FORT KENT, Maine — I have to confess, I’ve never understood the attraction of driving a suped-up truck with oversized tires through a pit of mud.
I understand it even less now that it’s being forced upon me, and I lack both the tricked-out truck and massive tires.
Thankfully, however, I do have four-wheel-drive.
You see, it’s everyone’s favorite time of year up here in northern Maine — mud season. That gooey, gloppy, messy, oozy time of year nestled between winter and spring.
And this year seems particularly bad.
Take my road, for instance.
Most of the year, I love living on a dirt road. Since the paved road starts about a quarter mile from my driveway, I get to give directions by saying fun things like, “Keep driving until the pavement ends and you hit dirt.”
Sure, it gets a bit dusty in the summer and typically a little muddy come spring, but this year, even with the best directions and most well intentioned visitors, few people are making it that last quarter mile.
How bad is it?
I’ve had to put a hold on my mail and pick it up in town. The trash collector put off collecting for at least a week at my suggestion. My second car is parked at my neighbor’s house in case even the four-wheel-drive can’t make it out. The other day the UPS driver left a package in that car after taking one look at the rutted, soupy road leading to my place.
I fear the day I may have to call in an air drop to supply the farm.
There’s really no one to blame, unless I want to blame Mother Nature, and I’m certainly not alone in this, as muddy misery loves company.
Last week, several residents on roads as bad, or even worse, than mine spoke to the Fort Kent Town Council looking for some answers.
One resident said his road was so bad, his four-wheel-drive pickup was getting stuck and he worried emergency vehicles would not be able to get to his home, if needed.
Another resident took to the skies and, using a drone-mounted camera, created a video to show the council how bad some of the roads are.
According to Tony Theriault, Fort Kent’s public works director, the trouble really began last fall when it was fairly rainy. A freeze-thaw cycle this past winter only exacerbated the problem. All that water trapped in the roads creates soft mud the consistency of wet cement, he said.
Traffic, even light traffic, on those muddy roads then creates ruts that channel more of that water and cause further erosion.
Towns across Maine are doing what they can to divert water, mitigate washouts and just try to keep roads from falling apart altogether until dryer weather arrives.
The road leading to Rusty Metal Farm is anything but a major thoroughfare this time of year, and I’m often the only person who needs to be on it.
Unfortunately, mud season can bring out the worst in some people who do feel the need to see just how far, fast and deep they can drive their vehicles down some of these roads.
I honestly don’t know what they are trying to prove, but I will say they are not helping the situation much.
Of course, there can be a sort of muddy, cosmic karma every so often.
Last week a Windham man’s vehicle burst into flames after he got it stuck “mudding” on a local road. Apparently the gentleman spun his tires so much it sparked the fire.
This week a Houlton man was charged in connection with damage to a cemetery in Oakfield after he allegedly drove through it creating ruts and tearing up the ground.
Certainly, most Mainers’ mud meanderings are benign, if a tad irritating this time of year when they cause seasonal damage to roads we all have to use.
And, I’m not discounting the simple joys of mud. I mean really, is there anything that holds the promise of spring quite like the feel of mud squishing up through bare toes on a sunny day?
For the time being, the mud has not gotten the best of me as I can still travel to and from the farm thanks to four-wheel-drive.
I’m not sure what I’ll do if things get to the point where even that’s not enough to make it through and I get stuck and in need of that supply air drop.
I guess I’ll just call it in by starting a signal fire, which apparently I can do by spinning my tires as fast as possible.
Julia Bayly of Fort Kent is an award winning writer and photographer, who writes part time for Bangor Daily News. Her column appears here every other Friday. She can be reached by e-mail at jbayly@bangordailynews.com.
