Outdoors
The BDN outdoors section brings readers into the woods, waters and wild places of Maine. It features stories on hunting, fishing, wildlife, conservation and recreation, told by people who live these experiences. This section emphasizes hands-on knowledge, field reports, issues, trends and the traditions that define life outside in Maine. Read more Outdoors stories here.
I learned to ride a bicycle on a hand-me-down donated by my older brother. But on my 10th birthday, my parents surprised me with a brand-new bicycle, one of those Stingray models made by Schwinn.
If you’re a senior citizen like me, you may remember the radical high-rise handlebars and banana seat on a 20-inch frame. The Stingray bike first came out in 1963 and proved immensely popular. According to Schwinn, over 45,000 were sold within a couple of months of its introduction. Mine was one of them.
Since then, I have always preferred pedaling over walking. A few years ago, my wife, Diane, and I purchased twin 15-speed mountain bikes. Although we are not what you would call great bikers, we do enjoy a leisurely ride from time to time to stretch the leg and hip muscles and so we don’t forget how to actually ride.
One of our favorite places to ride is the Eastern Trail, the southern Maine section of the developing East Coast Greenway trail system that, when complete, will travel 2,900 miles from Calais, Maine, to Key West, Florida. The ET, as it is often referred to, covers 65 miles consisting of several on-road, multi-use off-road sections through a dozen towns from Kittery to South Portland.
It is the off-road sections that Diane and I prefer to ride. All totaled, there are now 23 miles of it between Kennebunk and Bug Light in South Portland after a 1.6-mile “Fill the Gap” section connecting Scarborough and South Portland was opened this summer.
Through parts of Kennebunk, Saco, Old Orchard Beach and Scarborough, the ET travels over the old rail bed used by the Eastern Railroad that ran from Boston to Portland for over a hundred years starting in the 1840s.
It is well packed with gravel or crushed stone and is flat, with no noticeable uphill or downhill grade, making it a great place for a walk, jog or bike ride, exactly our cup of tea. The Kennebunk-to-Biddeford off-road section covers a distance of six miles. We generally prefer to ride starting from Route 35 in Kennebunk, but riders or walkers can travel southbound starting behind the MaineHealth hospital on Route 111 in Biddeford.
Another section of the ET runs 16 continuous miles through parts of Saco, Old Orchard Beach, Scarborough and South Portland. Once exiting Scarborough, much of the trail is co-located with the South Portland Green Belt. For the most part, this section is paved and travels through local neighborhoods and business properties and along the Fore River waterfront but remains off-road for a little over five miles to Bug Light Park in South Portland.
This is the only off-road section of the ET Diane and I have not yet done, but we plan to before cold weather arrives.
Another off-road section of the ET runs a little over eight miles through parts of Saco and Old Orchard Beach to the parking area near Black Point Road in Scarborough. The section actually starts behind Thornton Academy in Saco, but parking is limited to local streets and there are a few street crossings we care to avoid, so we start at the end of Mill Brook Road off U.S. Route 1, a few minutes north of downtown Saco, where there is parking and quick access to the trail.
This eliminates any in-town pedaling through Saco, which we have no interest in, puts us quickly on the greenway and shortens the length of the ride by several miles.
This is our favorite section of the ET. It’s not physically demanding, there are several road crossings and it can be busy on weekends. The entire section is off-road, generally quiet and peaceful. It’s less busy and especially nice and colorful in the fall when the foliage has changed, one of our favorite times to go.
In Scarborough, the section enters and crosses the Scarborough Marsh Wildlife Management Area. At a little over 3,100 acres, it’s the largest salt marsh in the state. We always stop on the bridge over the Nonesuch River and take in the view over the tidal creeks and marshlands.
On our most recent ride, we saw a few geese and snowy egrets.
But no matter what off-road section of the Eastern Trail you visit, I think you will find it an enjoyable and perhaps surprising ride or walk.