Tag Archives: saco river

Evans Notch, Pequawket Trail (RT 113) Scenic Byway

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Evans Notch Scenic Byway, RT 113

Maine Scenic Byways. Copyright © Eric Holsinger. Image used with permission.

Evans Notch is a mountainous area in Western Maine between Fryeburg and Gilead. The north side of the notch flows into the Androscoggin River drainage and the south side flows into the Saco River drainage. All around it is mountains and forests.

The Pequawket Trail Scenic Byway follows RT 113 north from Fryeburg and weaves in and out of Maine and New Hampshire as it passes through the White Mountain National Forest and the Caribou-Speckled Mountain Wilderness.

The area around Fryeburg is agricultural; corn fields and farms. The Saco River flows wide and slow in this area. The road winds in and out farms and forest and slowly climbs toward the notch.

The area near the notch opens up with scenic vistas overlooking the White Mountains of New Hampshire. The cliffs above the notch provide nesting for a recovering population of Peregrine Falcons.

North of the notch, the road follows the Cold River as it descends toward Gilead and the Androscoggin River.

In the winter, a section of this road is impassible. There are gates for closing the road, but you’ll probably just find the plow trucks have blocked any passage with hard packed snow.

Evans Notch Scenic Byway at EveryTrail

More information:

Image used with permission, Copyright Eric Holsinger.

Saco River may get additional fishways

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The owners of 9 dams on the Saco River, FPL Energy, may agree to install 4 new fishways as part of its relicensing agreement with the Maine and federal agencies.

The Bar Mills dam, which needs to be relicensed, is the first upstream dam with no fish passage. Local agencies, including the Saco River Salmon Club, have been working with officials to gain upstream and downstream access for fish and american eels as part of the negotiations. Licenses can last up to 50 years, so the terms of the agreement can have a long-lasting impact.

If the agreement is signed, FPL could be finishing the first fish passage at Bar Mills by 2016.

Saco River Pedal/Paddle Tour

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I like combining bicycling with kayaking or canoeing. I call these Pedal/Paddle Tours. Usually a Pedal/Paddle Tour involves two legs: a kayaking or canoeing leg down a river, followed by a bicycle leg back to where we launched the boat. We accomplish this by stashing our bicycles at a location where it’s easy to take the boat out of a river. We drive to a place to launch the boat and paddle downriver to the place where we stashed the bikes. Then we ride our bicycles back to where the car is parked and go get the boat.

The lower Saco River, in Saco, Maine is perfect for a Pedal/Paddle Tour. The lower Saco River is tidal from the dam at Saco Island, between Saco and Biddeford, down to Camp Ellis. The roads near the ocean in Saco, Camp Ellis, Ocean Park and Old Orchard can make a nice coastal bike route.

For this trip, we stashed the bikes at a parking area along Ferry Road in Saco, near Camp Ellis. There is a sandbar there where we could take the Kayak out and carry it up to the road. Another option would be to put your bikes at the Camp Ellis parking lot, at the pier.

After stashing the bikes, we drove back into Saco and launched the Kayak from the public boat launch on Front Street, next to the Yacht Club. Then we paddled downriver to the sandbar.

It took us about 45-50 minutes to paddle; experienced paddlers could do it in 30 minutes. The river was high; high tide had crested at 6:48 AM. The ride back was quick and easy. Much of the bike route back has a paved recreational path.

We saw some wildlife on the trip. When we were stashing the bikes, a whitetail deer was browsing in the high grass near the sandbar. Three times, while kayaking, cormorants flew so close we could hear their wings flapping. When we were loading our Kayak, an immature bald eagle circled over us several times.

Click the image below for a larger map.