PAGE 62
FavoriteRidesandDestinations . com / ridermagazine . com
Setting up camp along the Allagash at the edge of the Great North Woods .
Late afternoon shadows rippled across the road in the logging truck ’ s wake . Do I continue up this delightful , twisty tarmac for a chance encounter with a 100,000-pound brute , or backtrack for a possible collision with a 1,500-pound moose ? Lesser of the two evils , I decided , so it was return to Patten , where I calmed nerves with a lumberman ’ s meal of eggs , corned beef hash and a side of beans at Debbie ’ s Deli .
Route 11 due north of Patten enters Aroostook County , the largest one east of the Mississippi River . The road sweetly roller coasters and gently curves through the North Woods , occasionally zipping apart the pine and spruce as it unravels into the pastoral distance . We entered the Fish River Valley past Portage , the landscape filling now with grasslands and wildflower meadows . Lupine splashed various shades of lavender brushstrokes along the roadside .
My northward trek halted at Fort Kent along the St . John River . I felt compelled to seek road ’ s end toward Allagash . Some 30 miles later I encountered locked gates and the beginning of gravel roads launching into the Allagash Wilderness . With no intent of taking