Day 70 – 7 a.m., 56 degrees and sunny. Rob took his bike on a trail that looked initially to be excellent for a good ride, but he had to turn around when it was blocked by large rocks. So he just rode around the campground. That trail was really more for hiking. We packed a lunch & headed out for a long drive, making a loop north to the Canadian border, west, then back south & east to the campground. We’d wanted to see this area, and also to get an overview of the campgrounds & things to do further north.
We left about 9:45 on Route 1, driving through the city of Presque Isle. It was a fairly large City, very nice, pretty – the Aroostook River runs east/west at the top of the city & Presque Isle Stream cuts north/south thru the center of the city. Rob stopped at an RV dealership and got a part for the screened door; the spring in the latch broke yesterday. There were big signs in the City announcing the “Crown of Maine Balloon Festival” beginning Thursday. Cool!
The next city we came to that was also a decent size was Caribou. Another very nice City. The road was in good condition & there wasn’t much traffic. It had gotten more hilly and there were lots of beautiful trees. And in between, usually in the valleys, there were plenty of farms, with potatoes, potatoes, and more potatoes growing, plus some cabbage, some corn, lots of oats and some large & colorful sunflower fields. All peaceful, clean, and lovely. On the way up here, we’d also been reminded that the Aroostook National Wildlife Refuge is between here & our campground. We definitely want to spend a day there.
As we got closer to the Canadian border, there were more small towns beginning with Van Buren, advertised as “an Acadian Village”. The landscape was changing to more rural, small-townish, less farms, less forests. We stayed on Route 1 north, continuing as it reached the St. John’s River & the border in New Brunswick, Canada. Route 1 turned west, following alongside the River with the U.S. on one side and Canada on the other side. Pretty! Here there was definitely a French influence in the names of towns, on the signs, and particularly in the architecture of the large churches.
We found our first campground in Grand Isle, called Grand Isle Campground (imagine that!). As we approached, we saw it was full and right beside Route 1 in the middle of town. No thanks. Driving further, we got to Madawaska, a charming town, and saw a sign for “town boat landing, RV sites available”. We took a hard right & turned off Route 1 towards the River. A bit away from the highway and overlooking the River & New Brunswick was a small lot with 8 gravel campsites in a circle. There were no trees, just some bushes around the perimeter, full sun on the sites, and no one was camping there. Well lookee here! Each site was fairly close to the next one; we wondered if it got busy on the weekend, plus it was right by the town boat launch, but they were right by the water. Each campsite appeared to have water, electric, & sewer although the utilities were closed off & locked. Hmmm…….
St. John River, Madawaska, ME
St. John River, Madawaska, ME
We saw that the sign said to inquire at the Police Station so we went into town & drove until we soon saw the Station. The campground was called St. John River Campground in Madawaska. We checked on the campsites and found that only 2 camper groups had used them so far this summer. Okay, they probably wouldn’t be busy on the weekend. They were $35 plus tax the 1st night & $25 each night thereafter. Hook-ups would be unlocked once you’d paid for the site and given a $5 deposit for the keys. The Police Chief was quite chatty. Currently there must not be much happening in Madawaska. We took info on the sites and continued west on Route 1 to the next town, Frenchville. (No address, no phone number, no website information was on the paperwork we were given; to reach them we should just call the Madawaska Police.)
At Frenchville we left Route 1 temporarily to go inland to St. Agatha which is a town located at the top of Long Lake. Turning off on Lakeview Drive we reached the Lakeview Restaurant & Camping Resort, the only larger, more commercial, private campground we encountered up north. We followed a sign with directions to check in for more information at the Restaurant. It was about noon, beautiful out, and the Restaurant smelled really good. It looked like a nice place, popular, and there was outdoor seating, and a wonderful view overlooking the Lake. We talked to a woman who gave us literature & said it was okay to drive though the campground & that she did have some availability. The Lake was quite large, there was a golf course adjacent to the restaurant, 80 campsites all with hook-ups – some with water, electric, sewer, & cable and some without cable and some without cable & sewer. Prices were dependent on which level of hook-ups you chose, running from tent sites at $23 per night plus tax to Motor Home sites at $37 per night plus tax with all the hook-ups. All but 15 sites were grouped together on a hill with shade from intermittent trees; the front row of these sites was overlooking the Lake, a great view. To one side were 5 sites in full sun near the open field & playground, also great views. And the campground had just completed 10 campsites in a row below the larger camping area, also with a great view, but no trees, they had full sun & were out in the open. The campground offered the Restaurant, a camp store & arcade, an ice cream stand, laundry, propane, wireless internet, boat launch facilities, snowmobiling, ATV trails, tennis courts, walking paths, softball field, fitness center, volleyball & basketball courts, showers & restrooms. Long Lake is a 6,000-acre, 12-mile long body of water. A real recreational mecca. Nice, but not for us at this time. (207) 543-6331, 9 Lakeview Drive, St. Agatha, ME 04772, www.lakeviewrestaurant.biz
Driving back up to Frenchville & Route 1, we continued west & stopped at a small Park by the highway. There were covered picnic tables & a restroom. We got our lunch out; the Lakeview Restaurant had made us hungry. Starving, we’d just started our sandwiches when a man drove up, got out of his car and walked over to us, a camera hanging around his neck. I’m thinking, great, what is this guy selling, life insurance, real estate? He introduced himself as a member of the Frenchville Parks Commission and he wanted our permission to take our picture. Turned out, this Park was new & they were trying to promote its usage by out-of-towners in addition to the local folk. We said, “Sure, and look, our car has NY license plates & kayaks & bikes on it”; he said that he’d noticed that and proceeded to take a few pictures. We continued wolfing down our sandwiches. Then he joined us and we got the history of the Park, information on the upcoming Balloon Festival in Presque Isle, and the story of potato growing in northern Maine.
He pointed out the railroad tracks that were running alongside the Park and Route 1. Long ago, in the area where the Park now sits, between the tracks and the highway, there was a row of wooden buildings erected to store the potatoes grown by the local farms. Potatoes here are planted at different times, the new potatoes, red potatoes first, then the white & yellow potatoes, then the russet potatoes, something like that. When the different types grew and the plants above the ground had flowered, then the potatoes below the ground at the roots began their growth. When the plants above the ground have yellowed & look old, the potatoes below the ground are getting all the nutrients & are thriving. When the potatoes were harvested, they were put into these wooden buildings. This was before the railroads became more obsolete due to trucks & trailers were used for transport. The train with its empty cars would pull up and the potatoes would be loaded onto the train from the buildings where they were stored. The buildings eventually were not used anymore & were burned down or fell apart. Recently it was all cleaned up and the Park was put in. And that’s where we had our lunch.
We drove west again on Route 1 to Fort Kent. Last time we were at Traveler’s Woods Campground in Bernardston, MA, Rob had talked to a man who, after he’d heard we were eventually headed to northern Maine, recommended a small campground in Fort Kent. He had said that it was run by the Police Department. He didn’t know the name of it nor its exact location, just that it was in Fort Kent. We figured it might be the same deal as the one we’d happened upon in Madawaska – just look real hard for a sign by the road. After driving through the town, we hadn’t seen any signs for a campground, so we decided to look for the Police Department or the Parks & Recreation Department. We turned around & as we were watching for traffic so we could pull back out on Route 1, we saw a street sign with the name of RV campsites. We went down that street and came upon a really nice Park beside the St. John River with a large parking lot, fields for ball games, a bike & hiking trail, and off to the side, a very small campground with grassy sites, maybe 8 of them in a row. Only a couple of the sites were occupied. We parked and took a look at the Park. Fairly near Route 1 at a busy intersection, but on the River with some shade, and hook-ups for water, electric, & sewer. We walked to the boat launch which was nearby. There were benches along the water. Some people were sitting there & we talked to them. We asked if big ships went by on this waterway. They said that at this time of year it was probably too shallow, but that decent-sized motor boats & fishing boats used it. However, in the Spring the River comes way up to where we were all talking, into the Park, and it’d be deep enough then; but at that time you’ve got the frozen ice & the ice floes breaking up. We’d like to see it then! A lovely Park, it was fairly crowded on a Tuesday & would probably be mobbed on the weekend. Nevertheless, one to keep in mind for some other time. No contact information, just Police Department/Parks & Recreation in Fort Kent.
At another time when we wouldn’t have been driving all day, we would have gone farther to the end of Route 1. Also, we would’ve driven about 30 miles further to where the Allagash River begins, and hearty canoe & kayak boaters travel the River for many days from one end to the other, camping along the River. There are no roads, no cars, no campgrounds, and no easily-accessible towns. But we turned south on Route 11. This was a beautiful drive with big, rolling hills cut through forests. Remote lakes, cabins, the occasional town. This was the land of big game hunting & fishing. We stopped at a campground at Eagle Lake; there had been a sign for it, the Eagle Lake Marina & Campsites. There were some campsites with hook-ups right on the Lake. Maybe 10 sites at the most. All were full. No space between sites but great access to Eagle Lake and not right on Route 11.
Further south we came to St. Froid Lake & a sign for St. Froid Lake Camps, Campground & Guide Service. I had seen this place on the internet. The advertisement was all about hunting with pictures of the animals hunted, not the campground. I wasn’t interested in seeing this place, but it occurred to me that maybe if it wasn’t hunting season, the campground would be empty & maybe it’d be quite remote. So since we were right there, we drove about a mile on a dirt road to the Lake. A very nice location right on upper St. Froid Lake, we stopped at the building that had a sign which said “Office”. We walked right into someone’s kitchen & were greeted by a large dog. Awkward, but that’s what we were supposed to do, evidently. A man came out from another part of the house and talked with us. He was the hunting guide. He said hunting season begins there next Monday. They had 4 cabins beyond the house & they were on the Lake. Above the cabins & the house/office there was a small wooded campground which was full of RV’s & Trailers that looked like seasonal or full-time campsites. He gave us a couple of his cards & said he could let us camp by the cabins using an extension cord for electricity access, and if we wanted to, we could look at the lawn down there – $35 per night plus tax. Then he kept saying he hoped that he didn’t have anyone coming in at that cabin. We hoped so, too. We looked at the proposed campsite & while nice and on the Lake, we’d feel like we were infringing on the cabin vacationers. (207) 444-4581, 134 Lakeview Drive, Winterville, ME 04739, stfroidcamps@fairpoint.net.
Back on Route 11 south, we soon came upon another sign for RV campsites on the Lake. We took the road and drove to St. Froid Lake again, this time towards the middle of the Lake. In this area, the Lake was fairly lined with small cottages and cabins. We did see a place with a sign & a phone number, several small cabins and 3 grassy campsites. It was a nice location but getting in and out of there would’ve been difficult with our RV.
We continued south until Ashland where we went east on Route 163 back to Presque Isle, entering the State Park the back way via Chapman Road to Nile Road to Spragueville Road to State Park Road. We passed by a couple of good kayaking sites, one at the boat launch at Riverside Park in Presque Isle with access to Presque Isle Stream & one at Arnold Brook Lake, a smallish Lake, pond-sized actually, with boat launch off Nile Road. Of course, there’s always the Echo Lake right at the State Park. Plenty of kayaking places.
It was close to 5 p.m. when we got back to the RV. The high today was 79 degrees, partly cloudy. We weren’t blown away by any of the campgrounds we visited, but we needed to think about whether to try one of them or stay where we were, using it as a home base until September 2 when we’ll be going back to Lily Bay State Park. We looked up the “Crown of Maine Balloon Festival” on the internet, got the schedule of events, and felt that it looked like fun. Maybe we’ll just stay here?