Having now finally completed the Maine Four Corners Tour, I thought it might be helpful to offer some thoughts about it here, as there are some aspects of it which someone just beginning to look into doing it might not consider.

For one thing, unlike the “parent” tour sponsored by the Southern California Motorcycle Association (the Four Corners of the US Tour), you can do the Four Corners of Maine Tour in any vehicle you want — it doesn’t require riding a motorcycle. Heck, you can even walk it if you are so inclined! Be advised that it IS over 600 miles long, depending on the routes you take and the order in which you do it. Moreover, the US tour must be completed in 21 days, but you can take as long as you want to do the Four Corners of Maine — I took seven years and was still awarded the coveted Certificate of Completion:

Note that, in order to receive the certificate (and sporty black T-shirt with logos!), you must register for the Tour BEFORE you begin it! This can be done on the excellent Tour website: https://madawaskafourcorners.org/tour-registration/. It is also necessary to submit a “waiver of liability” form, which holds the organizers harmless should you be injured, or your vehicle damaged, in your pursuit of the tour. https://madawaskafourcorners.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/FCP-Waiver-Release-2022.pdf. Submit those forms, plus a $55 registration fee (which covers the costs of the t-shirt and certificate, and supports the maintenance of the Madawaska park), and you’re good to go! Rules and regulations for the Tour can be found here: https://madawaskafourcorners.org/rules-and-regulations/. Visit the Four Corners Park website here: https://madawaskafourcorners.org. You can visit the four landmarks (Grafton Notch State Park in the west, Kittery Trading Post in the south, Lubec Post Office in the east, and the Madawaska Four Corners Park in the north) in any order you want. Do be sure to secure lodgings of some kind (more on that later!) before you head out!

To prove that you have actually visited the four landmark corners of the state, you must do two things at each of the destinations: 1) take a photo of yourself and your vehicle (or motorbike) in front of the landmark, and 2) purchase fuel somewhere within the landmark’s community, and keep the receipts. Because you also have the option of doing the Tour five times (earning yourself the lofty “Titanium Butt” designation with appropriate enhanced paraphernalia), include a handmade sign in your photo depicting the number of the tour you are doing (you can see my “signs” with the number “1” in the photos below).

Now — although there is no prescribed sequence in which to complete the Tour, there are some considerations in this regard. First of all, Grafton Notch State Park and the Kittery Trading Post are only 128 miles apart, and although there is no direct superhighway route between the two, one could conceivably collect both destinations in one day, depending on how close you are to one of them before you start. Kittery and Lubec are almost twice that distance apart (233 miles), but that, too, is within the realm of possibility for one long day. Madawaska is as far from Lubec as Lubec is from Kittery. There is NO direct route between Grafton Notch and Madawaska, however! Forget trying to do that trip in one day unless you are willing to ride from sunup to sundown! You will not, however, have to worry about gravel (or otherwise substandard) roads anywhere on this Tour — all the routes to each destination are via quality motorbike road surfaces with plenty of gas stations everywhere along the routes.

However, all of the above ignores what to me is one of the main points of the Tour, and one of the main reasons for doing it in the first place — each location offers a multitude of engaging things to do and explore. Consequently, my recommendation would be to try and stay at least a couple of nights at each of the landmarks. Now, if you are a Maine (or New England) resident, you could ostensibly take four short vacation trips in a summer, one to each of the four corners. If you are attempting the Tour from farther afield, on the other hand, you will likely want to hit all the locations on the same trip. Consequently, your itinerary will reflect your starting point. But either way, I would highly recommend allowing at least one “extra” day in each location — and more, if you can afford the time and expense — to explore what each has to offer.

Grafton Notch State Park, for example, offers enough hikes in the nearby White Mountains of Maine and New Hampshire to justify a two-week stay. Lubec, on the Down East coast, enables whale watching, puffin watching, kayaking, lobsters, ocean beaches and hiking along with lighthouse visits, as does Kittery, which is within a short drive of several beautiful ocean beaches, bustling Portland with all of its culture, and Portland Head Light. In Madawaska, you can go moose watching, paddle the iconic St. John and/or Allagash Rivers, or camp and hike at nearby Aroostook State Park; or swim, boat and paddle on one of the many lakes in that region. And, on the way from Kittery to Lubec is stunning Acadia National Park, which by itself could easily occupy at least a week of your time. So, while it would theoretically be possible for a person to knock off every corner of the state in four or five days, to do it that way would be (in my opinion) to seriously miss out on some of the best things the state has to offer. If you’re a Maine resident and you just want to complete the Tour to say you did it, and you’ve already experienced all that other “touristy” stuff, then sure! — but if you’re coming from any distance to do this Tour, don’t shortchange yourself by missing out on all the iconic Maine experiences to be had while you are here!

Where do you stay at each destination on the Tour? Of course, there are numerous hotels, motels and B&B’s at every price point near each location (google “Ten Best Places To Stay In …..). If, however, you want to camp, Madawaska offers Aroostook State Park in nearby Presque Isle; Lubec offers Cobscook Bay State Park; and Kittery is within an hour of Sebago Lake State Park. Grafton Notch State Park does not offer camping, but there are rustic campgrounds in the adjacent White Mountain National Forest. Or, you could travel ninety minutes to camp at Rangeley Lake State Park, or perhaps Mt. Blue State Park in Weld.

As a Maine resident, I can easily take two day trips from my home in south-central Maine (one each to Kittery and Grafton Notch) and two long weekends (one each to Lubec and Madawaska) to complete the Four Corners of Maine Tour. I believe that formula (two day trips, two long weekends) would be true no matter where in the state you begin. If I was an “out-of-stater” approaching the state from the south to do the Tour, of course the Kittery Trading Post would be my first stop; I would then go west to Grafton Notch State Park, after which I would find the most direct route east from there (probably ME-26 toward Auburn), and then get on I-95 (the Maine Turnpike) north to Bangor; thence east on ME-9 to Lubec, and then US-1 north to Madawaska. Go home by way of scenic ME-11 (as I did) back to I-95 south.

On the other hand, if I was approaching Maine from the west, then I would first access Grafton Notch on ME-26 from the Conway, NH region, then go south on ME-26 to I-95 (Maine Turnpike) in Gray, and follow that to Kittery. From there, proceed north and east as described in the previous paragraph. But of course, the beauty of this tour is that you can do it any way you want, in any order you want, taking as much time as you want. So take the above information as a suggestion, and then craft your own route depending on where you will begin, what you want to see, where you want to stay, and how much time you have.

One of the rewards for completing the Four Corners of Maine Tour is that you have then earned the privilege of purchasing a memorial paver to be installed at the Madawaska Four Corners Park. I purchased one in Robin’s memory, which means I will have to go back there next summer to see it. I guess that means that, sometime between now and then, I will have to register for Tour #2 — Titanium Butt, here I come!