In Fly Rod’s footsteps … an invitation to explore the Fly Rod Crosby Trail

Trailhead. Paula Kane

Trail map Paula Kane

PHILLIPS — As Spring quickly turns into Summer, thoughts turn more and more to the outdoors. For those who may be seeking a new adventure this season, here is an invitation to explore The Fly Rod Crosby Trail.

The following description was written by Maxelle “Mac” O. Smith, a great fan of the Fly Rod Crosby Trail, who hiked this multi-use trail last summer. The popular trail features sections to hike, bike, ATV, snowmobile, snowshoe, canoe and kayak. It is a project of the High Peaks Alliance (highpeaksalliance.org).

Mac writes: The Fly Rod Crosby Trail is a kid-friendly trail that runs from Strong Cemetery to Mooselookmeguntic Lake. Kid-friendly because of all the roads, ATV/snowmobile trails that merge with it, easy access. You can choose a section and leave a car at both ends of your walk so your walk can be as long or short as you want. Sandy River, Oberton Stream, Hardy Brook, a number of ponds, Cascade Stream and Falls, Rangeley Lake , and Mooselookmeguntic Lake are there for kids to enjoy: swim, fish or play in the mud.

Other trail side attractions include “Barbie Falls” (“You’ll have to hunt for this,” Max commented.), an old railroad station with trains, a big American flag with a pole coming out of a hole in the rocks, an old water “pipe” composed of a long section of thick boards with metal bands around them.

There is a (Catholic) church, which Fly Rod helped build (in Oquossoc) with money she raised, and a rock foundation for a house and barn close (20 feet) to Hardy Stream, which looks like where an old wooden water trough ran from brook to house. I’m sure you’ll also see flowers and animals.

The Trail goes by the River Walk Trail on the Sandy River, the Berry Pickers Trail up Saddleback, crosses the Appalachian Trail, the River Trail in Oquossoc, and a parking lot for the trail up Bald Mountain.

Like any outdoors activity this time of year, don’t forget your tick and bug spray and sunblock lotion. If you bring your dog, please bring a leash and use it. Pets on leash only. Bring water; don’t drink out of streams or ponds unless the water is treated.

The trail is being maintained entirely by volunteers. Please stay on the trail, leave signs as is, no fires, and pack trash out. Volunteers are always needed, mostly in the spring. If you are interested in helping, call 639-3432. Please leave your name and phone number.

In conclusion, Mac provides information regarding where to find maps: Maps are at the kiosks in Phillips, Madrid, and Saddleback Mountain. Also area maps can be found at the sports shops in Rangeley. Look for Rangeley Lakes Region Trail Map, which includes High Peaks and Western Maine. The all-in-one waterproof map is available for $7.95.

According to the High Peaks Alliance website: The Fly Rod Crosby trail will eventually wind 45 miles from Strong, through the Sandy River Valley, around Saddleback Mountain, to Oquossoc over Rangeley Lake. The central portion of the trail has been built from Phillips to Rangeley. Along the way, it links a landscape rich in natural and cultural history.

The website also includes a call for those invaluable volunteers: “Time to get out those clippers, paint brushes and trail saws! There is lots to be done this summer, all ages and abilities are welcome and we could use some help. Come for a couple of hours or more. We usually end around midday.”

Trail work days will be on the following dates: Saturday June 5 (rain date June 6) 8:30; Monday June 14 (rain date June 15) 8:30; Saturday June 19 (rain date June 20) 8:30; Saturday June 26 8:30. In addition to the contact info provided by Mac above, there is a volunteer sign-up form on the High Peaks Alliance website, which is also listed above.

Fly Rod Crosby, born Cornelia Thurza Crosby on November 10, 1854, was a sickly little girl. Her father died of consumption just before her second birthday and, as was common in that time, once one member of a family contracted the disease, it was likely to spread to others. Thus it was for Cornelia and her older brother, Ezekiel, who continued to live with their mother in the family home on Pleasant Street in Phillips. According to the medical advice of the day, both were directed to spend as much time in the outdoors as possible.

Though insufficient for her brother, who passed away in 1868 at the age of 23, the prescription was especially beneficial to Cornelia. She thrived in the outdoors, spending many hours every day exploring the woods around town. Long story short, Cornelia was drawn to Rangeley, where she worked as a chambermaid during the summers. Befriended by the local guides and “sports”, she learned to fish, and a legend was born.

Cornelia is credited as being the first woman to have a fishing license and is said to have caught more fish with an artificial fly than any other woman in the world. One time at Kennebago, she netted 200 trout in one day. She set a record when she once caught 52 trout in 44 minutes. She was known to have caught more than 2,500 trout in a season. It was feats such as these that earned her the nickname “Fly Rod”.

Every bit as capable with a rifle, Fly Rod once competed against Annie Oakley in a sharp-shooting contest. She was the first woman to shoot a Maine caribou, which, ironically, was the last caribou felled in the state before the herd migrated to Canada. And she was just as sharp with her pen. Writing from her den, which she called “The Hornet’s Nest”, she wrote about her own hunting adventures as well as the mishaps of the “sports” with whom she associated. Her works were so widely published that she has been regarded as “the state’s first recreational publicist to promote the outdoor industry” and “Maine’s publicity agent”.

On top of all of that, Fly Rod was the first female member of the Maine Sportsmen’s Fish and Game Association. She worked diligently for that organization’s committee on legislation to produce a list of recommendations to be considered by the Maine legislature. These included seasonal limits on fish and game, increased protection of big game, including moose, and the prohibition of ‘jack lighting’, the use of a light for hunting at night. She was considered a “prophet of the conservation movement in Maine.

Cornelia was also very vocal on the concept of establishing a state government-regulated system of licensing Maine guides. She campaigned in favor of such legislation at both the state and national level. Her expert testimony helped secure the bill’s passage in Maine in 1897. For her part in this landmark legislation, Cornelia “Fly Rod” Crosby was awarded Maine Guide License #1.

These are just a few of the highlights of Miss Crosby’s illustrious career as “The Woman Who Marketed Maine”, as she is named in the biography by Julia A. Hunter and Earle G. Shettleworth, Jr., which was published in 2000.

Fly Rod died on November 11, 1946, just a day after her 93rd birthday. But to this day, her vision lives on in the organizations she founded, the outdoorsmen and women who continue to pour into Maine to enjoy its natural resources, and the ongoing efforts of all the dedicated volunteers who make it their aim to keep her goals and dreams alive in the hearts of each new generation.

In the words of the song written by Bud Godsoe and performed by The Sandy River Ramblers, “There aren’t too many places where her fame has not been felt.”

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