The Windham Mountain Division Trail!

The Windham Mountain Division Trail

I asked my friend N what he wanted to do this weekend, and he said, "Go for a hike somewhere close to your house." Well, that stumped me, because I wasn't aware of any hiking available close to our house. So I asked my stepmom and she gave us a great suggestion. It's called the "Mountain Division Trail." It connects Windham, Standish and Gorham. You live for years and the things you still don't know about it, can be astounding!

I didn't know what to expect at all; I was expecting some solitary trail in the woods where you had to watch how far you walked and turn around to walk back since it wasn't supposed to be a looping trail.

We decided to take the Windham entrance instead of the Standish one, because we thought we'd stop at the bakery first for a treat. Also, we had no idea whatsoever how to get to the Windham trail, and after half an hour of trying to Mapquest to figure it out, we figured getting some sweets and directions at the bakery seemed like a great plan. And so it was. We each had a HUGE chocolate chip cookie with whole Hersheys kisses in it, and shared an apple crisp. It was so sunny and beautiful out, I started walking around the large parking lot and just wanted to stay there. The sun was shining, I was able to wear a T-shirt for the first time all winter, and it made me feel great.
It made me want to dance. It made me feel so blessedly free and unencumbered. What a treat. "I hope it's this sunny and nice at the trail," I said to my friend N as we got back in the car. "I hope so too," he said, "I want some sun." We hoped the trees wouldn't keep out the sun.

When we found it, which was surprisingly easy to do, we got out of the car and started walking. The first thing we found was a river (I think), and we ran towards to it, and sat on a log and enjoyed the beautiful spot we had found for a few minutes. The sun was sparkling on the water. Then, not having any idea what we would find, we headed in the direction of where we thought the trail was. Railroad tracks! Nothing but railroad tracks! What a pleasant surprise! I was delighted and immediately thought of Vermont and Montana, both of which had more than their fare share of railroad tracks to play on. Vermont especially, I used to play on abandonded sections of railroad tracks all the time, seeing how far I could balance and making little games out of it. The railroad tracks were one of my favorite things about Burlington. In Missoula, they had them too, but they weren't as easy to balance on or as plentiful as in Vermont. Such fun to see railroad tracks again, and to realize the whole path must be built around them. Everywhere I've gone I've heard of plans to take old railroad tracks and turn them into paths, connecting different cities to each other and make a commuter path, but I've never seen it in reality -I've never seen a completed vision, only heard the ideas. And always thought it was a great idea. Liberty, I believe, there was much talk of this.

This path went from Windham to Gorham to Standish. But the plan was to make it go all the way to the New Hampshire border at Fryeburg, and especially to connect it to Portland. The state is still planning to do those things eventually, it seems, but right now only these three towns - the towns closest to us for once! - are done.

So I dropped my sweatshirt, which I was carrying, and immediately got to the business of seeing how long I could walk on the tracks without falling off. It felt so good to be balancing - the focus required to use your body in that way, and the brain activity required to balance, is a great sensory activity that seems to center everything and make you feel calmer in mind, body and spirit. And what heaven to have miles and miles to do it on! However, I got tired of it after a bit, (my record being 100 steps taken without falling), and so we continued on our way, on the ground. The sun was shining just as brilliantly as it had been in the parking lot, and that was beautiful, and made me feel good as well. Eventually, we got a little tired of the monotony of walking on the tracks and the sun got a bit too hot. The sign said we had gone three quarters of a mile, but it didn't seem that long.

I wanted to know if the sign was right and how we knew when we should turn back, so I asked a couple that was walking by us. They told us all sorts of things about the trail, mostly that if you went to the left (there was a dirt path of some sort on one side of us), it would take us to a trail by the river and go in the direction of Gorham, and that there used to be a gun powder factory there, and all sorts of things that I couldn't quite comprehend because he was talking fast. We thanked them for all their advice and ideas and decided to see what happened if we went that way, because the railroad was getting a bit boring.

So we walked on the nice dirt path, happy to be in the shade away from the hot sun. In about three minutes, we came upon a small parking lot, with some athletic fields to one side. I was dissapointed and thought we had reached the end of the trail and maybe the couple had been wrong. But my friend pointed out that the trail continued at the other side of the parking lot. So on we went. The trail was nice and shaded with lots of trees, and resembled more like a typical hiking trail, for which we were glad after the hot sun and monotony of the at-first interesting railroad tracks. There was more water, I believe, which was pretty; a river of some sort. But then we got to the end of THAT trail way too quickly, with a road with people walking down it, and we assumed at first it was the end and we had to go back to the car, far before we were ready. And then we noticed once again that it continued beyond the road, so we said, why not? Let's see where it goes. There was a sign that said "Penobscot Bay Trail."

We felt very adventurous at this point, since we had no idea where we were going or where we would end up. I said it was like the "Energizer Bunny" trail, it just wouldn't quit. I also sang "Skimbleshanks the Railway Cat" while we were on the railroad tracks, and was surprised at how much I remembered. It was the only railroad song I could think of besides "City of New Orleans." "Good morning America, how are you....."
The trail at this point narrowed quite considerably, making it feel even more exotic and Secret Garden-ish, but also making it a bit uncomfortable, as I prefer wider trails. It did however increase the feeling that we were going somewhere special. At one point, we found what I assume were the remains of the gun powder factory the man had told us about. They were pretty cool. We kept walking, but then the trail abruptly stopped - almost like as if it was a cliff. There was a gully, a ditch, whatever you want to call it, between us. We realized we could go down and up and keep going, so we did - about four times of these gaps. Then, just as we thought we had hit a dead end,
the trail changed once again! It was exciting because we had had such a variety of terrains in one day, we never knew what was going to come next. That kept us excited and interested, unlike most hiking trails where you have one terrain the whole way.

The next terrain was a field of some sorts; the sun peeked out once again and pounded down on us, a welcome relief. The field reminded me of Montana, for some reason. Maybe because I often walked through fields to get to hiking areas in Montana. There were power lines nearby. This area only lasted a very short time before the other trail picked up again. At this point, we were getting awfully tired and aware we still had to walk the whole way back, so we decided to cut it short and go back. And those gulleys were a lot harder to navigate on the way back! But we made it, and enjoyed it. Sunshine alternating with shade, roads and dirt paths alternating with leaves and roots, water alternating with shore, what more could you want? I forgot to say the narrow part was completely covered with leaves that crunched loudly as we walked - as if it was fall and not spring, as if said leaves hadn't just been buried under several inches of snow just a few weeks ago. When we finally got back to the sign and the parking lot - a loop, after all, how we managed to do a loop despite basically having no idea where we were going, I don't know, we were lucky - looking back, it was just what the guy on the railroad tracks told us to do, but since what he said didn't make a lot of sense at the time, we had no idea we were actually *doing* it. When we got back, though, we had clocked in at about 90 minutes, a very respectable walk. According to the sign, which I can't find a duplication of, we had walked from the Windham entrance, all the way around as far as the trail went, and down, on the Penobscot Bay Trail. When we got back to the Windham trailhead parking lot, there was a different map that didn't show where we went, though.

All in all, a very enjoyable afternoon, surprisingly so. We were able to experience the joy of discovery and curiousity together, as a mutual experience, and the experience of sharing our wonder at the ever changing natural habitat around us was a great one. I think this is my second favorite of our outdoor adventures we've been on, Bradbury being the first.
We've done Bradbury, Sebago Lake State Park, Wolfe's Neck, Mackworth Island and now this, Windham Mountain Division Trail, kind of a wordy name. Next week we might go on the Back Bay Trail, which is a three mile trail that loops around the ocean in downtown Portland. Nice to be able to experience so many of Maine's natural wonders in the last six weeks that I am in Maine, to really do it up and get something out of this wonderful habitat that we live in before I go off to Oregon. I am sure there will be interesting areas to explore and nice hiking trails there as well; the geography will be different, certainly, but that will make it all the more interesting. Two weeks untiI I go there!

Thanks for a fun afternoon to my friend N!