Although it looks like a lake, this is Androscoggin River. I was in a farming area with many lakes and rivers, and though there were lots of short walking trails nearby, Androscoggin State Park was the only place where I could find a walk longer than a couple of miles – most were less than a mile!

I managed a seven mile walk through woodland, mostly on or near the river bank, returning up a low wooded ridge, to avoid walking too much on an ATV route (which is used for snowmobiles in winter). There were a couple of ATVs using the route, but at least you could hear them coming.

This was the object of a half mile long trail up Monument Hill

The view with the White Mountains in New Hampshire on the horizon

In 1895 two brothers, one a Civil War general, erected this stone obelisk to fulfil the last wishes of their brother, a minister, who wanted a monument to peace. It has plaques with names on all four sides, but they are not labelled as to which conflict they commemorate. Three are definitely later than the Civil War. The brothers were brought up in the area, which was then mostly small farming with a significant population.

This old church nearby reflects how the population has reduced. It is now only open for a few hours on Sunday as a food and clothing bank. The black sacks contain donations that have been left there. They call food banks ‘food pantries’ and I have seen many of them. One looked like a stand on a roadside for a smallholder to sell produce with an honesty box, but it had some tins of beans, and fresh tomatoes, apples, courgettes and beans for anyone in need to help themselves.

I briefly visited the state capital, Augusta.

Maine State House

Maine only became a state in 1819. Prior to that it was part of Massachusetts. I did not stay long in the State House as the Senate and Representatives chambers were closed for repainting, and the main hall was being used for a conference on volunteer opportunities.

There was nothing positive about Augusta except the river.

This is the Kennebec River, which is lovely. There is an old fort (closed that day) on the river, but it never saw any action, and there are the remains of an Arsenal, though that had no explanatory information and is boarded up on private property. There is a six mile walk on this side of the river. I walked about a mile and it was lovely.

This was labelled as the landing wharf for the Arsenal, and was very solidly constructed

Next day I drove up the Kennebec Valley. En route I passed through the lovely little village of Mount Vernon.

This fisherman had an idyllic spot

My next stop was an apple orchard. ‘Pick your Own’ is an institution in Maine. As I used to grow apples in Aberdeenshire, I was interested so stopped off at Cayford Orchards.

The same family have farmed here since an ancestor arrived in 1824 from England, though they don’t know where he came from. I am tempted to do a bit of family history and find out, as Cayford is not a common surname, and there will be US censuses on-line up to 1950. I am sure he must have come from a fruit growing region of England to have the necessary expertise.

I bought 2 of their smallest paper sacks and picked two varieties of apples. I will now have to eat an apple a day to get through them! No weighing – the three sizes of bags are bushel, half bushel and quarter bushel, which are old volume measures I vaguely remember from when I was at my first school. They are crisp juicy apples, but somewhat lacking in flavour.

Three miles away was the town of Skowhegan, on the Kennebec, where a tributary joins it.

There must once have been mills, but nowadays it provides agricultural services to the surrounding area.

This is only a fraction of the snowplough attachments for pick-up trucks outside one machinery shop.

This is claimed to be the tallest wooden Indian in the world. The sculptor, Bernard Langlais (1921-1977) was a local who studied art at the local college. The stone base is 20ft high and the sculpture over 60 ft.  They are not that proud of it as it is at the side of a car park for a dental surgery, behind a petrol station. However it was renovated a few years ago. The scaffolding like structure is a fish cage, and the statue commemorates the local tribe who were very helpful to the original settlers. I suspect the tribe no longer exists at all.

This mermaid is also by the same sculptor. There are supposed to be other works around, but I did not spot them.

Main Street, Skowhegan – with an excellent small bakery in an old bank building

The trees were starting to colour up, and the following day I saw a lot more when I drove a long way up north to Millinocket, near Baxter State Park.

This is Wyman Lake, eleven miles long and made by damming the Kennebec a long way north of Skowhegan. The dam produces electricity. There was a convenient Rest Area with a ‘drop toilet’ of dubious quality, but needed. For about 40 miles or more along this stretch of road at least 50% of the traffic coming from the north was lorries loaded with substantial trees, not that there was a lot of traffic. The forests must have been growing rather longer than in New Hampshire, though I am sure they will have been logged before.

I was en route to Moxie Falls, the longest clear drop waterfall in Maine.It is taller than it appears in this photo.

A very pleasant walk of a mile each way through rising woodland made a good break in the journey.

Up to this point I had been on excellent roads, but this was about to change. I had asked GoogleMaps for the shortest route from Moxie Falls to Millinocket, with no idea of what it might entail, though I knew there was very little by way of ‘places’ en route.

Of the next 70 or 80 miles, only about 25 miles was good quality tarmac. The best of the rest was logging roads, and all of it was forest in every direction. Checking later, any alternative route on tarmac all the way from Moxie Falls would have added at least an extra 100 miles to my day’s journey.

There was 16 miles of this from Moxie Falls to Greenville (a very small junction). Logging roads are bouncy and dusty, and you have to look out for larger lumps of rocks, but they are even surfaced. On this 16 miles I only met one car and one pick-up. There were mile markers all the way, so at least I knew how far along I was on this stretch.

After Greenville there was tarmac for maybe 20 miles, through the resort of Moosehead Lake (never stopped to take photos, but the huge lake did warrant some), then on to the trading post of Kokadjo, at an altitude over 1200 ft.

‘Not many’ is probably in single figures!

Apologies for my finger!

The building on the right is a shop / cafe with minimal pretensions. The two buildings on the left seem to be or have been accommodation. The nearest one may still be in use, but the other one definitely wasn’t.

This was the view. They have recently built 5 wooden chalets for renting just to the left of this photo.

Kokadjo claims to be the moose capital of Maine, but you need to be there early or late to see them, and I was there about 2 pm.  However I have seen a moose on this trip, as one crossed the road in front of the car one morning whilst I was in Whitefield, New Hampshire. Fortunately it was about 100 yards away. Hitting a moose is not recommended.

Snow will arrive in Kokadjo at the end of October.

After Kokadjo the road deteriorated. It started off as more logging road, with many branches, so one had to be careful to keep on route. I used the compass on my phone several times to check the direction. American roads rarely tell you where they go to, and this one had no indications at any of its junctions until I was not far from Millinocket.

After a while it was clearly a proper road, rather than just for logging as there were traces of tarmac and also some old road signs. At one point I passed a 45 mph speed limit sign on a piece of road where I was struggling to do 20 mph. In Millinocket I learnt that it is known as ‘the golden road’ because of all the money that was poured into building it. It is actually marked as such on GoogleMaps. It must have been wonderful when it was new.

The worst bits are where about 60% of the tarmac remains, with the other 40% randomly scattered around as deep pits and crevasses, some in line with the route and some at right angles. It makes for challenging driving. I estimate that I saw about one vehicle very three miles, about 75% of them pick-ups.

The colours were amazing even on a dull day, though in Kokadjo they said that the colours are less bright this year as the summer has been so dry.

They always seemed to be brightest beside the car rather than ahead!

The mountains of Baxter State Park suddenly appeared in the distance. From here is was downhill all the way to Millinocket, which is at about 370 ft.

Eventually I reached civilisation (of sorts).

This is the view from a narrow bridge by Abol Bridge Campground and Store, with Mount Katahdin (5269 ft), the highest mountain in Maine, topped by cloud in the background.

Mount Katahdin is the end of the Appalachian Trail which starts about 2200 miles south at Springer Mountain, Georgia. The last 100 miles is known as the ‘100 mile wilderness’ and hikers must carry everything for the time it takes them to cover the 100 miles. Abol Bridge must be a welcome sight.

This is the ‘100 Mile Wilderness Inn’ that I stayed at in Millinocket for one night. Not really an inn, just a self catering AirBnB.

There were a couple of middle aged men from the Carolinas who had just done the last 100 miles and climbed Mount Katahdin, but they were outclassed by the young Kansan who had just finished the entire trail taking six and a half months to do it. There is not much in Millinocket, but it does have the Appalachian Trail Café, where those completing the entire trail can sign the polystyrene ceiling tiles. There are many names there. It is also the gateway to Baxter State Park, which has a lot of serious mountains and tough hiking trails. I am glad I had not decided to stay longer in Millinocket as I would have been tempted to try a walk possibly beyond my current comfortable limits.

This sign outside the house opposite gives you an idea of the predominant local politics.

This is a stone polisher. You put stones and water inside and run it for 5 days continuously to get smooth polished stones. It must be easier to find some by a river! In North Milton I think the finished product was going to be used as a decorative mulch on plant pots. A stone mulch is a good idea to reduce transpiration in a hot summer, but this seems somewhat OTT to get a good effect.

After one night in Millinocket I moved to Downeast Maine, which I now rate as my favourite part of the state. You will find out why in my next post.