Can't say anything bad . . . or good . . .about these parks

We are way behind in getting travel posts published this summer because we're having too much fun traveling! So we won't be confused about when each "wandering" happened, we'll start each blog with its actual date.

August 26, 2022

After our long day of hiking at Baxter State Park yesterday, we slept later and moved slower today. We have two new parks on our agenda today--The Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument, and the Penobscot River Trail. Katahdin just became part of the national park system in 2016, and the state facilities at Penobscot have only been completed since 2021. One of these parks we can't say anything bad about, and the other we can't say anything good. 

We started with the Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument because we are big fans of the national park system. It has always taken us to interesting and beautiful places. We put the park name into our GPS, and blindly followed the smart phone's directions. We were ten miles down the road before we realized those instructions weren't very smart. We turned onto a logging road with a dead end sign and realized that this was a bad start to our day. With a little research, we found it was taking us to the corner of the national monument, with no admission point to get inside. So we backtracked those ten miles and tried again.

Even though we knew the next navigation instructions were good, we soon felt very unwelcome. We were directed to a gravel road when we started seeing signs that the local owners weren't liking the idea of this very new national monument. Obviously, no one wanted us to visit this new national monument.

The next bridge we had to cross didn't have a sign, but it looked like the wooden flooring was splintering badly--but we continued.

Another bridge had orange caution tape, and orange paint where the floor of the bridge had holes. This was another bad sign, but we continued.

Even though there was no entrance gate or ranger station, we had a paper map of the national park with us. So we knew there were several view points where we wanted to stop. We had already driven ten miles on gravel roads before we got into the park. It was another couple miles before we finally got to our "first view."

This is what we have been waiting for--a view of this rock?!? We're beginning to think that we can't say anything good about this park.

The next view was more worthwhile, and we actually got out of the pickup this time. By standing on a rock, we could actually see some surrounding mountains and a lake--very far away in the distance.

We had seen Mount Katahdin yesterday up close, so seeing it today in the far distance was not a thrill. Even though it's called Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument, the iconic Mount Katahdin is actually located in Baxter State Park. The fact that the top was shrouded in clouds made this 'best view in the park" even worse. We really can't say anything good when we found that this was the highlight of the park.

As if things couldn't get worse with this lackluster national park experience, those clouds turned into raindrops. Now the narrow gravel road became a rutted and steep mud puddle. We had to drive all of the one-way-16-mile loop to get out. During this time we didn't see any wildlife, and only one muddy trailhead. We couldn't get down to the lake that looked like a mud hole. Denisa has decided that the only thing that would make this park worthwhile would be a herd of moose. The only way we would return would be a guaranteed moose sighting.

We ended up driving 36 miles on gravel roads to experience this national monument. We once again came to signs that the local owners hate this new addition to the national park system. While most of the gravel roads were only a single lane, we would somehow have to give the right-of-way to any logging trucks. We were glad that we didn't meet too many trucks on this rainy day. It looks like the locals dislike this new park, and we certainly wouldn't recommend it to other travelers. In fact, we can't say anything good about our experience at Katahdin Woods and Water National Monument today.

On the other hand, our next planned stop was the Penobscot River Trail. Recommended by our campground host, we pulled into the parking lot to find a brand new building. No one is on staff, but a computerized kiosk is there with information that asks you to sign their guest book.

A nice selection of new bikes is waiting outside for visitors to use for free. They include adult and children's bikes, and even bike trailers for toddlers to ride in.

While we always have our two bikes with us, we hadn't planned on biking while our son Blake was visiting us because we would need a third bike. The three of us used the park's bikes, and we could take a ride together. We can't say anything bad about this park!

The trail is paved or hard surfaced, winding its way through the tall forest that would be cool even on a sunny summer day. Likewise, it was not muddy even on a rainy day.

The trail took us down to the Penobscot River for some water views.

We enjoyed the mushrooms so much on our hike yesterday, and we found more on our bike ride today.

Some of them were so neat that Denisa had to jump off her bike to take a picture. We found some that were raspberry red . . .

and lemon yellow.

This trail made us feel like we had wandered into another of God's wonders! While we had googled things to do in this area, this new trail never showed up. If the campground host hadn't mentioned it to us, we would have never known this facility existed.

In the winter, this becomes a cross country ski trail with warming rooms, and free skis and snow shoes.

We love loop trails, and the trail system here is designed to make loops of different lengths. We rode past the first two link roads, and finally took the third link back to the tote road that would loop back to the visitor center. While we weren't planning to kayak today, this would have been a great way to kayak down the river, and then bike back.

Our only complaint was that Blake's loose bike chain came off in the middle of the ride. Without any tools, it looked like he would have to walk it back. But Mark took off the bike seat and used the metal pipe as a tool to fix the chain. Denisa can't say anything bad about Mark's ability to fix things!

While most of the trees are still green, we found a very nice tree turning shades of red at the end of our bike ride. The lighting didn't do it justice, but it was a beautiful end to a great bike ride at a first-rate facility. All the distances in the park are in kilometers, and our loop took us 18 km today. For those less metric-minded, that is about 11 miles.

It started raining as we put the bikes away and walked back to our pickup. We headed back to the motor home to make dinner and play cards this evening. So it was a mixed day. We were totally disappointed with our long drive to Katahdin Woods and Water National Monument. In fact, we can't say anything good about it. On the other hand, we were delighted with the Penobscot River Trail, and we can't say anything bad about it!