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RIDE AREA REVIEW

By Staff

Asure sign that we’ve found a great riding area is when we consider moving

there. The list of those areas is short, with places like Mexico’s Baja

Peninsula, Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, Oregon and Utah, Colorado’s

Western Plateau, and now Maine. Maine has almost 8000 miles of trails, thanks

to cooperation with state and local officials, gracious land owners, and the tireless

work of active clubs. It’s one of the best and most complete trails systems in the

country, and we couldn’t wait to ride there again.

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Maine is a riding wonderland with countless lakesand streams, enormous forests, and naturalbeauty in every direction. North Country Riversis ready to help you explore all of it.

Another group of trail riders head out for a great day on the trails

Winter is a great time toexplore the trails on asnowmobile, but whitewater rafting is the onlyway to cool off in summer!

OFF to the NORTH COUNTRY

North Country Rivers is one of Maine’spremier outdoor adventure outfitters. Re-gardless of the season, they’ve got some-thing to do whether it’s white water rafting,trail riding, mountain biking, or snowmobil-ing. You can hardly get any closer to thetrail than the rental cabins at North Coun-try Rivers; it’s just outside the door! Ouradventure at North Country Rivers beganas we unloaded our Polaris RZR 800 andpacked our gear into an immaculate, cozycabin.

They’ve got cabins for groups of allsizes at North Country Rivers and there issomething about the knotty pine thatmakes one feel at home. A kitchen areagives you the option of preparing your owncamp grub, or you can grab a great mealin their on-site restaurant / dining room.The cooks are excellent and the portions

are plenty, even for hearty eaters! If youown an RV or camper, you can bring thatalso and with over 60 acres of property,you won’t be crowded up against any othergroup. We always sleep great in the pinecabins, though, and in the morning wewere ready to explore the legendary Mainetrails.

Highlights of North Country Rivers:• Excellent rental cabins that sleep from

6 to 48 guests!• Located on the banks of the Ken-

nebec River• You can ride the ATV and Side x Side

trails right from your cabin• ATV & Side x Side rentals if you don’t

have your own• White Water Rafting• Excellent snowmobiling in winter• Large dining room with excellent food

• Their own on-site pub, a game room,and even an exercise facility

• A general store with plenty of supplies

COUNTRY CLUBLocated in the upper Kennebec Valley

Region of Maine, the territory surroundingNorth Country Rivers is known for some ofthe best trail riding in North America, withvast, pristine wilderness to explore. Thereare hundreds of miles of “feeder trails”reaching out in all directions from NorthCountry Rivers, some extending all the waynorth and into Canada! Regardless ofwhich direction you go, expect to ridemostly through forests of pine, maple,birch, cedar, and oak. If you like ridingthrough the trees, you’ve come to the rightplace! Also along the trail you can expectto see wildlife and it’s common to findbears, deer, bunnies, and plenty of othercritters that call the woods home. It’s theoccasional moose crossing the trail that re-ally gets one’s attention, however. Sincemoose are considerably bigger, faster, andoften more ornery than any cow foundalong the trail in Wisconsin or Arizona, givea moose plenty of room. You don’t want tohit any animal on the trail, especially onethat weighs more than many small cars.The little creatures you want to be pre-pared for though are the mosquitos. Thehungry, little vampires can be especiallyannoying during peak summer months, sobring along a good bug spray.

The trails we tried wound through theMaine forest, up and down gently rollinghills. There was plenty of elevationchange, but nothing overly steep or un-passable, at least where we were. Mainedoes have diverse topography, however,so you may find anything from swampbogs to steep mountain trails in otherareas. Throughout Maine you can expectoccasional stream crossings, a little mud,and rocky sections as well. There are alsonumerous waterfalls in the region. Best ofall, there is riding for all skill levels andmany options for single or multi-day routes.If you’re new to trail riding adventures orwould prefer a guide that knows the bestplaces, North Country Rivers is well staffedwith enthusiastic, informative, licensedguides that love the trails as much as youdo. Maine has one other natural resourcethat is a huge factor in creating what islikely the countries’ most complete trail sys-tem: a huge number of extremely activeATV clubs.

It’s impossible to overstate the value ofgrassroots ATV clubs. They make the trailspossible, often providing the manpowerand hard work to not only build the originaltrails, but to maintain them as well. Maineis chock full of hard working ATV clubs likethe Moose Alley ATV Club, the WellingtonWheelers, Valley ATV Riders Club, and atlast count, an astounding 96 other officially

recognized ATV clubs! Should you en-counter a work crew along the trail on yourouting, it would go a long way to let themknow you appreciate their efforts. Theydon’t ask much, but a simple “thanks” oreven a bottle of water does wonders.

There are a couple features that reallystand out about the Maine trail system: theywere extremely well marked, and they werevery clean. It’s obvious the clubs and trailusers take pride in their trails and thewilderness, and we found no trash, bottles,or other refuse along the way. We also no-ticed that the other riders we encounteredwere all very polite. Navigating our waythrough the trail system is also easy thanksto plenty of trail markers with not only trailnames, but directions to towns, ad-joining trails, natural sights, fuel orfood, etc. These details make thewhole experience even better.

DREAM STATENorth Country

Rivers has you cov-ered for every

type of outdoor adventure and the warm,friendly crew loves to show you the naturalbeauty of their state. It’s an excellent placefor outdoor family recreation and the stafftakes pride in insuring you enjoy every mo-ment of your stay. We certainly did!

Maine is on our short list of places wecould move to and call home. It has natu-ral beauty, friendly residents, and awesomeriding in nearly every direction, thanks to itsenormous and well developed trail system.You can bet we’ll be back soon trying to ex-plore every mile of it.

NORTH COUNTRY RIVERS36 Main St, Bingham, ME 04920(800) 348-8871www.northcountryrivers.com

Special thanks to Jim Murton and hisfine crew at North Country Rivers. Welook forward to seeing you all again on

our next adventure together.

north country rivers

With many streams and wetareas to cross in Maine it’scommon to find bridges andplank roads across the reallywet areas

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