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
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