What we see on our Maine road-less-traveled walks

Apr. 112020

In the midst of directives surrounding the cononavirus response, more people are taking walks around the roads less traveled — or even the roads well traveled. Avoiding frost heaves and the occasional pothole, there are bound to be views one doesn’t see or note while driving or even biking. Here are a few from a recent stroll.
This great hiking area includes meadow as well as woods CURTIS stone wall: The former farm fileds are studded with old stone walls, including this one that climbs a hill.
Readers — do you know where this is?
[Answer is at the bottom].

Mud season provides some precarious stepping.

One of the features, named after the people who once owned this land, is a granite erratic — a large rock left by glaciers. There are several on the site.
Bog Brook view: The Curtis Rock bench overlooks Bog Brook and its bog, where there’s great bird watching and trainquility.
There are several majestic stands of white pines on the property.

These photos are of the Curtis Homestead Conservation Area in Leeds.
The 360 acres are the childhood home of former Maine Governor Kenneth M. Curtis the land was donated by Curtis and his sister, Rebecca Curtis Meredith, to the Kennebec Land Trust. Much of the land was once farm fields, but became overtaken by forest after farming stopped on the land many decades ago. It also includes woodlots harvested by Archie Curtis, their father.
Before the land was settled, it was a crossroads for the Wabanaki people, as the area between the Androscoggin and Kennebec rivers watersheds. The property has about three miles of easy walking trails and provides an excellent example of forest succession patterns that occur in New England as agricultural activity diminishes over time. The property includes fields, mature woodlands and wetlands, trails, and excellent birding.

(Maureen Milliken photos)

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