1. Josephine Newman Sanctuary
City: Woolwich, ME
Category: Parks & Recreation
Telephone: (207) 781-2330
Address: Route 127
Description: Twenty interpretive signs lead you along 2 miles of trails through this 119-acre preserve, pointing out all of the natural features you pass, from glacial erratics to reversing falls. A mature mixed forest covers much of the property, but you’ll also find a beaver pond, brooks, a cattail marsh, and the tidal shore of Robinhood Cove. A booklet called “Forest, Fields, and Estuaries” will inform your self-guided hike if you pick up a copy ahead of time. Contact Maine Audubon. Open year-round, from sunrise to sunset.
2. Robert P. Tristram Coffin Wildflower Sanctuary
City: Woolwich, ME
Category: Parks & Recreation
Address: Route 128
Description: Known by hardly a soul, this 180-acre preserve owned by the New England Wildflower Society is a wonderland filled with 200 species of flowers, grasses, trees, and shrubs. The sanctuary was named in honor of the Brunswick-born poet, who won a Pulitzer for his 1936 book Strange Holiness. Quite aside from the pretty flowers, the preserve features some nice walking in cobbled coves and hemlock stands.
3. Bath Cycle And Ski
City: Woolwich, ME
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (207) 442-7002
Address: Route 1
Description: An excellent full-service bike and ski shop with a gondola out front, this place has been around for ages. You’ll find mountain and road bikes; kids’ bikes; downhill, cross-country, and telemark skis; snowboards; snowshoes; and a great staff inside.
4. Montsweag Flea Market
City: Woolwich, ME
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (207) 443-2809
Address: Route 1 and Mountain Rd.
Description: In 1976 Norma Scopino lost her bookkeeping job, and she set up a little bazaar on her front lawn to take advantage of tourist traffic. That yard sale has grown into one of the state’s biggest—and certainly most widely known—flea markets. More than 100 tables are now part of the action, some of them semipermanent, like the tool area, and they are topped with everything from CDs and books to antiques and old toys. On Wednesdays the focus becomes antiques and collectibles, but on weekends it’s a free-for-all. Always fun to explore.