Mountain Biking Portland Maine area Trails, Portland Maine

Mountain Biking

Bradbury State Park

Pownel - just outside of Portland, Maine

A well planned "newborn" trail system in the Maine woods provides a fast growing amount of sweet track.

by Dana Farnsworth, Outdoor Travels

There's a newborn you must see. No, I'm not talking about the hideous looking baby that your neighbors are so proud of; I'm talking about the recently hatched biking trails of Bradbury Mountain State Park just outside of Portland in Pownel, Maine. Bradbury Mountain State Park was one of five original Maine state parks founded by the government in 1939.

The current staff and management of Bradbury have really dedicated themselves to constructing one tremendous, unique and exciting trail system. The trails here are unique in several respects. One, this growing system is the only state park in southern Maine to offer shared-use trails for horseback riders, mountain bikers and snowmobiles. They are also unique in their structure. A lot of trails in Maine are old cow paths or multi-use hiking paths. That is, not designed by mountain bikers for mountain bikers. This system is being

built by a dedicated group of biking enthusiasts (mostly the rangers) who take a great deal of pride in cutting trails that they would want to ride.

In fact, the trails are being cut at such a torrid pace that the map I received at the front gate was already way out of date. The ranger made a few corrections with his pen that, at least for the day, made the map sort of accurate. For an example of how dynamic the development is, I heard that a new relatively long and fun trail was cut the very next day after my visit.

So, what makes these trails so special? Simple: the use of available terrain shows a great understanding of quality trail building. The trails are currently divided up in two sections, one accessible from each side of the parking lot. With your back to the entrance, the right side is the section I spent most of my time on. This section features a little bit of everything, but nothing to the far extremes - nothing really too easy, nothing really exceptionally difficult. I found challenging technical climbs, short sustained climbs, sweeping rolling hardpack through tall pines, technical maneuvers around rocks and

roots, small technical drops and even a few small stunts were being constructed for the brave riders! Generally speaking, the majority of trails are under a mile in length. With very little duplication, linking several trails together can make a nice loop.

There is a serious amount of fun to be had in this mountain biker paradise and it's only going to get better. Fortunately or

unfortunately, I visited Bradbury in its infancy. As it is currently

growing and changing rapidly, it would be impossible for me to provide any sort of definitive guide to the park's trail system. What I can do though is recommend you go ride Bradbury now and visit again as often as possible. It certainly has the beginnings of something really exciting.