Dang DeLorme led me astray.

[phpaul]

A "DeLorme", for those who might not know, is a road atlas. They print one for most states. The one of Maine is broken down into 69 grid squares.
 
They're topo maps with every known passable road marked. Very detailed and usually darned accurate if you have the current version.
 
Like most good maps, the type/color of line indicates the quality of the road. Interstate, US Highway, State roads, local paved roads, local gravel roads, jeep trails and deer tracks.
 
Dug mine out and plotted a path out through the blueberry barrens of Washington County.   Wild blueberries thrive on thin, rocky soil where pretty much nothing else will grow.  Often they follow ridge tops and high country.  "Barrens" is exactly the right word.  Desolate, but pretty in their own way.  The DeLorme map indicated improved secondary roads all the way.  I traced out a route from a coastal town on US Route 1, out through the barrens cutting back to the Northwest and connecting with State Route 193.  The map legend indicated improved secondary roads all the way.
 
The map was wrong. First choice turned to gravel about halfway across the barrens. NASTY gravel. Turned around and backtracked, screwed around for a couple of hours looking for a way to get there from here that didn't require gravel or sand roads. Never found it.
 
Did find a REALLY nice paved road right out in the middle of the puckerbrush. 5 or so miles of mostly decent pavement right through the middle of nowhere. Blueberry barrens as far as the eye could see and a warehouse/processing shed every couple of miles but no traffic (and I mean absolutely NONE) and great sight lines. Lots of random curves. I'm guessing it was built for tractor/trailer trucks shipping berries from the processing sheds during harvest (usually mid-to-late August).  I was FLYING out through there, right up until it turned to...yup, gnarly gravel. Turned around and flew back through.
 
The whole escapade was worth the 15 minutes or so I spent playing on that road.

[koth442]

Sounds like you had a fun ride overall, and that's what matters . Besides, exploring is fun too!
 
Reminds me this time a friend of mine and myself were out playing around near the Sacramento Delta. We found this weird road, that was WAYYYY better than it had any right to be in just the middle of nowhere. We were carving pretty good when it suddenly turned to gravel! They were nice enough to put a small construction style orange sign off to the side reading "Pavement Ends" which probably saved one of us from crashing.