t sure how far we would actually get since that would work out to be nearly a 30 mile round trip. There is a large gravel parking lot next to the trail in town and a few people were parked there unloading their ATVs from trailers. It looks like this ride might be similar to some we did in New Hampshire where we get to share the trail with motorized vehicles. I knew there was a bridge a quarter mile to the south of the parking lot over a river. We detoured there first which gave the ATVers time time to leave.

Old Rail Bridge

Carrabassett River in North Anson

After checking out the view from the bridge, we turn back north and start our ride. It turned out to be a rather nice trail. It was in decent shape and generally went through wooded areas so it felt secluded even though a high school and cemetery are not far from the trail in North Anson. As we were approaching the one mile mark, I started to hear what initially sounded like a lawnmower being used fairly close to the trail but I couldn’t see any signs of a house or yard where one might be. As we continued the noise got increasingly louder until it was way noisier than any lawnmower. As we came out into a clearing where some high voltage power lines run, we saw the culprit. There was a small helicopter hovering right above one of the towers with a worker dangling from a rope!

Mill Stream

Dangling from Helicopter!

The tower was about 300 feet from the trail so we had a very good view of the action and stopped to take it in. There was also a second worker up there but he was not attached to the helicopter but instead was on an extension ladder hanging from one of the cross members. It was rather fascinating to watch - although very loud. I could see the pilot looking out of the helicopter and he was holding that thing perfectly steady. I guess if I had to hang from a helicopter, I would choose a really good pilot to be my teammate!

Power Line Workers

Steady Handed Pilot

I could have spent a long time watching them work but we had come out for a ride. As we continued north, the sound of the helicopter faded away and we had a nice quiet ride. We found the trail to generally stay in the woods and only occasionally crossed a minor road or came near a farmer’s field. We were not seeing a river along the trail but it is called the Kennebec Valley Trail not the Kennebec River Trail. We also were not running into any additional ATVers which was a pleasant surprise.

Nice Kennebec Valley Trail Through Woods

Memorial to a Person Named Rocky

Kennebec River View

At the 8 mile point, we did come to a the Kennebec River. There is a dam and hydroelectric power plant at a place called Caratunk Falls. The access road to the power plant brought us to a nice shaded spot with a view of the river which worked out as a good place for lunch. A bridge goes over the river and the trail continues north but now pretty much follows along the eastern side of the river.

Bridge Over Kennebec River Near Caratunk Falls

Looking Downstream

Looking Upstream

There were some geocaches hidden along the trail but we only searched for a few of them in order to get a decent bike ride in. Along this stretch of trail, we started to see some ATVs and motorcycles out but no other cyclists. I suspect that these trails are predominantly used by snowmobiles because there were plenty of signs stating this section of trail maintained by some snowmobiling club. At one point I notice something in the distance that seemed out of place. As I got a bit closer, it looked like a bear on a tree. But it wasn’t moving so we could approach safely and discovered someone had mounted what looked like stuffed animal bears climbing the tree.

Heading North Along River

Bear Area

At the 12.5 mile point, we saw orange construction fencing blocking the way north into Bingham. We went up the steep hill that was the detour simply to look for a night geocache. It hadn’t been found in nearly 2 years, and looking for a night cache in the daytime is often difficult. We were able to spot a few trees with the telltale “fire tacks” but never found ones that lead off the trail and into the woods to locate the final container.

Trail Closed

We decide that this should be our turnaround point which would give us a 25 mile bike ride by the time we made it back to the car. We continued to see ATVers and even got a chance to talk with one group that stopped for a break at a picnic table along the river we had stopped at for a snack. They gave us some info about the snowmobile trails in the area but it’s hard to get a good feel from someone that has fat tires and a gas engine to make it up hills if the trail isn’t generally flat like this one has been. We made it back to the car and found the power line crew had stopped working for the day. This was a nice bike ride.

Old Farmhouse Along Trail

The next day we head south of Skowhegan to the town of Hinckley. Our goal was the L.C. Bates Museum on the grounds of Good Will-Hinckley (GWH). The latter is a high school founded back in 1889 to help underprivileged children. It’s a beautiful campus and the museum is situated on the southern end of the property in an incredible old brick building.

Beautiful Home of L.C. Bates Museum in Hinckley

The museum has a small donation required to enter but it is well worth the few bucks. There are three floors to explore in what is mostly a natural history museum. There are several large rooms where each room is dedicated to one discipline. We start out in the Audubon room.

Entering Audubon Room

Northern Flickers

Assorted Bird Eggs

Like most of the other rooms, there is some ambient light coming in from a few windows but the artificial lighting is very minimal so it is a rather dark self guided tour. Taking decent photos was tough and there were some of the displays that had signs explaining what we were looking at but it was too dark to read them. Regardless, there were some very nice bird specimens scattered around the room.

Owl Swoops In

Osprey

Snowy Owl

The marine biology section was only a third the size of the bird room but there were some interesting displays.

Large Fish

Dangerous Looking

In the lower level was a room dedicated to vehicles and printing. There was a large collection of buggies and farm tools. Most were labeled but a few items had a sign “unknown object”. At least they were honest and I would have loved to be able to tell the museum workers I could identify some object but none of them were ones I recognized either.

Old Vehicles and Farm Equipment

Lichen Identification

The mineral gallery was also on the lower level and was the same size as the bird room above it. The number of labeled rocks and gems was astounding. We have visited quite a few places with rock collection over our years of travel but this one might have been the largest. Several cases contained many hundreds of rocks that were often much smaller than a golf ball in size. Not being up on my mineralogy, I could only be impressed by the quantity not the quality - however they were all labeled.

Tiny Rock Collection

The mammal gallery had an impressive collection of stuffed animals from very small to quite large. We ended up spending over an hour exploring the displays and walked away feeling like we had made a good choice in stopping here.

Moose

Rabbits

Musk Ox

Frightening Feline

It was lunchtime so we sat in the car to eat before we hit to the trails on the GWH campus. While we were sitting there, the students were moving from one building to another area of the campus. We suspect the cafeteria was where the many dozens of students were heading. Just behind the museum is a network of trails in the woods - about 3 miles worth. There were also about a dozen geocaches hidden along the trails which was what actually drew us to stopping here to begin with. The trails were in pretty decent shape but we were not having much luck finding the geocaches.

Trail in GWH Woods

Chris Finds a Pulpit

There were several sections of the woods that had signs identifying the plot as one that some previous forestry class had worked on. It wasn’t clear what lessons were being taught but the areas were left in a complete mess of slash. There are also some old outbuildings along the trails, far away from the main campus. Most were in pretty rough shape. It looks like they should design a class to teach the students how to restore old buildings since there would be plenty of projects to work on. As we headed out of the woods and through the campus back to the car, there was one large group of kids going for a bike ride. It looked like a few of them have never ridden a bicycle in the past. It was a nice walk even if we were less successful at finding caches as we would have liked.

Inside Old Building in the Woods

Large Building on Campus

Since it was still early in the afternoon, we decided to head south to the town of Waterville Maine. There is an Adventure Lab that tours the area and it was also in a Maine county where we had yet to find a geocache. As we pulled into the large parking lot, the farmers market was setup on one side the park we planned to walk around. It was a very popular place and we found a few items to buy before we explored.

The Head of the Falls Park is right along the Kennebec River. The most prominent feature is the Ticonic Footbridge - AKA the Two Cent Bridge. Originally built in 1901 to permit foot traffic between Waterville and Winslow on the opposite side of the river. A toll was charged to for workers that lived in Waterville but worked at one of the many mills in Winslow. The initial toll was one penny but that toll doubled after the bridge washed out in a flood and needed to be rebuilt in 1903. Even as late as the 1960’s the bridge changed a toll to cross but by then the price had doubled again.

The Two Cent Bridge

Walkway Along River in Waterville

We wandered around the area and enjoyed learning about the mills and the logging that used to be a main industry in this part of Maine. We never made it down to the falls that are just a few blocks to the south from where we were, but we had walked enough today and wanted to get back home.

Railway Bridge Over River

Old Mills Across River

With one full day left in the area, we searched for a hike. It turns out that there aren’t as many hikes around Skowhegan than I would have expected. We end up selecting one southwest of camp near the town of Rome. The Mount Phillip Loop Trail is only 1.4 miles long with a little over 300 feet of elevation gain. We chose to hike in a counterclockwise direction but for this hike, the direction likely was inconsequential. It turns out to be a rather rocky trail that at least added a little more interest to the hike.

Rocky Trail at Mt Phillips

More Rocks

There are some reasonable views from the summit of the mountain. And a large rock outcropping served as a good stopping point for a break.

Good Place for a Snack

There are several plaques and memorials near the summit. A carved stone seat was rather unusual. There are nice views of Great Pond to the south.

Unusual Monument

Another Water View

The return trip was uneventful and we had the place to ourselves so that was nice. Tomorrow we head out to Medway Maine which is much further north in the mountains so we should be able to find some decent hiking then.

Skowhegan was a nice stopping point on our several week tour of the interior of Maine.