My wife and I are big fans of all the local trails in the Bangor / Brewer area. We spend a lot of time on the Kenduskeag Trail down on Valley Ave to Franklin Street. It's a good distance, gorgeous scenery, and is just a great all-around spot for some light exercise and a bit of nature.

We really like the Brewer River Walk as well. We've often had a quick bite as Mason's and headed down the trail to walk off dinner a bit. If we had one complaint in the past, is that it's just a little too short. Well now, that's going to be no problem! The city of Brewer has just approved an expansion to begin as soon as the bidding process is over, that should be completed by fall, extending the walk by almost another half mile!

According to a story at MSN.com, the walk will now go from Hardy Street, all the way past the Joshua Chamberlain Bridge along the shore up to Veteran's Park on Penobscot Street. This will extend the trail to about a mile in total length, making it an even more attractive destination to folks who like to get out for a nice walk down by the river.

The total cost of the project is expected to be around $1.5 million dollars. the city will only be on the hook for about 20% of that, the rest being covered by federal grant money. The price tag includes the actual construction, and some easements paid to landowners whose houses abut the trail. The cost will also cover some improvements to Center Street in the block between North Main and Penobscot streets.

The hope is that someday, the trail can also be extended all the way down to the Veteran's Bridge, and even more ambitious, a more rustic dirt trail that will go around the entire city! Sounds awesome to me! But that is all tentative, and far away at this point.

But we'll start with this chunk of good news for the time being. It'll be nice to get out and get some sweet walking done in such a great spot. Now...if they could just connect it to the river walk in Bangor somehow too, then we'd have something really super special. But for now, we'll just enjoy what we've got.

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