Post by Ella. I’m sitting on the covered, screened-in porch of our rustic cabin, appreciating the sound of gentle rain on birch and maple leaves with the mountains barely visible through the clouds. We got a swell but boggy hike in this morning before, as the weather app predicted, the rains started at 11:00 a.m….
Month: October 2023
This morning’s sunrise brought to you by the White Mountains of New Hampshire
Post by Ella. Our rustic cottage (or maybe it’s a cabin, dunno, what’s the difference? Marc, does the Cape have any wisdom on that?) comes with a view. Just after sunrise this morning, all was bathed in a purple, red, yellow glow.
State of nature / state of Maine
Post by Grubb. Thursday, on the way to New Hampshire, we took our final hike in Maine outside of Skowhegan on the Coburn Trail. Ten feet from where parked our Nissan Rogue, we were engulfed in a forest of maple, beech, oak, and pine. Walking the sun-dappled woods in wilderness Maine. That’s been my experience…
Covered bridge on the byway
Post by Ella. In the 1800s, bridges were often built with roof structures to prevent the trusses from being pelted with snow and ice which would eventually cause irreparable damage. When we saw the sign “Covered Bridge 3 miles” with an arrow pointing to the right while en route to Randolph yesterday, we took a…
Exit Maine, enter New Hampshire: today’s route
Post by Ella. From Greenville, Maine to Randolph, New Hampshire. We stopped outside of Skowhegan, Maine for a nice hike, in Skowhegan for coffee, A little detour to see one of the remaining covered bridges (not in use) in Maine, and then on to our rustic cottage in Randolph, New Hampshire, right in the White…
Another small town because that’s all there is in Maine
Post by Ella. Greenville, another small Maine town, population 1500, but nudging the largest lake in Maine, Moosehead Lake, it attracts water-loving visitors from afar. For the non-claustrophobics, you can take a scenic tour by sea-plane or if you need more open space, by boat, the heritage-designated Katahdin, which offers one cruise a day, rain…
40 miles long, 18 miles wide
Post by Grubb. And this body of water, 120 feet down at its deepest, is not a pond. According to the locals it’s a veritable lake, Moosehead Lake, where we’re spending two nights in a Squaw Village condo bordering a golf course on a forested bluff above a beach. It’s midweek, I think. Wednesday? This…
Along the Raven route, an eyeball
Post by Grubb. It’s Tuesday afternoon and we’re headed to Moosehead Lake. It’s a three-and-half hour drive. Cruising up Highway 9, fall was revealing its spectrum. Red tree, orange tree, gold tree, green, full-flushed and towering, conifer branches thrusting out, connecting to the surrounding forest. I was almost ready to believe Richard Powers in that…
Another tequila sunrise
Post by Ella. Although no tequila was involved, I awoke this morning to a goldenrod glow seeping through the blinds. I rolled gracefully out of bed and stepped onto our balcony to soak in the early morning caw-croaking of ravens while goldenrod and purple turned to orange. We are in Greenville (we arrived yesterday late…
In the ‘shroom universe
Post by Ella. With colorful names like mouse-ear and flying saucer, these mostly deadly (when consumed by humans) fungi populate the damp forests of Devil’s Head and Moosehorn. Seen on Tuesday during our hikes. Mushrooms, while they might kill us, are a key ingredient in most ecosystems. They send mycelial threads down to help nourish…
Please don’t shoot the orange people!
Post by Grubb. Tuesday morning we woke up to marvel at the colorful sunrise on the bay. Across the water, in Canada, the lights of St. Andrews were still twinkling through the trees. After breakfast (banana for Ella, pistachio muffin for me), we drove up the highway eight miles and then stopped for a hike…
So long to Downeast: today’s route
Post by Ella. We see the term “Downeast” a lot here. I have found a couple of different explanations about why this area got the name. Here is one from Down East magazine: “When ships sailed from Boston to ports in Maine (which were to the east of Boston), the wind was at their backs,…
About that smoke
Post by Grubb. John Wylie texted this morning to ask whether we have been affected by the Canadian fires. I mentioned that Saturday, when we were on Cadillac Mountain, I thought a mist was clouding the view from the eastern ridge. But on looking at shots taken from the reverse angle up the top of…
Up at sunrise
Post by Ella. I woke this morning to see a little tinge of orange peeking through the opening in the draperies. Yikes, I could capture sunrise for the first time on this trip. I leapt out of bed (yeah, 73 year olds shouldn’t leap), grabbed my phone and yanked open the sliding door to the…
The haunting of Eastport
Post by Grubb. Touring the new dimension, I’m getting used to not being thrown by the counterintuitive. As Ella covered in her blog post, waterfalls not only don’t fall, they ripple in reverse. Today (I’m guessing Monday) on our way up the coast we took a side jaunt into Eastport and discovered that although there…