Hey fellow hikers! For my next adventure in the County, I decided to revisit the Fort Kent area. If you have been following my blogs you know I went there last fall. I am only one person with only so much time, so I missed a few awesome hiking spots near schools that I wanted to check out this time.
I had actually visited the Fort Kent Outdoor Center to watch the Paralympic Biathlon trials about 20 years ago. Of course it was covered in snow then, so I didn’t get to hike nor did I realize they even had hiking trails. Wow did I miss out!
There really isn't a description on Maine Trail Finder for this trail because the trails listed on MTF are only the ski trails. If you go to the Outdoor Center's website, they do have a map and descriptions for summer trails. I will try to do a better job of describing them for you here.
There are many different levels of difficulty within the trail system. I stuck to the paved yellow trail. The trail starts at the paved parking lot. Because they host events, the lot is huge, so there is plenty of parking.
There are also plenty of maps on the kiosk. Some of them are hard to see since they are positioned high on the kiosk.
There is also a lodge building right off the parking lot, but it has a step to get in and I couldn’t find an accessible entrance. However, it wasn’t open the day I was there anyway.
This is a 1.7 mile long, mostly flat, trail. There are some steep hills between 10% and 16%. It is really hard to tell in the pictures how steep these sections are. I did have to stop and rest a few times on the hills, but because they are paved I was able to push myself up them.
There is an option of grass trails that head off from the paved path. I decided not to try them as it looked like they all went downhill and I could see myself getting stranded.
If you are looking for an out of the way place with generally accessible hiking on a paved path, this is a great place to check out. I was very impressed with how well it is maintained and constructed. It is challenging terrain, so keep that in mind. You may need a push, or at least to take some rest time. Speaking of rests, there aren’t any actual rest spots anywhere on the trail, I simply stopped in the middle of the trail to rest.
If I lived in Fort Kent I would definitely frequent this facility for exercise.
If you have a different type of mobility issue or a different disability and you visit this trail or others, please comment on this post and give us your feedback. The more knowledge we gather and share, the more people we can get outside using the trails of Maine!
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