8-28-06 (Monday): Just some miscellaneous musings tonight--no great trips to report or anything. We're 3 days into our 4-day work week and it's been raining, so we haven't done anything exciting.

I think I mentioned that we'll be going to an end of summer celebration this coming Monday at the boss's house. It'll be good to have a chance to socialize with the other workampers. They're leaving right after labor day and another couple is coming in to finish up the season. I met them briefly, and they seemed very nice. They're first timers, too.

We're looking forward to our time off this week. We're planning a hike through a boggy area where we might see moose. I still haven't seen one, and I'm determined to see one before we leave Maine! The next week we're planning a trip to Baxter State Park. This is where the Appalachian Trail terminates on Mt. Kathadin. We're staying at a nearby campground and will just visit the park during the day. The whole park, including the campgrounds and cabins, is very primitive, without any toilet facilities and not even any purified water. That's just a little too primitive for me! I don't want to carry in all my water!

Speaking of animals (moose), Wiley saw something that looked like a weasel down near the ocean the day. Another camper also saw something similar. A couple of nights later, a camper came into the store and asked if I had any idea what kind of animal was prowling around the campsites near the ocean at night that sounded like a hyena! I got on the internet, and although I couldn't find out what kind of sound they make, I think the animal the campers and Wiley saw was either a fisher or a marten. They're in the weasel family and they live in this area. I'd sure like to find out what they sound like, though!

I guess that's it for tonight. I'll check in again in a couple of days.

8/25/06 (Friday): Today was a hiking day. We hiked part of the Georges Highland Path, which is run by the Georges River Land Trust. They have over 35 miles of trails that cross private land. The land owners have put the land that the trail traverses in a trust.The land owner gets a tax break and the public gets access to land they might not ever get to explore. The area we hiked was four miles on East Peak and the flank of Spruce Mountain. The views were spectacular and the hiking was pretty strenuous for us lowlanders. We were quite content to laze around the campground when we got back!

The trailhead was on Rt. 17 just west of the campground. To the east it was in Camden and Rockport and was billed as steep and strenuous, so we opted for the trail to the west of 17, which was four miles of moderate hiking with several excellent viewpoints as the trail traversed the wooded slopes of East Peak, Spruce, Pleasant and Meadow Mountains in Rockport, Warren and Union. We only hiked as far as Spruce Mountain (a little more than 4 miles round trip). We did not see many animals, although we heard lots of songbirds and a woodpecker and saw a couple of slate colored juncos. The vegetation was very diverse. The lower slopes were deciduous forest with lots of wild flowers and mushrooms.

There was a very old stone wall along portions of the trail and the forest looked young in spots. It was easy to imagine that the slopes had been farmed and grazed 100 years ago.

The trail had a couple of steep climbs and even a scramble or two. It was fun--reminded me of my Appalachian Trail days! The blazes were painted on rocks at these points. The trail was very well marked and maintained. We were impressed.

The trail didn't go all the way to the summit, but we were quite happy with the view of Penobscot Bay from the highest point. We met a couple hiking back out just as we reached this point, and they took this picture for us.










It's been many years since I took such a strenuous hike, and I was pleased that I still had it in me. We stopped about 2/3 of the way back on this overlook (that's Mirror Lake in the background) and had a nice rest. Wiley did quite well, too. It took us about 4-1/2 hours to hike a little over 4 miles, including rest stops and a lunch break.


Next Wednesday (our next day off), we plan to hike the Oyster River Bog trail. It's also part of the Georges River system. The brochure says we might even see a moose!

8/24/06 (Thursday): We worked Wednesday, which is usually our day off, to make up for the day I took off to visit Michigan. So we were ready for some fun, and we were succesful in that undertaking!

We went to the little town of Union just west of us and attended the 2006 Union Fair and Wild Blueberry Festival. Union bills itself as the "Little Big Town." I don't know what the population is, but to me it's just a little town--friendly, old fashioned, historic and scenic. The fair was exactly what we were hoping it would be: old fashioned fun.

There were lots of 4H kids with the animals they'd raised and draft horse weight pulling contests.




























There were flower arrangements and prize-winning vegetables.











I even found out about the sheep in coats that I'd mentioned seeing in a field in an earlier blog. One of the youngsters told me that the coats are used to keep the fleece clean and insect free so that it'll bring the best market price.













I also met the sheep who posed for this advertisement!















My favorite exhibits were all in the homemaking area--jams and flavored vinegars, quilts, crocheted tablecloths and all kinds of practical crafts. I wonder if the resurgence in interest in good food will bring a new sense of pride to good homemakers. I was so impressed with the dedication of people (mostly women) who expended so much time and energy to create wonderful food and beautiful homes. We're not talking about making things out of Clorox bottles or cotton balls here. We're talking about clothing, food and household goods that are beautiful, practical and will be handed down to future generations as family treasures!

We also visited the Matthews Museum of Maine Heritage, which is on the fairgrounds and was free with admission to the fair. It was very interesting. They had all kinds of farm tools associated with blueberries, including this all handmade (from wood) machine to separate blueberries from the chaff. It was really cleverly designed and is probably one of a kind. I didn't get a good picture of it because it was dark in the museum, but they also had a 1-horse shay (one of only 2 in existence--the other one is in the Smithsonian).


As we left the museum, we sampled Moxie, the official State of Maine soft drink. It's billed as being "a state of mind, symbolic of the indomitable spirit of Down East people. It is spunk, verve, and the daring to occasionally try a different path." It was "born" in Union and tastes sort of like Dr. Pepper with a hint of coffee. Wiley didn't like it, but I thought it was pretty good--not as sweet as lots of soft drinks.


As though we hadn't had an exciting and busy enough day, we decided to stop at Fernald's Neck Preserve on the way home. It's only a couple of miles from the campground on the north end of Megunticook Lake. We enjoyed a short (about 2 miles) hike through the white and red pine and hemlock forest. The views from the bluffs overlooking the lake were pretty spectacular.

Tune in again soon for a blog about our adventures on the Georges Highland Path yesterday!

8-21-06 (Monday): I'm upset because I'd spent a lot of time working on and posting a blog last Friday, and because blogger switched me to a new beta version of their site, I lost the whole post. Bummer. Of course, it's free, so I shouldn't complain, but I didn't want to switch. I was happy with the old site. Troy actually saw the post (which I had been unable to edit), but it's now gone altogether. I'm going to patch together a shorter version and make sure it works.

We took our rented kayaks out on the ocean. We went from Rockport Harbor out to Indian Island Light. Then we crossed over and saw our campground from the water. It was a long trip, but surprisingly easy paddling. We weren't even sore the next day. Here are some pictures from the trip.

Indian Island Lighthouse (This is the one you see from our campground).












Herring gull on buoy. This is the kind of buoy that the large schooners tie up to. Then they take their dinghys to land.












Wiley took this shot of me. We had just started out, and I was fascinated by how clear the water was. You could see the kelp almost down to the bottom--maybe 10-15 feet deep! That's the prow of his kayak in the bottom right corner of the picture.








Here's Wiley--looking great with his hat and shades!












The next day we went to Fort Point State Park in Stockton Springs to see the lighthouse and Fort Pownall. I had put down a lot of historical stuff about these two places in the last blog, but I don't have the energy to put it all together again, so if you're interested check out this sign about the state park in general and the next picture about the fort. (Don't forget that if you click on the picture, it'll get bigger!)





Fort Pownall information. (There's nothing left of the fort now except the moat.)












This is the Fort Point Light. http://lighthouse.cc/fortpoint/












This is the bell (it sits in its own short tower). I'm not sure whether it was used to warn of fog or what.

















Since we still had plenty of time, we stopped on the way back to take a closer look at Sears Island. We had seen it briefly on an early visit to Searsport, but didn't have time to explore it then. The island is owned by the State of Maine, but it's threatened with commercialization. Nature Conservancy and some other groups are lobbying hard to get it turned into a park. It's one of the largest uninhabited islands on the East Coast. We walked across a paved auto bridge that you're no longer allowed to drive across, and then walked out a paved road to the opposite side of the island. There were lots of wild flowers and the weather was nice. It was a good walk.
At this point, we still felt like walking and the beach called to us. So we violated a cardinal rule of happy hikers--we headed around the island without any water, no map, and no idea when the tide would come in. We were fortunate and made it back to the car without any problems except that the walk was much longer than we'd intended. We were pretty tired and our feet hurt from walking on the rocky shore (this part of the beach doesn't have nearly as many rocks as the second half that we walked)!



This lobster trap looked fairly new. The beach was deserted, but there were a lot of lobster buoys and boats in the water.











I spotted this seal first, and then Wiley saw him, too. Then we decided it wasn't a seal, just a shiney rock. I'm so glad I walked closer for a second look! He dove into the water right after I took this shot.









I kept seeing beautiful shells and driftwood that looked almost like still lifes to me. When I saw this one, I realized that some artist had been arranging these found objects! This one is gorgeous, don't you think?









There were a lot of large hewn timbers on the beach, many with big iron spikes in them. To me it looked like the remains of a very old ship.











The last of the still lifes was kind of creepy looking!












By the end of our trek, the cold water felt mighty good to my poor tootsies!

We stopped for ice cream on the way home, and I ate a huge hot fudge sundae!














Please post some comments on this one so that I know people are finding my blog!

8-16-06 (Wednesday): I had a heck of a time posting today. Apparently blogspot.com has a new beta version, and it just wouldn't let me log on to the old version. I finally succumbed and signed up for the new version. I really wanted to post today! The new version actually looks kind of neat--quite a few of the improvements look like they'll be useful.

Anyhow--on with the events of the day!

I'm sitting here in my spotless camper. We got busy this morning and did a thorough fall cleaning--shampooed the carpet, washed the windows, scrubbed the bathroom and kitchen. It took only 3 hours! There are a lot of advantages to this scaled down life we're living!

After our cleaning frenzy we treated ourselves to lunch at a new Chinese buffet. It was pretty good as buffets go. Not as good as the one in Apopka, though, Lucie! Then we headed off to rent some kayaks. There's a sporting shop near the campground that rents kayaks for 24 hours for $25 and applies the rental toward the purchase of a kayak within a month. Since we're planning to buy kayaks, that seemed like a very good deal.

We got little blue 9-foot recreational kayaks. They're made out of plastic and you sit down in them right at water level. I'll post some pictures of them tomorrow--I didn't take my camera today because I wanted to make sure there'd be a way to keep it dry.

We put in on the Megunticook River in the shadow of Mt. Battie and Mt. Megunticook. It was really fun! We saw a loon (they're bigger than I thought) and a couple of blue winged teal. We took out at a lovely picnic area and had a rest in the shade before heading back. The paddling was almost effortless and the day was gorgeous.

Tomorrow we plan to take the kayak to Camden and put in at a little beach there (assuming the ocean is calm). We'll paddle out around the lighthouse and see our campground from a whole new perspective. On Friday we're going to Fort Point State Park. Should make for some interesting posts!

8/14/06 (Monday): Feeling kind of sad today--it would have been my father's 89th birthday. I can't believe he's been gone for 2 years already. He would have loved Maine.

It was surprisingly busy at work today (for a Monday). We only had about 13 campsites left. I checked in a lot of campers and sold a lot of wood and ice. One couple came in and bought almost $90 of souvenirs (tee shirts, sweat shirts, mugs and stuffed animals)!

Julie's comment in yesterday's blog about what Mainers are like made me think about Maine and how I would describe it. When I let my mind wander and think about my impressions of Maine so far, the first thing I think of is the indescribably lovely scent of the air—a combination of seaweed and salt water, wild roses, sun-warmed rock and grass, and evergreens. Lobster boats, traps and buoys come to mind next, along with sailing schooners. The rugged, rocky coastline and sunlight on the water. Mountains that meet the sea. Island studded coves. Reserved, honest, hard working folks. Simple homes that have stood for hundreds of years. Gardens everywhere. Local businesses catering to local needs (from lobstering gloves to laundry detergent and groceries). Communities that work. Simplicity in most things. I love Maine. I’m so glad we are having the chance to experience this way of life.

8-13-06 (Sunday): Well, it's been quite a while since I updated my blog. I haven't lost interest, I've just been busy! I won't go into a lot of detail, but here's a quick update of what we've been up to. Then I'll try to get back to posting at least twice a week.

Last Tuesday after work, we went into Camden for a walk. Camden is a neat little town about two miles north of the campground. It has two historic districts dating from the mid-1800's. I took some pictures of some of the interesting looking houses.
















This is Camden's old school. It's now a Montessori school, but I suspect it was originally the only school in Camden, covering grade school through high school.

One of these days we're going to do the historic district walking tour!








We worked again on Wednesday, and then decided (spur of the moment) that we'd leave for Bangor instead of waiting until Thursday morning. I couldn't wait to see my newest sweetie pie (here she is)! My flight to Michigan was so early that we'd have had to get up at 4 AM and then rush to get to the airport. This wound up being a great decision. We had a leisurely drive on back roads, checked into a really nice hotel and had a pleasant dinner out. I finally got to take a bath in a great tub (my bathtub is one of the few things I've been missing from our house)! We had breakfast on the way to the airport and made it with time to spare. Wiley got to fish in some new places on the way back home, and I had a relaxed flight.

I thoroughly enjoyed my visit with Tom and his great family. Anna has grown up so much! She's a great help with her new little sister, Claire. Margo has always loved baby dolls, and has now become quite the little conversationalist. She is fascinated by Claire. She's also learned that she doesn't always have to follow Anna's lead! We had a relaxing day at home the day I arrived. We spent some time on the deck and enjoyed the weather, worked on some art projects, read books and generally relaxed and got reacquainted.



Thursday worked out really well. Margo wakes up earlier than Anna, so I got to spend some time with her before Anna and the baby came downstairs. This is the first time I've visited that she seemed to remember me and didn't have any shy time. We had a blast playing with her dolls and tinkertoys. Margo still takes an afternoon nap, so I had some private time with her during which we mostly did art projects. She seems (to Granny!) to be quite advanced artistically. I brought home some of her drawings with me. In between times, I got to hold Claire (a lot)! She's such a sweet little armful, and loves to be held! After Daddy came home, we went to Chuck E. Cheese--what an adventure for Granny (I'd never been before)! I think we did just about every electronic game in the place!

On Friday, Kristin baked some fantastic cookies which we later took to a block party. I spent a lot of time just holding Claire at the party so that Mommy and Daddy could enjoy a visit with their neighbors and supervise the kids during all the activities. The weather was great, and I really enjoyed myself.









I helped the girls decorate their bikes for the parade (and also their helmets). Don't they look adorable?! We had a great final day together. (Jim and Agnes--the matching dresses you sent the girls were adorable!)











The trip home today started rather inauspiciously--I was a little nervous about the newest terrorist threat anyhow, so when the flight was delayed for almost 2 hours because (according to the pilot) they had to "redistribute the baggage in the cargo compartment," I definitely felt uneasy. But the flight was uneventful and I even got Wiley back to work on time. Now I'm vegging out. It's back to work tomorrow. I hope everyone has a great week--I'll try to have an adventure or two to report soon.

8-4-06 (Friday): Today was our last day off for the week. We decided to take a little outing toward the mountains in the west.

Our first stop was in Augusta (the capitol of Maine) at the oldest standing wooden fort in the U.S., Fort Western. It was built in 1754 on the site of an Abenaki Indian town called Kushnoc. Kushnoc was an important trading post for the Pilgrims. This site is now in the center of downtown Augusta. It wasn't open yet, so we didn't get to go inside.


Since the fort wasn't open, we started walking on a rail trail that started at the fort and ran along the Kennebec River (that's the city of Augusta on the other side of the river). There were almost no explanatory signs, so we weren't sure where we were going, but it wound up being a very interesting hike.









We came across the Kennebec Arsenel. It was quite an imposing building, made all of granite. There were some other buildings nearby that looked like an old house and maybe some offices. The arsenal was built in 1828 during a time when our relationship with Canada was rather tenuous.









We left Augusta and headed for the Pisgah Trail in the foothills of the Allegheny mountains. There's a fire tower at the end of the trail.












I was surprised at how close the frog in this puddle on the trail let me get to take his (her?) picture. I was even more surprised when I got home and realized I had gotten a picture of two frogs!









This vine looked like a wedding ring around this tree!


















Climbing the tower was actually more of a challenge than the trail!

















The view from the top was spectacular. We could see a couple of lakes and 4 ranges of mountains in the distance. Again, we'd have loved a sign or explanatory brochure, but there was none.









We stopped in Wayne, Maine (!) and had a late lunch / early dinner in the deli in the store. It's amazing to me that these tiny general stores are thriving all over this area. It's kind of a shame that Walmart and McDonalds have pretty much wiped out these little businesses in the rest of the country. We are enjoying seeking them out and giving them our business.






Back to work tomorrow. It will be really busy because of Lobster Fest. Our campground is completely booked for the next week or so.