BANGOR, Maine — Ashley Wells and her 11-month-old mixed-breed dog, Bert, spent Saturday morning doing the same thing they do nearly every weekend — walking on the Kenduskeag Stream Trail.
“I live not far from here, so it’s an easy walk,” Wells, 29, of Bangor said as she and her small dog stepped off Franklin Street onto the trail. “He does better on trails.”
From Franklin Street, the trail travels upstream and uphill and enters the woods. A short distance down, the trail crosses the stream on a iron-and-wood footbridge behind buildings on Harlow Street. It replaced the Morse Covered Bridge in the mid-1980s after it was destroyed in a fire. The trail goes through Kenduskeag Stream Park, under Interstate 95 and ends up along Valley Avenue not far from Kenduskeag Avenue.
Wells and Bert did not walk the entire trail Saturday but walked back to Franklin Street after crossing the footbridge. That section of the stream is known as the lower Kenduskeag Stream.
Last summer, a group was formed to promote and spruce up the section of the trail between Franklin and Harlow streets.
Friends of the Lower Kenduskeag Stream, or FOLKS, organized by Sean Gambrel and others, has three goals:
— To put together activities on the trail.
— To clean up litter along the trail, trim back brush and help keep it maintained.
— To be a positive presence along the trail to discourage drug and alcohol activities and vandalism.
On Friday, members took part in programs focused on fish migration in the stream for World Fish Migration Day. An event to promote dog walking along the trail was held Saturday, and a cleanup day will be held from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. June 4.
“We needed a group to work together and focus some energy to make things better on the trail,” Gambrel said last year. “We have this amazing resource right in town, and it’s a shame that it’s not better cared for.”
Volunteers have planted flowers near the Franklin Street entrance to beautify the trail a bit, according to Gambrel, 37, of Bangor. But, the trail is not as people or dog friendly as the city parks or forest trails. There are no trash cans or dispensers for dog waste bags along the trail — something the group hopes to change soon.
Wells knew to bring her own bags and water for her dog. She said the walk has become a weekend ritual for her and Bert.
“We come here, go for a walk, and then I go have a beer,” Wells said.
The Kenduskeag Stream originates at Garland Pond in Garland and flows southeast through the towns of Corinth, Kenduskeag and Glenburn before striking through the center of Bangor, passing through downtown and emptying into the Penobscot River.
During the 19th century, a variety of mills were constructed in Bangor along its banks, including sawmills, a flour mill, a grist mill and a tannery. Also during that time, public and private sewers were discharged directly into the stream. It’s estimated that more than 1 million gallons of raw sewage was dumped into the stream each day by the middle of the 20th century, according to the display at the Franklin Street end of the trail.
The cleanup of the Kenduskeag began in the early 1960s, when Bangor built interceptor sewers and volunteers started picking up debris and planting trees and shrubs along the stream.
The 2-mile Kenduskeag Stream Trail was built in 1976 with $300,000 in federal money, $150,000 from the state and $120,000 from the city, according to a story published in 1999. More than 50 residential and commercial property owners donated stream-side acreage worth $30,000, Rod McKay, Bangor’s director of economic development, said at the time.
For information on FOLKS, visit its Facebook page. Bangor’s city trails are co-maintained by the Bangor Parks and Recreation Department and Bangor Forestry Division of Public Works. For information about the trails and their ongoing development, call 992-4900 or visit bangorparksandrec.com.