The Places Between 6

Brewer Riverwalk

This post was originally published January 11, 2024.

In my quest to be close to water, I have walked along many waterfronts. I’ve enjoyed many moments listening to the turning waves and watching the wildlife flock to the same place as me. Some waterfronts I’ve walked more than others, but funnily enough, after growing up so close to the Brewer Riverwalk, I only started walking it a few years ago.

To be fair, the Brewer Waterfront had a lot of work done on it a few years ago, and now it's more popular than ever before. It features a chessboard on one of its picnic tables and at least one person walking their dog every time I go. I remember before COVID, a friend and I walked down it on the Fourth of July. We sat on the grass and listened to the local music from a nearby restaurant before the fireworks exploded over the river. 

Two Cent Bridge, Waterville

The Waterville Riverwalk is another lovely little stroll along a river. A few years ago, the city did some significant remodeling, adding in large art pieces and an amphitheater. From the shade of the gazebo, I could read the names of several donors on the marble or I could lean out and watch the water fall from the dam. More than anything, I enjoyed the footbridge that spanned across the river. The bridge is called Two Cent Bridge, after its toll amount when it was first used in the early 1900s. Today, it doesn’t cost anything to cross. The chain-link fencing was decorated with dozens of locks, reminding me of Love Lock Bridge in Paris, France. Some of them have initials, names, and dates, following in the tradition of locking in one’s love.

Faerie Houses, Gardiner

I think Gardiner is an underrated town in Maine. Growing up, my familiarity with Gardiner was that it was the first toll booth that you hit when driving south on the interstate. We’d stop at the rest stop there, which was a very nice facility that featured different fast food chains throughout the years. I discovered the waterfront by accident, while driving through one day. I pulled into the parking lot next to the river and sat for a while at one of the picnic tables, watching the occasional boater pull in from the boat launch. The waterfront connects all the way back to Augusta via the Kennebec River Rail Trail, but I just walked along the waterfront park’s sidewalk, until it curved up into the nearby woods, which I proceeded to explore. The trail into the woods is very short, only spanning a few hundred yards at most before I was forced to turn around. The woods on either side of the trail were decorated with faerie houses, designed and constructed by students at the local school. I knocked on the doors of a couple, but it seemed no faeries were home.

Kennebec River Rail Trail, Augusta

Speaking of the Kennebec River Rail Trail, I’ve walked it from its other end in Augusta quite a few times. I’ve never had the energy to do the whole trail at once, but there are many entry points, so I figure at some point I’ll inevitably have walked the entire thing. The rail trail is one of the few trails that I find clear during most of the winter. While other places stop trail maintenance once the snow starts falling, I’ve had luck walking parts of the trail during Maine’s coldest months. Through the leafless trees, I catch glimpses of the Kennebec River, which has flooded so much with recent rains. Sometimes thick snow capped ice blocks float down it, and sometimes I spot a sturgeon leaping from the water in a dazzling display.