A bit about Rangeley and The Bemis Range:
This town sits at Northbound AT mile 1,967, Southbound AT mile 220 and has approximately 1,220 permanent residents.
Driving into Rangeley from the west, you enter via Route 16, or Moose Alley as it is locally known. This visit brought me face to face with an enormous female moose and her grown calf crossing the road about a mile before town. Awe-inspiring.
In Rangeley, you will find a post office, IGA supermarket, $5 shower, Ecopelagicon Nature Store outfitter, plenty of food options, and a range of lodging options – from hotels to hiker lodges.
I stayed at the Farmhouse Inn. About one mile from downtown, owned by proprietors Shane and Stacey Vorous, their four kids and two pigs named Sadie and Pearl, was built in 1903 as to accommodate Rangeley’s burgeoning tourist trade. Shane and Stacey, who also own the Stratton Motel, started The Farmhouse as a hiker lodge, but has morphed into full service Inn and event destination property.
Rangeley, Maine is situated among some of the state’s highest peaks and a chain of lakes that connects over a thousand square miles of recreation opportunities including hiking, paddling, camping, fishing, world class cross country skiing offered at the Rangeley Lakes Cross Country Ski Club, downhill skiing at Saddleback Mountain, snowmobiling (there are over 150 miles of groomed trails that inter-connect Maine with Canada) and hunting – including bear, moose and while I was hiking, Ruffed Grouse. Centrally located between the headwaters of both the Androscoggin River and Kennebec River, the town lies on the eastern shores of Rangeley Lake in the Western Maine Mountains. A sign in town notes that Rangeley is halfway between the Equator and North Pole.
Designated an A.T. Community in 2012, local organizations such as the Maine Appalachian Trail Club, High Peaks Alliance and Rangeley Lakes Heritage Trust work continuously to protect land and create trails for public use. More than 10,000 acres have been protected over the years to ensure that the Rangeley region maintains its unique character. Shuttle services are available in the area which can access 3 trail crossings within a 20 mile distance.
For further info., call the Maine Appalachian Trail Club at 207-645-4407 or visit their website.
