Old Veazie rail bed offers fun midwinter trek

If you want to have fun, get some exercise, and a history lesson on the side, I’ve got a great outing for you. And, later on, I’ll fill you in on some armchair adventures you can experience at the Banff Festival of Mountain Films coming to Bangor, Ellsworth and Camden in a week.

First, the fun. I’ve had a booklet called “Old Veazie Railroad” in my meager library for a couple of years now, and when I was skiing in Bangor’s City Forest a couple of weeks ago, I remembered it. The perimeter trail of the forest connects with the old rail bed.

I’ve biked the rail bed in the past, and I thought it would be fun to retrace parts of the rail bed on skis or snowshoes. So I dug the little book out and thumbed through it for some ideas. It was compiled from notes and sketches by Bob Cardin of Veazie and published by the Galen Cole Family Foundation in Bangor (990-3600). If you want your own copy for $2, give them a call. They’ve placed large stones at strategic points on the route with a chiseled “V” to help you orient yourself as you discover the old line.

The Veazie Railroad was built in the 1830s and began service in November 1836. It ran from Bangor, near the present site of One Cumberland Place (on the hill across from the Margaret Chase Smith Federal Building), to Milford, carrying sawed lumber to Bangor and passengers back and forth. Prior to the railroad’s construction, sawed lumber was floated down the Penobscot River to Bangor, where it was shipped to the rest of the world.

It was only the second railroad in the country and it was the first successful one. It helped Old Town to become the largest supplier of lumber in the United States at the time.

Just building the rail line was quite a feat. You’ll appreciate this as you check it out. Sections of the old line required massive amounts of fill, river and bog crossings and cuts through ledge. Remember, heavy machinery common today was not available then. There was a lot of manual labor and horsepower involved.

The booklet describes a self-guided tour that will take you from the Milford ticket office and terminus at Ferry and Davenport streets. You’ll see a large stone with a “V” (now mostly snow-covered) and the white house across the street from it with a glassed-in porch. This was the ticket office. A power line to the southwest follows the old bed to the Penobscot River. A three-span covered bridge carried the rails across to just north of the present-day Penobscot River House Apartments.

From here, the line went through the Old Town Canoe Co. property and the Old Town Public Library, then up to the Helen Hunt School and along Perkins Avenue. It is here you can see the bed clearly – it’s the bike path. Farther along, the railroad crossed Stillwater Avenue next to Stillwater Cemetery on the Governor’s Restaurant end (there’s a stone there). It runs through the trailer park and crosses College Avenue Extension (another stone) and over to the Stillwater River.

My friend and “trainer” Karen Francoeur and I donned snowshoes and explored this short section. We then drove over to Bennoch Road and picked up the trail for a short distance toward the H.E. Sargent Co.’s yard. On this short section, you can see how much fill had to be used.

From there, the line crossed through what now is I-95 and took a bend south toward what is now the Orono Landfill. We put on cross-country skis and shuffled nearly three miles toward Bangor as a light snow began to fall.

If you have the time and energy, you can follow this all the way to the base of the Essex Street Recreation Center’s sliding hill. The interstate interrupts the line, and most of the rest of the rail bed is pretty much overgrown. But you can see part of it from Milford Street.

Now, here’s a reminder about the Banff Festival of Mountain Films. On Thursday, Feb. 15, Maine Sport Outfitters of Rockport will host a showing of several films from 7 to 9:30 p.m. at the Camden Hills Regional High School Strom Auditorium. Tickets are $8 for adults, in advance, at Maine Sport Outfitters in Rockport, or $10 at the door, and children 12 and under will be admitted for $6. Films to be shown include “A Higher Calling” (about six friends paragliding across western Nepal) and “Skilletto” (a short film about an extraordinarily talented unicyclist).

Then on Friday, Feb. 16, at the Bangor Opera House, Cadillac Mountain Sports is sponsoring a showing from 7 to 9:30 p.m. Tickets are on sale at the Bangor store on Central Street for $7 advance, $8 at the door. Among the films scheduled for Bangor are “Skilletto” and “a Higher calling,” “Wicked Liquid II – 1,000 Cunning Stunts” (about playboating and river running), “Posse of Women” (women mountain bikers), “Tamangur” (artist’s interpretation of landscape murals), “Nuparu” (big river drops in kayaks), and “Wild Climbs” (climbing sandstone towers of the Czech Republic).

From 7 to 9:30 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, Feb.17-18, Cadillac Mountain Sports is sponsoring shows at The Grand in Ellsworth. Saturday’s films will be on mountain culture, while Sunday’s shows are on mountain sports.

Tickets are on sale at the Ellsworth and Bar Harbor stores.

Jeff Strout’s column is published on Thursdays. He can be reached at 990-8202 or by e-mail at jstrout@bangordailynews.net.