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Androscoggin Riverlands Park Seems Much Farther Removed with its Solitary, Wilderness Feel

June 10, 2009 - TURNER — Jonathan LaBonte had exactly two hours.

We challenged the Androscoggin Land Trust director to show us a remote adventure within a two-hour time span, starting from downtown Auburn.

His mission was to take two kayakers to the recently unveiled state park and show us a wilderness experience within minutes of this gritty, growing city.

Strange as it sounds, LaBonte got it done.

He took us from a part of the Androscoggin River crossed by streams of cars overhead to a stream-fed section of the river without a person in sight. He took us to a place where cellar holes and islands mix with ducks and deer.

"I've seen moose, otter, muskrats and loons while kayaking," said Judy Marden, one of the founding members of the 20-year-old Androscoggin Land Trust, who paddled with us.

"This is our Allagash Wilderness Waterway."

The state has owned most of the land beside the Androscoggin River north of Auburn since 1990. Last month, it announced it had designated the area as the new Androscoggin Riverlands State Park.

Over a year's time, the Bureau of Parks and Lands will be working with the public to decide how to best develop the land for activities such as hiking, horseback riding, ATV riding or mountain biking. But there is plenty of wild space for folks to explore right now.

And the park bursts with emptiness despite the fact its northern terminus is as close to downtown Auburn as Crescent Beach is to Portland.

Starting from the city's cement river path overlooking the Androscoggin River, LaBonte promised a quieter, less crowded view of this major waterway. In a half-hour, we were paddling there. And even the ride there was beautiful.

Leaving box-store-lined Route 4 in Auburn, we drove through a breathtaking stretch of farmland with views of mountains.

This unexpected, peaceful stretch drops into Center Bridge Road, where the boat launch and miles of undisturbed river await.

It wasn't always this way.

"The river was so polluted, the farms and forestland wasn't desirable," LaBonte said. "That's changed. (The land trust) now owns nine miles of river frontage. Add that to the state's eight miles, that's 17 miles."

Save for a water snake that lifted its head high above the waves, there was no other creature within sight for the hour we paddled downriver to two islands.

The Androscoggin Riverlands State Park is made up of 2,588 acres of state-owned land on both sides of the Androscoggin River north of Lewiston and Auburn.

It consists of 2,258 acres along the west shore in Turner and 330 acres along the east shore in Leeds, with islands owned by Florida Power and Light in between. A paddlers' playground.

Maine has more than 300 miles of hiking trails on parkland and public reserve land statewide, but the new park is believed to be within an hour's drive of half the state's population. It is Maine's first state park in 25 years, and is the second largest, behind Grafton Notch State Park (3,000 acres).

The parkland has not been developed fully. Right now, it has just 15 miles of multi-use trail and eight miles of hiking trails.

It promises to offer something for everyone with river access, river views, trails and islands. There's already a historic walk created by the land trust that winds to a forgotten neighborhood lost when Gulf Island Dam was built.

When the dam was completed in 1927, it created Gulf Island Pond and resulted in the flooding of land along the Androscoggin River, along with the desertion of several homesteads and a schoolhouse. The cellar holes to these can be found in the new state park along the land trust's Homestead Trail, which explains the history here.

In this area of mixed-growth forestland, there's also plenty of habitat for wildlife, including ample deer-wintering areas.

There was no sign of wildlife on our two-hour trip, other than the water snake – and not a human in sight, either.

Mission accomplished.

By DEIRDRE FLEMING, Staff Writer, Portland Press Herald, June 4, 2009


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