A Pedal in Moosehorn National Wildlife Refuge

When we set our itinerary, we usually do not know everything about the area, and we often find attractions and activities in addition to -- and sometimes better than -- the ones we had originally planned.  Moosehorn National Wildlife Refuge is an example.  We only discovered it as we drove our motorhome the last few miles to our campground in Eastport, Maine.  

Having spotted the sign, we did some research.

Moosehorn National Wildlife Refuge, established in 1937 and comprising nearly 47 square miles, is one of the northernmost National Wildlife Refuges in the Atlantic Flyway, a migratory route that follows the eastern coast of North America. The refuge provides important feeding and nesting habitat for many bird species, including waterfowl, wading birds, shorebirds, upland game birds, songbirds, and birds of prey.  The refuge's landscape is varied, with rolling hills, large ledge outcrops, streams, lakes, bogs, and marshes. A northern hardwood forest of aspen, maple, birch, spruce and fir dominates the upland. Scattered stands of majestic white pine are common. Among other fauna that inhabit the Refuge are bald eagles, woodcock, black bear, ruffed grouse, lynx, beaver, red fox, river otter, gray fox, moose, bobcat, coyote, raccoon, mink and deer.  In recent years, as many as three pairs of eagles have nested in the Refuge.  Approximately one third of the Refuge is designated as federal wilderness. The two Wilderness Areas (one in each division) are part of the National Wilderness Preservation System. They are managed with a "hands-off" philosophy and granted special protection to maintain their primitive qualities. Internal combustion engines and mechanical means of transportation (i.e. bicycles) are not allowed. Habitat management is kept to a minimum to allow the areas to develop into old- growth climax forests.

Moosehorn offers its visitors over 50 miles of roads and trails which are closed to vehicle traffic but open for hiking, cross country skiing, trail biking and snowmobiling.  We thought, "We can bike and hike, so why don't we go?"  And so we did, on Tuesday, August 3, 2021.

Most of the Refuge is accessible by gravel/dirt/sandy roads that permit walking or bicycling, but to see enough of the Refuge in one visit, it is necessary to use bikes.  From the roads, an interlaced network of trails permit foot traffic only (no bikes) in order to penetrate deeper into the wilderness portions of the Refuge.  We started on Headquarters Trail by bike:

Our entire ride gave us views of numerous ponds, bogs and marshes, including this one --

-- and this, just in the first mile:

Further on a couple miles, we had a chance to look out over Seeley Flowage from an earthen dam that is still intact:

Along the trail, we encountered more evidence that Autumn is approaching - maple leaves turned early red:

A little further, we stopped at a marshy section of the Cranberry Lake outlet stream, which boasted young cattails:

Around the south end of this section (the Baring Division) of the Refuge, we hiked a restricted trail out to the dam at the eastern end of Cranberry Lake, to catch a view of the lake:

We decided to continue our bike ride around Cranberry Lake to its north end, where we would have lunch.  The whole west shore of Cranberry Lake was wilder than the rest of the terrain we had pedaled through, and the road had become barely a path through thickets of alder and such.  But we finally made it to the north end of Cranberry Lake and its inlet stream, on an earthen dam that boasted a (presently unused) osprey platform.  Kathy paused for a drink of water:

Here is a view upstream at the inlet:

We must say that, in general, we encountered fewer bugs (mosquitoes, biting black flies, greenhead flies, etc.) than most people talk about.  But we did get hounded by some biting gnats at our lunch spot, so we tarried only long enough to eat and then hopped on our bikes to pedal back to our trailhead.

On the way, however, we stopped to admire these two beautiful butterflies:

Oh, yes, and we had to pedal back through the alder thickets:

At one trail junction, we spotted this lake-cum-marsh named, "Firehole," which we admired briefly.  We don't know why it has that name -- perhaps because its leaves provide fiery colors in the Fall, or because the bugs are so hellish.  That's a research project for another day.

We hadn't expected to get the experience of the interior of Downeast Maine when we set out to Eastport, so Moosehorn turned out to be a wonderful discovery and a complement to our other Downeast adventures.  Next, on to the Great North Maine Woods!