North Maine Woods

I'm betting if those locomotives had bells, they're long gone!

 

Stopped at the Telos bridge. I believe the Allagash paddle trips start here.
Katahdin was still hiding.

 

The West Branch…

 

We had checked out at a gatehouse by now, although we were still in what I think of as the northern woods. Went about 10 miles west on the Golden Road, and then dropped toward Greenville and camped by the road for the night.

 

Just lovin' those old loco's

 

Very nice trip and pictures. Thanks for sharing. I seem to remember a TV show about this area and the conveyor system. Mysteries of the abandoned maybe?

 

Up early, needing to make it back home by evening. One truck on the road at midnight, but nothing else between 8:30pm and 5:45am. Broke camp under the moon.

 

Finally saw Katahdin on our way out. Katahdin on the right, and The Traveler on the north side of it.

 

Used to be a TV show on called American Loggers. All about the Pellitier boys and their logging business in that area. Always enjoyed watching that when it was on.

 

Still lots of nice countryside south of Greenville. We swung over through Bingham, as I used to deer hunt over there many years ago. Lots of windmills in Maine now. And and landownership changes in that area, too, with No Hunting signs on large tracts of land.

 

Saw several deer, but no moose. We’ve seen a lot of moose over the years, but had hoped to see some on this trip. A logger we chatted with said the tick load is killing calves.
All in all, the trip was what we had hoped for it to be. 1320 miles as we pulled into our yard. Already dreaming of another trip.

 

They for years were in the locomotive shed but it burned taking out one of the locomotives cabins cause it was a wooden one. There is a ton of history there. These pictures show the original tramway that was built to brings logs from eagle to chamberlain before the railway was built. There was a big logging war back in the late 1800s because eagle flows north into the allagash which is the only river here that runs north into the St. John to Canada. Great northern paper that owned all the area wasn’t happy with the Canadian loggers coming and stealing the wood. It’s only a few miles between the two lakes so they fixed it so they could take from eagle and make it go south to millinockett where the mill is or was. It’s a great trip into there to see in person but be prepared when you go. It’s a ride in or you have to take a boat from chamberlain bridge to the other end of the lake. Roads are built primarily out of shale ledge and good tires are a must.

 

The show was ok but kinda fake. Typical tv. Gotta make some drama in there somehow. My wife’s dad did a lot of work with Gerald, the father, back in the day. Gerald was a good man.

 

Good looking trip. What town is your wife from? I was born in caribou. Lived in woodland until kindergarten and we moved. Still have some family there but most either moved or died. You wanted to see katahdin, my wife grew up and the view from the living room picture window was “the mountain” 12 miles away. Our camp was on her great grandparents farm that has the same view but it’s over in silver ridge on top of another small mountain.

 

What campsite did you stay at? And you got to watch the St J bridge. Whole van load of Mexican laborers doing thinning went off that bout 15 years ago. All drowned.

 

I should have done more research before heading out. Actually, it was the Mrs’ idea to take that route. I had never been past the gates and didn’t know the North Maine Woods organization even existed.
Apparently the museum in Augusta has a restored Lombard tractor - not sure if it was there when I went as a schoolboy.
No black flies or skeeters. But the State Parks all closed just before we hit the road. Baxter said we were too tall, so we couldn’t try the Tote Rd.

 

She grew up way down south, below Sanford. Her dad trucked for Chamberland, out of St Agatha, and he bought a place in Woodland when he retired. I had 3 close friends from St Agatha, and was up there several times many years ago. That must have been a million dollar view your wife had! I’ve been up Katahdin before, and to Chimney Pond several times - the mountain is a view I would never grow tired of!

 

There’s a few Lombard restored around. One in eddingtin at Leonard mills, one in patten at the lumberman museum. Used to see that one run quite often, that’s where my wife’s from and her dad was a big part of the museum. There is another in Ashland at another museum but I’ve never seen that one. North Maine woods is massive and it’s an easy place to get totally lost.

 

RF just died a couple weeks ago. He was a good guy. Now they live in my old home, right on woodland center road 3 miles past browns corner on the left before the train track that is no longer there. I don’t ever remember seeing a train on them. We have to go to her moms house Friday and get things taken care of before snow flies. Supposed to be good weather. I’ll get you a picture.

 

We stayed at Kelly Brook. We had stopped a few miles before the bridge to study the map because the road I wanted was McNally but the sign was different. A logger stopped to check on us and said it was actually McNally despite the sign, but he suggested we use Boulevard instead. We should have gone down to the bridge but were feeling pressure to confirm a campsite for the night.