Stud Mill Road closing on Thursday

For many outdoors enthusiasts in search of wild places to hunt, fish or simply get away from it all, a trip out Stud Mill Road provides plenty of opportunities for recreation.

It is a gravel backwoods east-west highway (don’t tell the suits in Augusta about it … they might want to pave it and call it their own) that stretches from Costigan, near Old Town, down toward Princeton. It roughly parallels Route 9 — also called “The Airline” — and provides access to dozens of lakes, ponds and streams.

And while anglers and hunters use the road and depend on it, the Stud Mill Road is primarily a hauling road for trucks that carry lumber.

That’s why the road owners are understandably protective of that long strip of gravel.

And that’s why the Stud Mill Road will be closed starting Thursday, March 15.

Maine Game Warden Jim Fahey checked in on Wednesday to pass along that news, saying that the road will be gated as part of a regular spring closure that started a few years ago. The goal: Protect the road from the kind of beating that can occur during Maine’s lengthy mud season.

Fahey said there’s no set-in-stone plan on when the road will reopen — it’s all up to Mother Nature — but said he expects the closure to last for 4 to 6 weeks.

So, apparently, it’s officially mud season in these parts. Spring ought to arrive sometime in April … or May … or July.

Ah, Maine. Ain’t it great?

 

John Holyoke

About John Holyoke

John Holyoke has been enjoying himself in Maine's great outdoors since he was a kid. Today, he's the Outdoors editor for the BDN, a job that allows him to meet up with Maine outdoors enthusiasts in their natural habitat. The stories he gathers provide fodder for his columns, and this blog.