Trike ride to Popham Beach

on Dec 21 in Motorcycle Trips

From US Route 1 in Bath (home to Bath Iron Works) take the High Street/Phippsburg/Route 209 Exit. Follow this road through a residential area, you will also pass the Hyde School on your left. The road will jog across the  Winnegance  bridge.( this is where the Indians use to portage into Winnegance Lake to get to the New Meadows River to head south for the winter). Continue on Route 209 south skirting Drummore Bay and riding through historic Phippsburg. The highway will junction with Route 217, a spur road to Sebasco Estates and resort golf club. Keep left at the junction and continue on Route 209 where the road drops through low lands and a large marsh area of salt and seagrass. As you continue, the road will twist and turn around Spirit Pond. As you approach within a mile of the beach, the road will dip steeply and your next right turn is a very sharp turn, so please take caution here.

A mile later you will reach Popham Beach State Park. Popham Beach is a beautiful Beach  with long sand strands, nearby islands and is one of Maine’s best beaches, as well as the longest. At low tide, you can actually walk to one of the islands. Continue on Route 209 to the end of the route, go past the State Park entrance

and ride another two miles until you reach Fort Popham State Historic Site. The fort is the stone remains of a Civil War fortification built to protect the mouth of the Kennebec River.  Reverse your riding directions head north back along Route 209 and back Through Phippsburg center, and just past the center about a ¾ of a mile is Stoney Brook Road. Make a Left and follow Stoney Brook Rd. to end. Make a Right on Meadowbrook rd. and about a mile on your left is Meadowbrook Camping Area. This is a good place to stop and have an ice cream or Drifter’s Reef take out you can stop and have lunch. Meadowbrook is also known to cook Lobsters from 4 to 8 pm during the season and visitors are welcome. Continue past Meadowbrook and the roads turns into Campbells Pond rd and then connects with RT 209 again and head back into downtown Bath where you can choose to explore, or shop or head back on Route 1 north or south where you can continue exploring Maine’s coastal U.S. Route 1. For more historic info on Popham Beach go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popham_Colony#Founding

A Memorial Day to Remember ( B-52 Crash site Greenville, Me)

on Dec 04 in Motorcycle Trips

Yesterday Being Memorial Day I decided to pay my respects and fulfill one of the things on my personal list. At 0931 I left Meadowbrook Camping Area heading towards Greenville, Me. As I headed towards Brunswick I decided that I would only take back roads to the crash site.  Al through I hit a snag in Brunswick as I ran into the Parade so I had to detour on RT1 to Topsham and picked up RT 201 north and as i hit Gardner I ran into another Parade that was just finishing.  Gardner is a good place to stop at Dunkin Donuts for a pit stop and fresh cup of coffee.  Next heading into Augusta and Passed the Capital  on rt 201 north and  to RT 27 and heading to Belgrade Lakes region. I decided to turn off of RT27 onto Rt8/RT 11, as i have never been that way. This is really back roads and also a seanic route. As i headed north on RT8/11 i must have lost my way as i wound up in Waterville and picked up RT201 North heading towards Skowhegan, The home of Margaret Chase Smith, a state senator from Maine. I had the Pleasure of meeting her in the late 60′s at a friend’s house. As i continued up RT201 and headed into Bingham, and a right hand turn  and picked up RT 16 heading towards Abbot Village at RT6. A left hand turn onto Rt6 Heading towards Greenville.  This was a familiar route as this road is the one i usually take towards Greenville. This is a very interesting  road to Ride but you need to watch out for Moose.  As i was continuing towards Greenville, i was coming into Shirley. A friend of mine Skip Hickey has his camp here.  But he was in Hawaii so couldn’t stop so I continued on.  As I continued and just starting to come into Greenville, I saw  a few cars off on the side  of the Road. As I got closer I could see a moose had just crossed the road and i saw the tail end of him heading into the woods. This is great moose country and you can always find a moose somewhere up in this area.  As i continued into Greenville you start to see Moosehead lake. This is a big and Beautiful lake.  Today, we will be riding up the right side of the lake on Lily Bay Rd., heading north a few miles out of town.  I was looking for, according to my directions, Elephant Mountain Trail. But i never found it. When i saw Lily Bay state park I pulled into their and asked directions. The ranger at park told me to turn around and find Prong Pond rd and that was about 2 miles back.  that will lead me to Elephant mountain and the B-52 crash site.  She told me that a couple miles in I will start seeing signs to the crash site. I thanked her and headed back to Prong Pond rd. As I turned onto the Prong Pond rd. I could see that it was a dirt road, although it looked in good shape I would have to go slow.  Their were rocks sticking up and culverts that had small wash outs around them.  I continued down the road at a slow pace.  The ranger told me that the site was about 7 miles back this road.  as I finished my 3rd mile I saw my first sign that said B-52 crash site.  I continued on taking it slow, The road was gravel but in pretty good shape if you paid attention.

As I came to the to the path I parked the trike on side of road. As I entered the path I had only walked approx 20 feet before i saw the first part of debris. As I walked up the path, an earey feeling came over me. the further into the woods i went the more debris that i saw. As i approached the cockpit i saw that someone had placed an American Flag. I saluted and headed back to Meadowbrook Camping .

For info on crash go to http://www.moosehead.net/history/B-52.html