Maine’s Airline Road 9

Route 9, nicknamed The Airline for its straight-shot trajectory across Washington County, runs 90 miles of gravel and broken pavement through some of Maine’s most isolated territory. This isn’t technically 4WD, but it’s rough enough to rattle your teeth loose and remote enough that cell service disappears for 40-mile stretches. The road cuts through endless blueberry barrens – vast, rolling expanses that turn crimson in fall – before diving into deep woods where logging trucks rule the right-of-way. At Wesley, the ruins of a CCC camp mark the halfway point where crews once battled the region’s massive forest fires.

Any vehicle can handle The Airline, but high clearance helps with the washboard sections and occasional frost heaves that’ll launch a sedan airborne. Best driven May through October when the worst mud season passes, though even summer brings challenges from logging traffic that owns these roads. Fuel up in Calais or Bangor – there’s precious little between except maybe Wesley’s seasonal store. The payoff is experiencing Maine as locals know it: empty, wild, and unforgiving, where towns are 20 miles apart and the forest stretches unbroken to Canada.