As the calendar flipped from July to August, Kathleen planned a weekend of hiking for us in North Deering. We focused on the Presumpscot River area, one section of the Portland trails we both had never visited. What an amazing surprise awaited us!
Saturday, we drove to the trail head at the end of Overset Road and hiked into the Presumpscot River Preserve. The day was a perfect Maine Day-clear, crisp and about 75 degrees. When you arrive at the river, you can choose to travel up river or down river, and either way you will enjoy this beautiful spot. Is this really the Portland area? We hiked downstream first, which is where you find the Presumpscot Falls. This part of the trail ends at private property, although the day we hiked there was no sign indicating we had entered this property. You should probably stop when you reach the falls. The path headed upstream hugs the river’s edge, as well, although there are small “loop” paths off to the left. The trail continues under the highway overpass. When we finished in the Presumpscot River Preserve, we tried to find the trail head for the Oat Nuts Park Trail because the write-up on our map intrigued us. According to the Portland Trails, this land “was originally an old subdivision of very small lots, the deeds of which could be found in boxes of Oat Nuts cereal.” A brief search of the web unearthed some additional information about these land plots. At outdoor travels.com they shared that “the name of the trails came from a cereal company that ran a promotion in the 1930’s where they parceled out 10’ x 10’ plots of land ‘in the Maine woods’ for those who ate enough Oat Nuts cereal and sent in the box tops. Largely unused and unclaimed, the city eventually used imminent domain to claim the land and build a park.” What a great piece of Portland history!
So on Sunday, we returned to North Deering to hike the Oat Nuts trail. We parked at the trail head on Summit Street and walked into the woods. Once again we found a well-maintained trail that was being used and enjoyed by local residents. The length of the trail is about a half a mile, and when you walk it you can connect directly to the Presumpscot River Preserve, allowing you to put together a substantial hike for yourself. These will be gorgeous trails in the fall, and we will definitely return.
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| Trail head behind the Lyseth playground |
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| The cathedral pines of Pine Grove Park. |
Next we headed to the back of Lyseth School to walk the Lyseth/Moore/Pine Grove Trail. We started at the back of the playground behind Lyseth, and the trailhead is well-marked. This is a short hike across Allen Avenue into the Pine Grove Park.
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| The mowed path in the meadow behind PATHS High School. |
One thing we have learned this summer is that the Portland Trails “list” has been evolving. We have been using our 2nd edition map of the Portland Trails, but it is now clear that this does not exactly match the list on the Portland Trails website. Our assumption is that the website is the most accurate, and that is how we found ourselves walking the “PATHS” trail even though this trail is not currently featured on the web. Of course, after hiking the trail we can see that it is not well-maintained, a sure signed that it had “disappeared” from the “official” list. We picked up this trail at the end of Sky Lark Road, and it took us awhile to figure out the correct trail to PATHS. When we finally made our way to the Portland School, we had many thoughts including:
-Why aren’t the students of PATHS involved in maintaining this trail? (Although someone is clearly mowing the section that goes through a large field.)
-Who owns all of the land behind the school?
-Why does it not appear that this is part of the Portland Trails anymore?
This is a trail we would not revisit soon, but we hope that the students and teachers of PATHS notice the great treasure behind the school.
Our final stop of last weekend was the Presumpscot River Trail and again we found a stunning local spot. This trail takes you along the north shore of the river and is quite a steep and challenging hike, but well worth the effort.
This busy weekend was filled with four trails on the list and one that appears to have been removed from the list. The trails of the Portland waterfront and South Portland await!
