Rangeley Lakes Scenic Byway Day Ride

[Dirk_S]

Posted a video of my ride on Sunday from Portland, Maine, to the Rangeley Lakes via the scenic byway, and back down. Used my Insta360 cam, Sena 50C helmet cam—both of which died before reaching Height of Land—and iPhone for pics. Must remember to bring extra batteries and record in higher quality. Anyway. Here’s a link to the video. We stopped partway to adjust my friend’s carbs on his R80, and pics included at the end of the video.

https://youtu.be/VQBuQE3dipc?si=4u4SwAorDIM4CTB2

Pics if you understandably have no time for a 20-minute riding video:

[PeteS]

Fine video, thanks for posting. We camped on Rangely Lakes area many years ago. Whole lot of wilderness and terrible roads. Looks like they have improved the pavement a whole lot.

Pete

[Clifton]

Looks like a beautiful fall ride!

[nwguy]

My Dad lived in Rangeley. Actually on Long Pond which is about 12 miles east. He was 101 when he died in August of this year. I've been going to Rangeley since the 70s. Beautiful place with plenty of nice roads around, especially on Rte. 16 west to Errol. Fun place in the winter if you have snowmobiles too. Pics and info on this page from my 10k mile trip cross country and back:

http://nwguy.fun/mc/10k/10.html

[Dirk_S]

Fine video, thanks for posting. We camped on Rangely Lakes area many years ago. Whole lot of wilderness and terrible roads. Looks like they have improved the pavement a whole lot.

Having never ridden these roads prior, I read that they had been improved, particularly one stretch which was once the worst, now arguably the best. There were a few bumps here and there, but nothing bad enough worth remembering.

[Dirk_S]

My Dad lived in Rangeley. Actually on Long Pond which is about 12 miles east. He was 101 when he died in August of this year. I've been going to Rangeley since the 70s. Beautiful place with plenty of nice roads around, especially on Rte. 16 west to Errol. Fun place in the winter if you have snowmobiles too. Pics and info on this page from my 10k mile trip cross country and back:

http://nwguy.fun/mc/10k/10.html

That was a lovely little read, thanks for sharing. Crawford Notch is indeed always a happy accident to happen upon. Not sure which Notch I enjoy more—Crawford Notch in the middle of the White Mountains or Evans Notch, just east of the Maine/New Hampshire border. Two different types of mountain roads—one open, sweeping, and with great views of looming granite; the other a smoothly paved, 1.5 car width stretch of tarmac in the woods.

[Stretch]

Nice pics! And it's a great ride.

I do the Rte2, Rte 17, Rte 4 ride several times a year.

Route 17 has been mostly REBUILT, so it's much better than in years past.
It still suffers after a hard winter. Sometimes the frost heaves are so bad
in the winter that they spread gravel over the pavement and grade it mid-winter.
This is a very exciting surface to ride on when one pops over a rise at 60 MPH
on a big California Touring early in the spring! 

Route 4 is very scenic as well. There's a, "Rest Area" that's also the entrance to Small's Falls,
which is a cool waterfall. Lunatic kayakers sometimes go over the falls when there's
lots of water in the spring. The drop is several stories! Some nice twisty bits on Route 4, too.
And lots of moose in the area - not recommended to ride at speed in this area in the dark.

Some good places to eat in Rangeley, too. All in all, a great ride!

                                                  -Stretch

[PeteS]

Looking at the maps I believe we came across Maine on Rt16. This on our way back from Nova Scotia. A lot of 16 from east of Rangeley to New Hampshire was pretty rough. This around 1995 or so. After leaving Rangeley we headed west near the top of New Hampshire and Vermont passing through Dixville Notch made famous every National Election. Just a wide spot in the road.

Pete

[chuck peterson]

The Rangely grocery store has an incredible view of the lake…on the way out of the state park

At the crack of dawn, I stopped there after camping at the park the night before, where several hundred loons joined in at an annual orgy overnight on the lake. No kidding… no sleep at all…

3 people warned me about moose, after asking which way i was going. I was frozen with terror when a garage size monster raised his antlers from the muck he had been chewing on..

Yeah, been to Rangely…