It’s always hard to turn around on a trail because the next bend beckons. I’m usually hoping for a rare wildlife sighting, like the silver fox glimpsed last weekend.
But I’ve never considered stumbling across a community treehouse, standing sentinel at the edge of a peat bog, facing the sunset and flanked by a beaver lodge. But that’s just what I found at the end of Carter Meadow Road at Sunkhaze Meadows National Wildlife Refuge last fall.
“Treehouse” is a whimsical description. It’s a sturdy, elevated platform with a grownup staircase, complete with railings on both sides. It even has a bench to rest weary bones. But it’s a platform in the sky with a few trees nearby, so “treehouse” works. (Hats off to its U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service creators.)
When I first found it, the peepers were in full force, and I was sad to have left my recording equipment at home. I also missed my camera, because I stayed too late, enjoying the free concert while the sun sank into the broad meadow bog. Luckily the 0.7-mile hike back goes quickly, and the sky held just enough light for me to make it.
Traversing the same distance took longer on the first Monday in March. Recent wind storms had tossed massive trees across the trail and frost heaves made the ground less reliable. If it happens to be freezing the day you visit, there will be ice. If it’s not, there will be water and mud, lots of mud.
On that unseasonably warm day I passed three hikers, many more than the grand total of none I’d encountered there previously. Just a 12-minute drive and 7 miles from Old Town proper, Sunkhaze Meadows is a surprisingly quiet spot.
I’ve only explored two of the refugee’s four walking trails, Carter Meadow Road and Johnson Brook Trails. Between them lies the hike to Oak Point. I intend to visit soon, but it’s this platform, really, that keeps me coming back.
My own little castle tower, the treehouse stands less than 10 feet above the marsh, but vastly improves the view.
From familiar mallards and wood ducks to punk-rock hooded mergansers, with their dramatic black and white mohawks, and blue-wing teals that look like a drab duck tagged by a graffiti artist — a startling stripe of white and a splash of bright blue spray paint.
Stilted-legged great blue herons are likely stalking shallow waters. American bitterns could be lurking, bitter that they didn’t inherit the heron’s long-reaching neck. There could be slow moving wood turtles, or painted ones, dragons (or dragonflies anyway), and there will be beavers, the keepers of this kingdom.
You might spy a double-breasted cormorant with its witchy aquamarine eyes, or a greater yellowlegs, spotted sandpiper, or chicken-like Virginia and sora rails. Brook trout and American eels glide along the currents below. Can you think of a more wondrous menagerie for a treehouse citadel to oversee?
Then there’s the witchy sounding long-billed dowitcher, which looks a lot like a common snipe.
It’s frightfully easy to get turned around on the Carter Meadow Road Trail at Sunkhaze due to how many limbs there are to climb over, crawl under or walk around. The start of the trail is in good shape, following the old Carter Meadow Road to a cabin, where the trail splits to form a loop.
The lower, Northeastern trail is easier to track at the moment. It’s a relatively straight shot with only two large fallen trees to navigate. The Upper trail is well marked in the beginning, but several trees have fallen at a juncture farther on, making it difficult to follow.
If you aren’t comfortable climbing obstacles, you should call the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Northern Maine Complex Office to check trail conditions before you go.
They’ve documented more than 200 bird species in these woods and waters and many ground- and water-based critters besides. That makes for very interesting conversation.
The park includes upland and floodplain forests, wetlands, and raised peat domes. The four hiking trails that explore them are short. Three of them only access the park’s southeast side, bordering County Road.
The fourth, exceedingly brief trail is near Ash Landing, accessed by the privately owned Stud Mill Road to the north. Ash Landing is also a boat launch, and, I’ve been told, to truly experience Sunkhaze Meadows, one must paddle it.
As the days and waters warm, I’m planning to do that. Maybe I’ll float past my treehouse and wave. Maybe someone will be there, looking for birds, and wave back, annoyed that I’ve scared them all away.
