Export to Trail Guide
Create Guidebook 
Download GPX 
Print Friendly MapOverview
The Papermill Trail celebrates the heritage of mills in the development of the town of Lisbon and the surrounding area while providing an easy, pleasant 4-mile trail experience for users of all abilities. The trail also serves as a transportation link between the town center and the community of Lisbon Falls, passing two schools and several access points and parking areas.
About the Route
Inadequate signage can make finding the start of the trail next to the Sabattus River at Village Street near Lisbon Street a challenge. The trail crosses the Sabattus River on the sidewalk of a bridge with a striking view of a three-story, 160-year-old woolen mill that’s been transformed into apartments. The off-road portion begins after the bridge and follows Upland Road and Mill Street while passing through open fields and farmland on a section also known as the Ricker Farm Trail.
About 1.2 miles from the start, the trail veers toward the Lisbon Community School and passes through a more wooded and scenic area for the rest of the way. The trail follows the Sabattus River across slightly undulating—but rarely steep—terrain. Remnants of a bridge built as part of mill-related development are visible shortly after the trail comes within view of the river.
About 0.6 miles past the bridge ruins the trail reaches Miller Park, where the Sabattus River meets the much wider Androscoggin River. There’s parking, a boat launch, and a trail information panel here. The trail goes left, running along inactive tracks that historically carried trains on the Maine Central Railroad’s Rumford Branch. This newest section of the trail to Lisbon Falls, also known as the Androscoggin River Trail, is less densely wooded and reveals open sections of wildflowers with unobstructed views of the river.
These river sections are popular with birders, who find warblers, indigo buntings, and vireos in the woods and fields, as well as herons and waterfowl in the river. Bald eagles and osprey are often spotted here.
The 1.8-mile section along the Androscoggin River ends shortly after passing the Lisbon High School football stadium in the community of Lisbon Falls, the childhood home of horror writer Stephen King. There’s no parking lot at the trailhead. Food is available at nearby restaurants, including a pub in the old railroad depot on Lisbon Street.
If you arrive during the second weekend in July, be prepared for crowds in town for the annual Moxie Festival. The event celebrates a regional soft drink that got its start as a patent medicine in the 19th century and whose advertising added the word moxie (meaning “force of character or determination”) to the English language.
The Papermill Trail runs between Village St. (Lisbon), where parking is available, and Blethen St. (Lisbon Falls).
Parking is also available at:
These are approximate addresses, please see TrailLink Map for all parking options and detailed directions.
Really enjoyed our ebike ride to and from beginning to end and back. Easy parking right over the bridge from Mill apartments on the left! So well maintained, scenic and safe feeling for 2 seniors. Delicious pizza in Lisbon Falls.
Beautiful scenery and easy walk.
I love walking on the trails, I started walking there a year ago, its helped me to build my strength and lungs from struggling with long covid, its quiet and peaceful, but I'm afraid the allowing of atvs is going to ruin that, ill see how it goes but if the atvs ruin the peaceful surroundings ill be looking for another peaceful place.
Beautiful trail! Met a fellow bicycle rider from New Jersey who helped encourage me through the rain!
TrailLink is a free service provided by Rails-to-Trails conservancy
(a non-profit) and we need your support!
