Trails that are set aside for non-motorized sports and fitness prove to be great assets to any community, even though they take significant effort to create and maintain. Residents and visitors in the Central Maine communities of Waterville, Winslow, Benton, Fairfield, and Oakland have an excellent resource in the Kennebec Messalonskee Trails.
Kennebec Messalonskee Trails Promote Health of Local Communities
The Kennebec Messalonskee Trails is a non-profit organization that coordinates the efforts behind creating and maintaining these trails. The group has praise-worthy ambitions:
- promote, build, and maintain recreation and fitness trails along the Kennebec and Messalonskee waterways
- improve the health of the citizens of the community by promoting exercise
- embrace the historic river heritage of the area
- partner with other organizations and model regional cooperation
- emphasize the aesthetic and economic values of clean rivers
Easily Accessed Community Trails
Just minutes from the busy downtowns of greater Waterville communities are a number of trails set aside for hiking, biking, jogging, skiing, and snowshoeing. An interactive, color-coded map is available a the KM Trails website to help visitors locate trailheads.
The primary trails are the Messalonskee Stream Trail and the Rotary Centennial Trail. However, shorter trails have also been created: North Street Recreational Area Trail (Waterville), South End Island Trail (Waterville), and Mill Island Park (Fairfield).
Messalonskee Stream Trail in Oakland
This route is the longest of the KM Trails, about 6 miles round trip. It was constructed by the Maine Conservation Corps in 2006. Open sunup to sundown, year-round. Park in a small parking lot off Kennedy Memorial Drive in Oakland immediately BEFORE the first set of traffic lights when approaching from Waterville. Keep a sharp eye out for a chain link fence that marks the narrow driveway into the parking lot.
The Messalonskee Stream Trail is quite hilly (none steep) and is suitable for hiking, walking dogs, jogging, skiing, and snowshoeing. Bikes are permitted. The route is rated as "moderately difficult" because of the extensive rocks, roots, bridges, small hills.
The surface is packed soil/woodland duff. The trail hugs the banks of the Messalonskee, providing many attractive stopping spots (even picnicking!). Most of the route is within forested sections, with only intermittent strong sun exposure.
Once on the Messalonskee Stream Trail, adventuresome outdoor enthusiasts can extend their outing several miles more by connecting to other trails in the Waterville-Oakland area. Cross Rice Rips Road (about 3 miles from the Oakland trailhead), follow along a powerline easement to County Road, continue toward Thayer Hospital on North Street, and then walk the short North Street Recreational Area Trail. Or turn right on Rice Rips Road to reach the Colby College campus trails that extend on both sides of Mayflower Hill.
Rotary Centennial Trail in Benton-Winslow
This route is about 4 miles round trip and is very flat, having been created from the graded railway bed along the Kennebec River. Open sunup to sundown, year-round. Limited parking is available in a wooded spot that can be reached by turning at the Asher Farm Mobile Home Park off Benton Avenue in Benton (1/2 mile from intersection with Route 139).
The surface is "superhumus" - bark mulch with some gravel. It's suitable for all non-motorized recreation, and, because it is so flat, people with baby strollers, young kids, and the elderly will find this an easy route.
The first leg ends at a nice resting spot at the abutment of a bridge that once spanned the Kennebec. All that remains are granite slabs. Here, the Waterville Rotary Club placed a granite marker in the shape of a wheel to commemorate the completion of the trail for the centennial of the organization's history.
Cheryl Pratt - Cheryl Pratt has been a technical writer/graphic designer for a medical software company for the past 10 years. She has published articles ...
