Sometimes the simplest things are right under our noses. Think about the last time you decided to take a hike, to see some territory and get some exercise.
Likely, it turned into an expedition of monumental proportions involving more preparation and logistical maneuvering than you care to admit. And the hike turned into a physical challenge that tuckered you out for days.
Trips like this are fun, but it’s not necessary to turn every hike into an expedition. Why not look a little closer to home?
Every community has something of interest, and you’re bound to discover something new if you just get out of your car and take a walk.
Where to go? Chances are you already know, you just haven’t thought about it. On your next commute to work, look anew at those side roads or landmarks near your home. There’s bound to be someplace you haven’t been lately.
Even in a city like Bangor there are places to go for a hike and, with a little imagination, you’ll feel as if you were miles away.
Kenduskeag Stream Park, for example, will take you from the Penobscot River up Kenduskeag Stream above I-95. From Chamberlain Bridge to the end of the park it’s 2.3 miles. Do it round-trip and you’ve gone close to 5 miles, or do pieces of it for less of a walk.
If you park near Chamberlain Bridge, walk toward the parking garage on the stone dust walkway. It will take you to Kenduskeag Stream and to Washington Street. Cross the street and follow the sidewalk along the stream behind the parking garage and up to State Street. Cross over to Norumbega Mall and check out the statue of Hannibal Hamlin (Aug. 27, 1809-July 4, 1891), our own speaker of the Maine House, member of Congress, U.S. Senator, vice president to Abraham Lincoln and minister to Spain. Or the cannon belonging to Commodore Richard Saltonstall’s sloop of war that was blown up in Bangor Harbor in August, 1779.
Cross Central Street and check out the victory statue “dedicated to all who have made the supreme sacrifice for their country” erected in 1939 by the Norman N. Dow Post, Veterans of Foreign Wars.
Across Franklin Street the stone dust walkway picks up again. You’ll be on the left bank facing upriver and the path takes you behind the jail and police station to the site where the covered bridge stood, now a steel pedestrian structure. Cross the bridge and up little farther you’ll cross the stream again.
Continue past a covered picnic table (1.2 miles) and then on to an observation deck across from Lover’s Leap (1.5 miles). You’ll cross the stream again and pass under I-95. Just up from the I-95 bridge is an observation platform overlooking the Flower Mill dam site. There are several more picnic tables, a couple with shelters, before the park ends at a sign at the 2.3-mile point. Spaced throughout the elongated park are benches to sit and rest on if you like.
Even though you’re in the city, you can still see some wildlife such as squirrels, crows, cormorants, ducks and songbirds. During warmer weather with the river level really low, you can get a good look at the riverbed’s structure and some of those rocks you hit during the canoe race this spring.
You’re following a sewer line, by the way, so expect an odoriferous whiff once in a while from access hatches along the way.
This story is a partial reprieve of a column Jeff Strout did in 1998.