GRAFTON TOWNSHIP – Mark Wight is expecting a big crowd of recreation-minded people over the Fourth of July weekend.
Wight is the new park manager for Grafton Notch State Park on Route 26 between Upton and Newry in Grafton Township. He replaces Jonathan Metcalf.
On Tuesday afternoon, Wight said attendance had been down, because of the rain, since the park opened on May 15.
“In mid-May, there was still 2 feet of snow on Speck,” he said of the park’s 4,180-foot mountain, Old Speck, the third-highest peak in Maine.
“But we’re getting good temperatures now, and they’re drying out the trails, so they’ll not be so muddy and slippery. That should make a difference for folks,” Wight said.
Visitors didn’t begin to show up in earnest until mid- to late June, he said.
“In May and June, it was quite rainy, so things were pretty slow. But I think summer has set in now, and it’s going to be busy. Over the last two weekends, things have been pretty good; even the midweek traffic has been OK,” Wight said.
“The Canadian rate of exchange is good now, so we should see a lot of that traffic. We’ve been getting a lot of motorcycle traffic, I think, due to high gas prices,” he said.
If the weather behaves over the holiday weekend, Wight anticipated the park would see between 700 and 1,000 people each day.
“Over this past weekend, on both days, we estimated we had 700 people each day that went through the park. These were people that stopped to look at the falls, or were into picnicking, swimming, hiking or bird-watching,” he said.
Park features include Screw Auger Falls, Mother Walker Falls, Moose Cave and Spruce Meadow Picnic Area, and an abundance of wildlife.
The park is known for its challenging hikes, like the Appalachian Trail, which passes through it.
Shorter hikes also offer spectacular views from Old Speck Mountain and Table Rock or Eyebrow Loop Trail.
Although both trails sport new rock staircases and other footpath improvements built by Maine Conservation Corps crews, three more years worth of rock work is scheduled for the Eyebrow Trail.
“They will be putting in a 257-foot-long wire rope section to enable folks to get down over two sections safely. With the conditions they’ve had to work in, it’s amazing that they accomplish the things they do, especially this season, where it’s been so wet,” Wight said.
The Fourth of July is also peak season for bugs, so don’t forget the bug spray, he added.
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