City Forest: Trails run through it, as do chances to commune with nature

Despite Bangor’s role as the shopping and service center for eastern Maine, residents and visitors also can find pockets of wilderness.

One such place is the City Forest, a 650-acre wildlife habitat and working forest owned and maintained by the city of Bangor. The forest is mere minutes from the busy Bangor Mall shopping area.

At the City Forest, you can hike, walk, bike or snowshoe along the roughly four miles of access roads and nearly 10 miles of recreational trails that meander through the forest.

The forest also is a great spot for wildlife watchers and birders. Among the fauna you might see are deer, moose, bears, turkeys, beavers and rabbits.

You also can picnic, as many people do during the warmer months, or simply take in the aroma of the pine, cedar and other trees that populate the forest.

If 650 acres isn’t enough for you, the Bangor Land Trust last year opened the Walden Parke Preserve, a 410-acre gift to the trust from two local couples, Fritz and Caroline Oldenburg and Dennis and Jane Shubert.

The preserve lies across the old Veazie Railroad bed from the 650-acre City Forest and runs between the rail bed and Orono town line.

If flora is more to your liking, the Orono Bog Boardwalk just might be the ticket.

It begins in the Bangor City Forest at the end of Tripp Drive off Stillwater Avenue, about a quarter-mile walk from the parking lot.

The mile-long boardwalk crosses the Bangor city line onto University of Maine property in Orono. Both the boardwalk and the access trail leading to it are wheelchair-accessible, and benches are provided at least every 200 feet along the way.

If you go…

The City Forest can be reached by Kittredge Road, which is located off the end of Hogan Road, or from Tripp Drive, which runs off Stillwater Avenue about 1.6 miles north of Hogan Road.

Admission is free.

Dogs are permitted in the City Forest, but not on the bog walk. Hunting and motorized vehicles are not allowed in either place.