The lake in July
Northern Maine lake water is genuinely cold — which is exactly why people come. Warm afternoons, cold dips, and a shoreline that mostly belongs to the lake rather than to the people on it.
A visitor’s guide
What to do from New Limerick
You can spend a whole weekend in this town and a whole week in the county around it. Here is how locals would actually spend the time — what is close, what is worth the drive, and what you need to book before you arrive.
Itineraries
Day trips, built around real distances
Everything below is within a comfortable day’s drive of the town, and most of it is within forty minutes.
Half a day · 0–10 miles
The lake, the course and a good dinner
Launch at the public ramp off Aspen Lane, work up the south shore and either paddle or motor to Crescent Park. Spend the afternoon on the water, then take the short drive to Houlton Community Golf Course for twilight league on a Monday — or simply for nine holes with a view of the lake you have just been on. Finish at Lakeside Restaurant, whose dining room looks straight out over Nickerson Lake.
Nickerson Lake → Country Club Dr → 6 Country Club Dr · book a table
Half a day · 7 miles
Houlton: market square, a museum and the border
Walk Houlton’s Market Square, a National Historic District of brick commercial blocks, and see the grand Victorian houses from the boom years of agriculture, forestry and the railroad. The Aroostook County Historical and Art Museum sits in the 1937 White Memorial Building on Main Street — tours are by appointment. The Temple Theatre on the square has been showing movies since 1919. Afterwards, cross the bridge into Woodstock, New Brunswick, which is about fifteen minutes from the town office.
Houlton, ME 04730 · houltonmuseum.org ↗
A day · 25 miles
Science, skies and the Katahdin road
The Francis Malcolm Science Center in Easton is the only planetarium in northern Maine — a 35-seat dome, a roll-off-roof observatory with a 20-inch telescope, and five miles of trails through 260 acres of forest, bog and vernal pools. Then follow Route 11 north along the Katahdin Woods & Waters National Scenic Byway to Millinocket and Patten, stopping wherever the view stops you.
Easton & Sherman, ME · francismalcolmsciencecenter.com ↗
A day · 30 miles
The refuge, the bogs and the long-legged birds
More than thirteen miles of walking trails at the Aroostook National Wildlife Refuge, on land that used to be the Loring Air Force Base. Spruce and northern hardwood forest, wetlands, and open grassland where upland sandpipers nest in spring. The refuge is open year-round, from half an hour before sunrise to half an hour after sunset.
97 Refuge Road, Limestone, ME 04750 · (207) 328-4634
A day · 35 miles
Presque Isle and the solar system
Drive Route 1 south and you are driving the Maine Solar System Model — the world’s largest scale model of the solar system, strung along 40 miles of road with the planets at true relative scale. The Sun is inside a building at the University of Maine at Presque Isle; tiny Pluto is in Houlton, at the far end of the line. Presque Isle also has Aroostook State Park on Echo Lake and the Quaggy Jo Mountain trail.
Presque Isle, ME 04769 · mainesolarsystem.com ↗
A day · 50 miles
Mount Katahdin and Baxter State Park
Baxter State Park is roughly 209,600 acres of protected Maine wilderness, and Mount Katahdin at 5,269 feet is the highest peak in the state and the northern terminus of the Appalachian Trail. If you are hiking to the summit you need a parking reservation in advance; if you are not, the park still has more than 175 miles of trails, mountain lakes and the open granite of the summit.
Millinocket, ME · baxterstatepark.org ↗
A long weekend
North to the Allagash and back
The Allagash Wilderness Waterway is a federally designated Wild and Scenic River — a 92-mile corridor through the far northern woods, canoe-camper country. This is a trip, not a day trip: you need a few days, a canoe or portage gear, and a map. People who do it once tend to plan the next one.
Allagash, ME · aroostook.me ↗
On the water
Swim, paddle, fish
Nickerson Lake is the reason people come. It is big enough to feel open and quiet enough that you will often have it to yourself.
Kayaks, delivered to the launch
Riversbend Paddle in Houlton is the only dedicated kayak rental in the region. They will deliver a kayak to the public launch at Nickerson Lake and pick it up when you are done. Their Lily Pad Paddle is a self-guided two-mile route through lily pads on the South Branch of the Meduxnekeag.
Lake trout, togue and northern pike
The Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife describes Nickerson Lake’s water quality and characteristics as ideal for lake trout, though the lake is unusually small for a viable togue fishery. Angling for the county’s other species — pike, perch, whitefish — is good across the North Woods water.
Crescent Mountain by boat or by ice
Two marked loops on the south shore of Nickerson Lake — a 1.4-mile climb to a low summit with a pine-tree overlook and a small cave, and a 1.8-mile loop along the hillside and shoreline with views across the water and a cold spring. Reached by boat, or on snowshoes across the ice in winter.
Outdoors
Trails and animals
The Southern Bangor and Aroostook Trail. A 37-mile multi-use path on an old rail bed, running from Houlton through Monticello and Bridgewater to Mars Hill and the southern tip of Presque Isle. Mostly gravel, mostly level, and good for walking, mountain biking and cross country skiing. Motorised vehicles have the right of way, and logging trucks use it too.
The Meduxnekeag River Trail. For something shorter, the three-mile river trail in Houlton runs beside the Meduxnekeag and is good for a morning with the birds.
Wildlife. This is moose country. The Aroostook National Wildlife Refuge is the best place to look properly — look for moose and moose tracks along its 13 miles of foot trails, along with boreal chickadees, spruce grouse and migratory birds. The refuge was established in 1998 when 4,700 acres of the former Loring Air Force Base were transferred to the Fish and Wildlife Service.
Birds. Spring brings migrating warblers and the state-threatened upland sandpiper to the open ground at the refuge; autumn brings a different crowd again. In the deep woods, patient birders can find Bicknell’s thrush and northern goshawk.
Under the stars
Dark skies on purpose
Aroostook County’s population is sparse and its undeveloped land is enormous, which makes for very little light pollution. It is one of the better places in the lower 48 states to see the Milky Way, and one of the few where the aurora borealis is a realistic expectation rather than a hope.
The northern lights are most likely from October through April. The sky in Aroostook County is often at its clearest in summer and autumn — which makes those the best months for stars, and late autumn the best for aurora.
If you want a guide to what you are looking at, the Francis Malcolm Science Center in Easton runs the region’s only planetarium, with public shows, a 20-inch telescope and an observatory that opens on clear nights. The Aroostook County Astronomy Club also runs observing nights through the year.
Where locals go
- Aroostook State Park — open camping and picnic areas on Echo Lake; the Quaggy Jo trail climbs to a summit that is a well-known stargazing spot.
- The North Woods — the darkest skies in the region, and the reason serious observers come to Aroostook at all.
- Frenchville Dark Sky Observatory — reachable by car with a short walk, facing north and free of streetlights.
- Your own road. The township roads north of the lake are genuinely dark. Just pull over carefully.
Dark-sky etiquette
Headlamps off or red. Drive slowly on unlit roads. Do not light a fire outside a designated site. And if you are lucky enough to see the aurora, park somewhere legal, turn your engine off, and let someone else see it too.
Winter
Snow season is the reason to come in February
Aroostook County records some of the coldest readings in the populated United States. That is the trade-off, and the payoff is enormous.
2,300 miles of trail
Aroostook County has roughly 2,300 miles of interconnected snowmobile trail, and the network starts within minutes of New Limerick. Around 80% of it runs across private land, which is why trail etiquette and the local clubs matter.
Snowshoe and ski
Cross-country skiing and snowshoeing are the local winter sport, not a novelty. The Southern Bangor and Aroostook Trail is level and long. The Science Center runs moonlight snowshoe walks around the full moon, which are some of the best evenings of the northern winter.
Across the ice
Nickerson Lake freezes hard enough to cross on snowshoes or skis, which is how the Crescent Mountain trailhead is reached in winter. Ice conditions vary — the state publishes historic ice-out dates as a useful benchmark for when the open water season is likely to begin.
Cold-weather prep
Insulated boots, a winter car kit, a scraper, a full tank and a battery bank. Several local lodges and camps — including Cochran Camp — have groomed snowmobile trails and cross-country skiing right on the property.
Scenic driving
Road trips worth the gas
Aroostook County was built for the road. These are the four routes visitors actually drive.
The Pine Tree Trail
The Maine Legislature established the Pine Tree Trail in 1937 as a way to get visitors moving through the state during the Depression. It runs roughly 500 miles from Portland to Fort Kent — and the eastern stretch of U.S. Route 2 through Molunkus, right beside New Limerick, is part of it. Look for the white tin hexagon signs with the green pine tree.
The revival of the trail has collected the county’s best roadside oddities: the Molunkus Hermit billboard, Houlton’s Boy and the Boot statue, the Caribou statue, the Mars Hill potato barrel tree, Mount Carmel on Grand Isle and the Maine Tribute Moose in Van Buren.
Katahdin Woods & Waters Byway
A National Scenic Byway that runs from the southern entrance of Baxter State Park north through Millinocket along the Penobscot River to Patten, ending at Baxter’s northern entrance at Grand Lake Matagamon. It passes rafting water, the Ambajejus Boomhouse Museum, Shin Falls, Grindstone Falls and the Debsconeag Ice Caves.
The Maine Solar System
The world’s largest scale model of the solar system, built and maintained by volunteers, with the planets spaced at true relative scale along 40 miles of Route 1 between Presque Isle and Houlton. The Sun is indoors at UMaine Presque Isle; Pluto, the smallest planet, is in Houlton. There is no better free attraction in the state.
US Bicycle Route 501 & the rail trails
Bicycle Route 501 runs through Caribou, and the old rail corridors give you hundreds of miles of flat gravel through farmland and forest. The Southern Bangor and Aroostook Trail is the nearest — 37 miles of it, roughly level, and shared with logging trucks and snowmobiles, so keep your head up.
Food & drink
Eating well in a small town
There is not a lot of choice, and that is the point — most of it is good, and none of it is anonymous. Cameron’s Market in New Limerick is the anchor: groceries, gas, lottery tickets and fresh-cooked pizza from a wood-fired oven. The town office itself is on the corner of Station Road and U.S. 2.
Lakeside Restaurant, at the Houlton Community Golf Course, serves an international menu with daily specials in a dining room that looks out over Nickerson Lake, and takes large parties. Market Pizza sits on Houlton’s Market Square, and Sadie’s Bakery on Water Street is where the early-morning traffic goes.
For something local and unofficial, look for the maple sugar and the potatoes. Houlton’s Black Fly Brewfest arrives every May with a new crop of northern Maine beer, and Aroostook is a genuinely serious farming county — this is the “Garden of Maine”.
With kids
The Francis Malcolm Science Center in Easton is the single best family outing in the county — the only planetarium in northern Maine, with public shows, a roll-off-roof observatory and a 20-inch telescope, plus nature trails through a 260-acre woodlot with bog boardwalks. Admission is modest and the centre is run largely by volunteers.
On the water — swimming, canoeing and fishing from the public launch. On the snow — snowmobiles if you are old enough to ride one, snowshoeing if you are not. On the trail — the Crescent Mountain loops are short and have a cave and a tree-top perch in them.
In town — pizza from Cameron’s, ice cream at Anderson’s Mill Pond Dairy Bar on Hodgdon Mills Road, and the Saturday farmers’ market in Houlton.
Before you go
Visitor practicalities
The things that catch people out in rural northern Maine — and none of them are a reason not to come.
Book ahead
The good restaurant, the handful of cabins, the science centre and the mountain huts all have small capacities. The two things worth booking before you travel are dinner at Lakeside and a Baxter State Park parking reservation if you intend to summit Katahdin.
Hours are rural hours
Many rural services — fuel, repair, food — keep short hours or close for a meal. Sunday hours are shorter than Saturday hours. If you need something today, call ahead and save yourself a drive.
Fuel and phones
Fill up in Houlton or Presque Isle rather than in the townships. Cell coverage is good along I‑95 and in Houlton and weak on the roads north of the lake — download your maps before you leave town.
Coming across the border
The international crossing at Houlton into New Brunswick is about fifteen minutes away. Bring a passport and check current entry requirements for your nationality before you go.
Weather and clothing
Humid continental climate: warm, occasionally humid summers and cold, sometimes severely cold winters. Layers, not one thick coat. Sunscreen and insect repellent in summer; a scraper and a full tank in winter.
Getting around without a car
There is no public transport in the town. Houlton is the hub — taxis are limited but the county seat has restaurants, fuel, a hospital and shops. If you are not driving, plan to base yourself in Houlton.
Go deeper on the county
The Aroostook.ME county guide
New Limerick is one town out of sixty-six. When you are ready to look further afield, the county-wide guide is the place to go next — an independent resource, not a county government service.
Travel guide
Aroostook.ME
The county-wide guide to Aroostook County — all 66 towns, what to eat, where to go, how to get around, and maps for the whole region.
aroostook.me ↗ Events calendarWhat’s happening in The County
One calendar for fairs, festivals, markets, races and seasonal events across the county — the one to check before you set out.
calendar.aroostook.me ↗ This townNew Limerick on Aroostook.ME
The county guide’s own page for New Limerick — the same town, seen from the county-wide angle.
aroostook.me/town/new-limerick ↗ Things to doCounty-wide attractions
Recreation, lakes, mountains, trail systems and outdoor experiences across the whole of Aroostook County.
aroostook.me/things-to-do ↗One last thing
This guide is written and maintained independently. It is not an official website of the Town of New Limerick, Aroostook County or the State of Maine, and it is not a source of official notices or emergency information. Business hours, event dates and trail conditions change — confirm the details that matter before you set out, and call the town office on (207) 532-3303 if you are not sure.