Discussion: Lake Sebago, ME

Are there any o maps NW of Portland, and/or does anyone have pointers on good trails or other activities in the vicinity of Lake Sebago? We're heading up for vacation/ sea plane flying in September, but I'm looking for alternatives to keep myself and a toddler busy if the weather doesn't cooperate.

Pineland Farms, about 30 min east of Sebago Lake, was first mapped for orienteering in the early 2000s (I think)...the one and only O map I've been on in Maine. You may get want to contact them and see f they have permanent courses.

https://pinelandfarms.org/recreation/team-building...

Between Sebago and Pineland is the Maine Wildlife Park, which is reasonably priced and probably interesting enough for a toddler.

I'm fairly sure the Billygoat was in Maine in the late 80's. Maybe near Bates College? I certainly remember spending a lot of time driving up I95 and rather less time sleeping in a crappy motel. It was nice, if a long time ago...

The area SW and W of Forest lake looks OK, according to Google Earth there are some elevation differences as well. In Norway that would be all we'd need but you guys need to get access to the land as well, right?

BTW, from https://www.maine.gov/megis/images/2006.2017.pdf it looks like of of this terrain has already been covered by LiDAR, most of it during 2017. :-)

Correction: Sebago and surrounding counties were all flown in 2013, but that is still recent enough so the quality should be good.

I'd guess the event being remembered near Bates in the late 80s was an A meet, one day of which was at Thorncrag Bird Sanctuary near Lewiston. I have a paper copy of the map in the attic. Pineland would be closer to Sebago, though.

There are permanent O markers at Pinelands - not sure if they're currently in active use, but I spied a couple of them back in May while running a 50 miler there.

I spelunked a bit around the Digital Coast and Maine GIS directories and downloaded 2+ GB of laz files near Sebago. I am currently processing this, will be interesting to see what the terrain looks like. :-)

Graeme: You are apparently remembering the 1988 'goat (which you won) at Northfield Mt Hermon school in Massachusetts. According to J-J's exhaustive statistical trove, the only other one you ran in was in 2002 at Blue Mountain in Peekskill NY.

Tim, Charlie,
You are right, I was conflating two long trips up the I95, the MtHermon Billygoat and the Bates/motel ;) trip to Maine. Thorncrag doesn't look so interesting, but it also got me looking at some other NEOC/UNO maps from the 80s, and I was amazed by the high quality of the cartography and printing.

Here's the map results for the Mt Baldwin area west of lake Sebago:

https://tmsw.no/o/west_sebago.kmz

Looks like an interesting but quite steep area, the slope image shows a lot of roads & tracks that aren't included in the Open Street Map dump I used for some topo details, but they would be very easy to add manually.

If you are near the New Hampshire Boarder, there is a permanent course in Sewall Woods in Wolfeboro, NH. The Up North Orienteering website has a link to the map an clues. It is at the bottom of the list of events. You may not be near enough to Wolfeboro but might take it in on the way to Maine or on the way home.
http://www.upnoor.org/

I recently went for a hike at Bradbury Mountain State Park, east of Sebago. No orienteering map that I know of (though a certain relative of mine has been known to make quick ones from the Lidar data), but it was really lovely mature hemlock forest on the west (mountain) side - great for running (or toddler-chasing) off trail. The "mountain" is toddler friendly, too. I kept thinking it would be a great map ... if it weren't so far away from the orienteering population center.
Oh-and there is a playground :-)

Thanks for the recommendations everyone! Looks like some great parks and areas to check out.