Issues → January/February 2012 → Travel →
Maine's Western Mountains
For outdoor adventure or indoor comfort, get ready to lose yourself in the beautiful towns and mountains of western Maine.
by Hilary Nangle
Photo Credit: Carl Tremblay
More than anywhere I know, the soul of a New England winter exists amid the frozen waterways, snow-drifted woods, and frosted peaks of western Maine. Raw, remote, and wild, this slice of the state, cornered by New Hampshire and Quebec, draws skiers, snowboarders, snowshoers, and snowmobilers, who revel in the deep cover and rarely crowded trails, surrounded by miles of natural beauty. Looking out from the summit of Sugarloaf or Saddleback Mountain on a brittle blue-sky day, with the snow all around blindingly white, I feel that the frozen confection below will crack and crumble if I expel a warm breath.
My city friends find this winter land too remote, too dark, illuminated only by the moon and stars, not streetlights and signs. And they're apprehensive about driving the sinuous byways that meander through mountains and valleys, binding small towns with smaller ones, blinks-along-the-road with outposts. I understand, but the mountains and the heritage woven everywhere throughout this land are worth it, I reassure them.
Sugarloaf and Saddleback are the marquee attractions, islands of bright lights and human voices, hearty food and comfortable beds. But it's the towns and villages slumbering in their shadows--Kingfield, Carrabassett, and Stratton, Rangeley and Oquossoc--that make the best partners for the winter ball, especially when dressed in white.
Sugarloaf: Feel the Love
Pop into Kingfield Woodsman for breakfast, and you'll be rubbing elbows with skiers en route to Sugarloaf, loggers heading into the woods, and Canadian truckers hauling their first loads of the day. Although it's the gateway to Sugarloaf, Kingfield is a real town with a distinct Maine vibe, and just enough shops, galleries, and museums, along with restaurants and inns, to invite plunking down for a couple of days. Once a month from October to April, this usually quiet town buzzes with First Friday Art Walk, when local businesses open their doors and offer refreshments and sometimes live music and poetry readings. Most skiers zip right through the downtown with hardly a glance at the distinctive Victorian architecture or pause to hear the Carrabassett River as it drops over a dam behind Main Street, but Kingfield is Sugarloaf's birth mother, and the relationship between town and mountain has never been cut.
In the early 1950s, local businessman Amos Winter and his "Bigelow Boys" cut the first ski trail on nearby Sugarloaf Mountain. Within a couple of years, the prophetically named Winter and some foresighted investors had established the Sugarloaf Mountain Ski Club, carving trails and naming them with logging and lumberjack terms. Their winter playground went on to become one of the largest alpine resorts in New England. That story, as well as others from Maine's skiing heritage, is shared at the Ski Museum of Maine, which occupies a couple of rooms above Sugarloaf Ski Outlet downtown, documenting Maine's role in the growth of the sport, from immigrant Swedes to Olympians, manufacturing to resorts.
Truth is, Kingfield was notable long before Sugarloaf, thanks to twin brothers Francis Edgar and Freelan Oscar Stanley, born here in 1849. Although best known for inventing and manufacturing the Stanley Steamer automobile at their Massachusetts plant, the brothers' twin legacy of innovation ranged from the first airbrush to the dry-plate coating for photo negatives. They also designed and funded the Georgian-style schoolhouse that now houses the Stanley Museum in Kingfield.
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