Maine

We arrived back in Cape Cod the evening of Aug 31^st and spent another night with my friends. In the morning, Bob and I picked up Harriet and headed north through Massachusetts to Maine. It was good to be back on the road again.

We spent two nights at a campground near Bath, ME, where my old friend Jasmine lives. It was great to get together with her and catch up. It was so hot these two days that they cancelled school – in the mid 90s and lots of humidity. Bob is glad that our air conditioner works so well. We enjoyed lobster one evening outside at a tavern on the river and live music the next at an air conditioned Irish pub.

Maine is a very beautiful state with lots of rocky coastline and forested areas. There are signs everywhere about moose, but we didn’t see any. Bob and I drove up Hwy 1 from Bath to Camden and bought blueberries on the side of the road. Camden is a sweet town with great shops, restaurants and quaint inns. We went to the top of Mt. Battie (800ft) at Camden Hills St Park, which looks over the town and the islands beyond. It reminded me so much of Orcas Island and Mt. Constitution, just on a smaller scale.

We had reservations to stay four nights at Acadia National Park near Bar Harbor, but hurricane Earl sent us inland and north. Instead we stayed in Medway near Mt. Katahdin, the highest point in Maine (5267 ft). It was a good thing since Acadia evacuated all the campers to a parking lot in Bangor. That wouldn’t have been much fun. We didn’t get any wind from Earl, but had 4 inches of rain in about 6 hours.

Hiking in Baxter State Park was glorious. It was a cool and breezy day but we could see all the peaks of Mt Katahdin. Bob and I hiked about 4 miles, most of it on the Appalachian Trail and rested by a wonderful waterfall. The trail and woods reminded me of my favorite hikes in Moran State Park on Orcas, except that there were more deciduous trees here. The park has limited parking, so you can’t always get in, even to hike. They also have cabins to rent on small lakes that looked like a lot of fun. This would be a great place to hang out for a week or more.

Tomorrow we go to Canada and will be spending two weeks in the Maritime Provinces. We won’t be using our cell phones there, but if we have good Internet, we’ll post some blogs.