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University of Maine Trail Network 8/3/09

BackLoafRiver

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Hey all,

I am falling asleep at the computer writing this but, I wanted to share with you the great RAW I did today.

A coworker and I go riding every Tuesday night after our teaching is done for the day. Today, we decided to be brave and do some digging at the University of Maine.

During my undergrad years at Orono, I had no idea these trails were even in the back yard. You can take a peek at the trail maps here:

http://www.umaine.edu/CAMPUSRECREATION/facilities/trails.html

The biggest nab we encountered was very poor trail labeling. That, and, there are so many trails you can ride in the woods that are not on the map. Looking at the maps UMaine provides, it doesn't even begin to cover everything that is around there.

The trails we used were on the South side of Stillwater Ave. You can access them from a bike path two seconds away from where my buddy lives. (and, if you are not careful, you can get thrown out of the woods and dumped into the waste water treatment plant for the local paper mill. It has a smell unlike anything I have ever encountered before. I wanted to die)

Got to the bike path that leads into the woods right at 3. Took the first visible trail. The first 15 minutes were pretty good...roots and rocks littered the trail. Several moments of up and downs. Soon, it was a mess that took a careful bit of negotiating.

After getting thrown off my seat a few times, we finally came to where the side trail met the main double track. Just to get our confidence legs under us, we rode the wide stuff for a little while. Eventually, we decided to do some more exploring. Off the double track, there were trails absolutely everywhere. It would take weeks to find everything that had been cleared.

Unfortunately, there is a ton of standing water on several trails. There is no group that maintains and reports on trail conditions (and it wouldn't matter since they aren't labeled well anyway) so the pools creep up on you. You can be cruising along at a great clip when the dry ground will give way to massive ponds. We had to stop and turn around a few times.

We finished riding around 5:30 p.m. and I am absolutely wasted. This is only our third time using these trails but it felt like the first time we really went for several of them.

Orono is a lot of fun. Some of the stuff is as technical as Bradbury Mountain and there is a lot that is just a nightmare for a nub like me. If any of you find yourselves up this way for business, there is plenty of riding to be done and, from what we hear, a dedicated group of riders that get out every Sunday. Im going to have to come up for one of their group rides. My only worry is that they are extreme.

A local told us that once a month they hold MTB races in the trails. Her husband won a few weeks ago. Not sure when they are doing the next one. It would be cool to see. Hoping to get together with him next week and make our group a threesome. I will post pics when I get back to my place tomorrow.
 
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BackLoafRiver

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Augusta, Maine
pics as promised

Here are a few Random Pics that I took from the UMaine trail system:

My friend trying to get back on his bike:
DSCN3098.jpg


A man-made bridge. Pretty unstable:
DSCN3115.jpg


A hell of a climb. Almost made it...
DSCN3118.jpg


Random track:
DSCN3126.jpg


Another Bridge:
DSCN3103.jpg


One of the several deer we saw:
DSCN3109.jpg


Pretty rough trail:
DSCN3113.jpg


So that is all for now. Would love to hear your thoughts.
 

bigbog

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Bangor and the state's woodlands
...another option(maybe you've been)

The "City Forest", along the Bangor/Orono town line, just off Stillwater Ave....~1mi north of Hogan Rd intersection....has a lot of trails. Not a lot of pitch, as you can imagine....but plenty of mileage.
$.01
 

BackLoafRiver

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Augusta, Maine
It's funny you mention that, we started our summer riding there. A lot of the single track was too wet to ride so we couldn't get the full experience. We plan on going back next week. Some fun to be had. Also I'm going to check out the Orono Land Trust which is a network of riding throughout the town. Supposed to be fun times there as well. (Although I head it can be a bit hairy at times)
 
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