Wild River Ride

This Tuesday September 26th, we'll do an out and back ride in the Wild River Valley from Route 2 to the end of Wild River Road. The Wild River Trail beyond the campground experienced serious flooding as a result of Hurricane Irene and we won’t be able to ride past the campground on bikes. But we can walk into this area to see firsthand the devastation of Irene. So we’ll try a new starting point and ride about 3 miles up to Wild River Road on Route 113 from the intersection of Routes 2 and 113.

This ride is in a beautiful area and the foliage will make it gorgeous. We may encounter a few cars on Route 113, but weekday traffic should be light. The dirt Wild River Road is closed to auto traffic so we should have that all to ourselves with the exception of the occasional Forest Service vehicle. As we bike the 6 miles to the campground we’ll get a sense of the force of the flood waters on the surrounding landscape. It’s not all bad news though as the river views from the road have been greatly enhanced. In all we’ll cover something like 18 miles.

Directions: Go to Gorham on route 16 north. At the Route 2 intersection go right toward Maine. About 2 (I think it’s 1.9) miles beyond the Maine State line take a right onto a dirt road which leads to the site of the old bridge and a large parking area. If you get to the new bridge which is just beyond our turn off you’ve gone too far. And if you get to Route 113, on the right, just over the new bridge you’ll know you’ve over shot the starting point.


Let’s start the ride at 10:00am. It’s going to be a beautiful day and we can have a picnic lunch along the river. If anyone wants to carpool meet at the Jackson Old Town Hall parking lot across from the post office at 9am.