Cumberland Town Forest

I went hiking with my sister in the
Comberland Town Forest in Cumberland,
Maine. Here's some of the highlights
of the hike:

The trail is 1.5 miles long and it
initially parallels an open field which
you cannot see because of the dense
forest canopy. It wasn't until we got
to trail marker #3 that we could see the
field.

We decided to explore the edge of the
field, which is just off the hiking trail
and may be private property. The
field has an abandoned railroad bed that
appears now to be a road for jeeps and
other 4-wheel drive vehicles.

The field also has a snowmobile trail entrance
that goes into the woods and that crosses the
Cumberland Town Forest Trail. We hiked on the
edge of the field for a few tenths of a mile
and then we rejoined the Cumberland Town
Forest hiking trail via the snowmobile
trail.

Once back on the Cumberland Town Forest trail,
the trail markers started appearing again. We
had left the trail on pure whimsy --- we wanted
to explore the field a little bit to get our
bearings in the surrounding community.

It's a good idea to wear good hiking boots on
the trail as it is full of protruding tree roots
and low lying areas full of puddles. We were there
on December 28, 2011, and it has been unusually
warm this winter so far. The ground was only
partially frozen and we could feel the partially
frozen frost heaves collapse under our feet.

The forest is a mixture of planted trees and
untamed forest. When hiking through the planted
trees, you get a cathedral effect as you walk
between a row of trees. The forest floor is
quite tame with a nice pine-needle bed underneath
the rows of trees.

The last time they planted trees was in 1960
according to one of the signs I read. That sounds
about right as the trees are quite mature and
look like they are about 50 years old.

The amount of acreage that is untamed forest greatly
outnumbers the acres that consist of planted pine
trees. In the untamed part of the forest, the forest
floor is full of humps and bumps. You'll spend very
little time in and amongst planted trees and more than
90 percent of your time amongst trees of all sizes
and kinds.

There are streams to cross in the forest and bridges
to help you cross the streams. At the time
of this writing, the first mile of the trail is
maintained much better than the last half mile.

After you hit the largest stream, which is about
a mile in, I suggest being very very careful to
stop and find the trail every once in a while.
At one point, the trail took a sharp left turn
which was obstructed by a fallen tree.

The sharp left turn was marked by very old paint
on trees and is not all that easy to pick up on.
My sister was walking in front of me and missed
the turn. I suggested we turn back and try to
find the trail again.

It was only by standing still and being very
observant for quite some time that I could be
sure that I had found the trail again. After
the sharp left turn, which is indicated by
a colored plastic ribbon in a tree, the trail
becomes much more watery and hard to follow.

It's in the last half mile that you end up
following a stream with gentle 6 inch waterfalls.
We stopped and stood by one of these little
waterfalls just to enjoy the sound of falling
water. The stream has enough water in it to
keep a small town supplied with water. Listening
to the gurgling water brought peace to my heart.

After the little baby waterfalls, navigating
the trail took some creativity. There's
lots of standing water that you have to map
out in your mind so as to get around it. The
standing water creates a maze of little patches
of land that you have to jump over water to get to.

All of the jumps were easy jumps about a yard
stick in length but there were many many of them.
The forest floor is very uneven and has many
little tiny islands that rise above the water.
This is where the humps and bumps found on
the forest floor are actually an aid to
navigation. Without the humps and bumps,
we would have gotten our feet wet.

It was in the last quarter mile of the trail
that we goofed up. We'd done very well
following the trail up to that point. We
lost the trail.

In the last quarter mile of the trail,
come to some reeds which are quite tall.
The tallest of the reeds are perhaps 7
feet high. I"m over 6 feet tall and
the reeds are taller than I am.

We were there in December so the reeds
had grown all summer and into the fall.
We've had very little snow this year,
so far, and somehow the snow has not
knocked the reeds down.

The reeds are hollow. They are sort of
like bamboo but much weaker. The reeds
break easily in your hands.

When you first see the reeds, you are at
a t-junciton. The trail behind you is the
stem of the t-junction and a path going through
the reeds is the top of the t-junction.

We turned left at the t-junction. I now think
we should have turned right at the t-junction.

Had we turned right, I think we would have come
out by a ball field at a nearby school. We
would have walked by this ball field and then
a second ball field which then would have taken
us back to our car.

This document has a map of that includes the
entire Comberland Town Forest trail and also
the 2 ballfields:

Explore Cumberland's Scenic Trails

While the map mounted on a sign at the trailhead
is pretty good, the map found in the above
document is even better. It was by printing
out the above document that I was able to find
the 2 ball fields that you walk by at the end
of the trail.

It looks like the end of the trail is a path that
leads follows the line of the forest right beside
the two ballfields. That's my read of the map in
the above document.

I'll have to go hike the trail again to see if I
have correctly figured out the end of the trail.

Ed Abbott