Author Archives: Jill and Bud

Sunday we came to Timberland Acres RV Park, 15 miles outside of Acadia National Park.

It’s a commercial park, so neighbors are close. It is well maintained and we have TV and internet.

There are a lot of seasonal campers here and many fix their sites up nicely.

Acadia National Park is another very popular park and a permit is required to drive up Cadillac Mountain. I got a permit for Monday morning.

Unfortunately we were fogged in, so this was the view from the summit.

There was beauty close up, this lovely shrub in boom.

So we drove back down and took a walk, instead. This is Hemlock Trail.

This is a hemlock along the trail.

Part of the trail is along an old railroad bed.

Together with Jessup Trail it made a loop around this meadow…

and through a wetland. It was a nice walk, and Matey can go on most of the trails here, so that’s good.

We continued to drive around the Loop Road and then west to another section of the park near Bass Harbor called the Seawall. Standing here you could hear commercial boats out on the water and you could hear a bell buoy clanging in the fog, but could see nothing but mist.

Close up there were wild irises in bloom.

Still further west we came to Pretty Marsh, where a lovely walk…

brought us to the water…

and finally a view.

Tuesday around noon things seemed to be clearing up. I checked online and there were driving permits left for Cadillac Mountain so I bought one for 3:30.

As we started to walk around the summit the mist cleared.

What a difference. This is the view Monday morning.

This is the same view Tuesday afternoon.

Folks were really enjoying the sun and the scenery.

That’s Bar Harbor down below. The close island on the left is Bar Island.

This is my favorite; for some reason those three little islands were wearing caps of fog.

Yesterday we started the day with a walk across US Route 1 to the other side of the park and the coast. Some rough stone steps led down to this shore. It’s beautiful, but not a place for a stroll. We did walk along the top of the bank on the nice path there.

Then we drove into Belfast Maine where we met our friend Barb who sells cut flowers, perennial plants and sometimes her pottery every Friday from April through October at the farmer’s market.

It was nice to sit and visit for a while. Bud took these pictures for me; Charlie wasn’t there yet.

This morning I walked Matey about two miles down from the top of Mount Battie, where Bud had dropped us off. There’s an overlook there, but it was so foggy I didn’t even bother to go out and look. It was a nice walk and I was glad Matey got a good workout as we then left him behind.

We drove into Thorndike to have lunch with Barb and Charlie at their place. Charlie is very allergic to dogs, so Matey couldn’t come. This is their house and some of Barb’s flower gardens. The cutting garden is across the road from the house, these flowers are just for them to enjoy.

They also have some fruit trees, blueberries and raspberries. That’s Charlie and Bud walking up from Charlie’s vegetable garden. Barb and I are on the deck they just had put on the log building Charlie built that has a sauna and a workshop. Barb also has her pottery workshop attached to the back of the house and two kilns, one in the the workshop and one in it’s own shed.

I had to take a picture of this beautiful lunch setting, complete with some of Barb’s stoneware and a big bouquet of Fireflower Garden flowers. We ate and talked and talked some more. Finally we thought we had better get back to Matey.

I made Barb and Charlie pose for this picture amid more of the flowers. It was pretty sunny then and quite warm. I was a little anxious to check on Matey because my temperature monitor wasn’t working. We left the air conditioner on in the trailer, but the power could go out.

I needn’t have worried. The coast was still completely overcast and the temperature there was only sixty nine degrees. I put a light sweatshirt on to sit out!

We’re moving on tomorrow; just sixty miles to a campground near Acadia National Park. We may be able to see Barb and Charlie again before we leave Maine. I would like that.

I added two more states to our camping map on the side of the camper, New Hampshire and now, Maine. I didn’t add Vermont because we drove through there, but didn’t camp.

We’re at Camden Hills State Park. We have a large shady site…

but it is not at all level. It was about 4 degrees tilted from side to side, and we had to lower the front of the camper almost to the ground.

We took a hike this morning. A lot of the hike was pretty steep. Sometimes it went up rock steps,

sometimes we were just walking up bare rocks.

We hiked up hill for over a mile and a half to the side of Mt. Megunticook.

We arrived at the Ocean Overlook. That’s the Atlantic out there.

It was quite a view, just a bit hazy, whether from smoke or humidity I’m not sure.

We were looking down on the village of Camden, Maine.

We continued the loop around which took us down across the boulders along the edge. I kept Matey on the leash, which made the scramble harder for me. We probably went about a quarter of a mile before we got back into the woods where I felt comfortable letting Matey loose. It was still very steep. When we got back to camp we had gone three and two thirds miles, all of it up or down. We were beat.

Yesterday it rained all day, so today I asked Bud if he’d like to walk with Matey and me on the nearby rails to trails path. I figured after the rain that would be a relatively dry place to walk.

It was,

but except for this bridge it wasn’t very interesting. So after three quarters of a mile we turned around and went back to try another trail.

This time we tried a trail up Crag Mountain. It started on this lane.

but the trail turned off and soon we were out in the woods.

After a mile and a quarter of pretty steady uphill hiking we arrived at the overlook. You’re looking at the White Mountains behind us and the Androscoggin River below. (Some fellow hikers took our picture after I’d taken theirs.)

Although the hike up was more tiring, the hike back down was more of a challenge, especially for Bud.

Water from the rain was still running down some steep sections of trail making footing difficult.

I took the time to admire the fungi…

and lichens, steadily at work turning logs and rocks to soil.

By the time he got to the bottom Bud’s legs were pretty tired. Altogether we had walked over 4 miles and up and down 650 feet. Today was no walk in the park, but it was beautiful.

Yesterday we went to Moose Brook State Park for a hike. On line it said admission was $5 a person for out of state residents, but when we got there the Park Manager said he was running the park on revenue from retail sales and wanted the park available for the people, so there was no charge unless you were camping.

We walked a two and a half mile loop along Perkins Brook. Some of it was on pretty narrow paths.

But they were easy to follow and had bridges where you really needed them.

In some places we followed an old CCC trail. Here you could see the work that had been done (probably by hand) to create a level road bed.

We walked up the south side of Perkins Brook then crossed this well made bridge…

over the very pretty brook and returned along the north side.

I enjoyed the stoney, bony old woods.

And for what we would have paid for admission I bought this nice t-shirt.

Mount Washington is the Northeast’s highest peak at 6,288 feet. We are staying just a 30 minute ride from the base of the mountain so today we went there.

For only $55.00 we got this lovely bumper sticker (which Bud doesn’t want on the truck) and the chance to drive to the summit on the “Auto Road”. The road is eight miles long and except for a few hundred feet near the entrance it goes up! The steepest quarter mile is a 16% grade, and the steepest mile is a 13% grade. It averages a 12% grade. The road is so narrow we were asked to fold our diver’s side mirror in. There are no guard rails.

The road was finished in 1861 as a carriage road and has been operated by the same family company ever since. The Cog Railway, seen here from a stop near the summit of the road, was finished in 1868. It took a lot of business from the Carriage Road until automobiles became more common. The first mechanized vehicle to climb the road to the summit was a Stanley Steamer driven by Freelan Stanley in 1899. I wonder if the steam car rally going on here now includes the Auto Road, although I rather think they would be prohibited now for safety reasons. Surprisingly, the last bit of the Auto Road, the “five mile stretch” (less than a mile long at the five mile mark), was not paved until 2022.

At the top you are literally in the clouds. This was one view from the parking lot, looking down the mountain through a gap in the clouds.

There are a number of buildings on the summit, including this gift shop. Notice the chains.

I assume they are to hold it in place in the wind. If you can read the sign it says that in 1934 the weather observatory, that was on this site and manned, recorded a wind speed of 231 miles per hour. Mt. Washington still has a weather observatory where the extreme weather it experiences is recorded. It was 77 degrees at the campground and only 61 degrees on the mountain.

There is no problem with wind with the Tip Top House. It was built in 1853 as a guest house. It fell into disrepair, but the thick rock walls stood. Renovated in the 1980’s it is operated as a museum. Unfortunately, it was closed now for further renovation. To the right of the building is a cairn of stone that marks the summit.

Today was a mix of clouds and sun, but between the clouds we got some stunning views.

A lot of people hike up, or down the mountain. There is a hiker’s shuttle that operates on the Auto Road and you can buy a one-way ticket on the Cog Railroad. The Appalachian Trail crosses the summit, so some hardy souls go up and down.

I was pretty nervous about the ride down because of all the warnings about overheated brakes (some types of cars are prohibited because you can’t put them in a low gear). We only stopped for the stunning views.

We never had to stop, as numerous signs urged, to cool our brakes. With the truck in Tow/Haul mode, engine braking engaged and first gear selected we drove down at a sedate 20 mph and Bud had to use the brakes only occasionally.

And we all got to the summit.

We drove to Jefferson, New Hampshire today, to Jefferson Campground. We’re staying here over July 4th because it’s so hard to get a reservation at a public campground.

Not only is this a beautiful campground, but despite the dramatic sky and lousy forecast we had no rain here so far.

Matey and I checked out the place and found some of my favorite wildflowers, Indian Paintbrushes, which made a lovely display with the clover, daisies and buttercups.

But the bonus is they are having a steam car rally around here and several of the cars stopped by for water. (I talked to the driver of a 1923 model and he said he can go about 25 miles on a fill of water.)

This one was a 1914 Stanley Model 607 Touring Car.

All of them were from 1908 to 1923, so over a hundred years old.

The best thing is how they sound.

So be sure to turn your sound on when you watch these video clips.

Yesterday we arrived at Robert Moses State Park in the Thousand Islands area of the St. Lawrence River. This is the back of our lovely site. We are actually looking south here, as the campground is on an island that was made when they constructed the Wiley-Dondero Canal for the St. Lawrence Seaway.

Like the site at Darien Lake State Park, there is no pad and no water, but the site was level and the surroundings are nice.

This little guy kept Matey entertained while we set up camp. He’s a bit larger than the squirrels here, so I think he’s a groundhog.

There are two locks on the Wiley-Dondero Canal, one on either end of the eight nautical mile canal. Our site looks out at the upstream end of the canal and the entrance to the Eisenhower Lock. This sailboat was tied up at a floating dock on the outside of the entrance/exit to the canal and lock last evening. I think they may have spent the night there after coming up through the lock. In the morning they were gone.

This morning we went to look at the lock. An ocean going ship was just entering from the downstream side. This is a panoramic picture of the ship in the lock before the water was raised. On the far left you can see the white superstructure and on the far right you can make out the navigation lights on a tower at the bow.

And here’s the ship sitting 42 feet higher.

This gives you a sense of just how big it was.

And here she is, the Algoma Harvester, through the lock and heading up to her home port of St. Catherines.

In the afternoon it quit raining, so even though it was still cloudy and only about sixty degrees out, we decided to take a walk.

We walked about a mile and a half on a nice loop trail.

This view of the river was pretty, even without sun.

As we finished our walk it started drizzling again. We drove over and saw the marina, then came back to our nice warm camper.

Not a bad day in a pretty nice place.

We have been staying at Darien Lake State Park in Western New York. No pads, no real driveways and no water. We used our portable graywater tank to drain our shower water twice and then had to break camp and tow the trailer to empty the waste water tanks and refill the freshwater tank after a week. And today we had to add about 15 more gallons to our freshwater tank to get us through until tomorrow.

The park does have a lot of nice lawns,

a pretty little lake…

with a decent beach,

and a couple of very big snapping turtles!

There is a disc golf course that looks nice but the brush on the edges of the fairways is so thick it is unplayable. If your disc misses the fairway by a foot you spend 15 minutes beating back the brush to find it.

All in all it’s been a nice park, but we didn’t come here for the park.

We came for the people, especially my Mom and my siblings. Here we are in the only picture I have of us. Clockwise from the front left, Goody, me, Bud, Joan, Mom, Jim, and Judy.

I got to spend a good deal of time with my friend Erin, and never took her picture. I did take a picture of her back yard where she hosted her third annual garden party with me and my family.

The other people we visited with but got no pictures of are: Suzie, Marilyn and Don, Rob, Cousin Dale and Sally, Eric and Eleanor, Randy, Gayle, Scooter, Sue and Gary and Dick and Sue, Uncle Al and Fran, Susan and Nancy, Kathy and Mike and Emily and Keith. Phew! I know I should have taken more pictures, but I was just enjoying all the visits.

It was great to see everyone and now it’s time to go wandering again.

On Saturday we left Kentucky, crossing the Ohio River on this lovely bridge into Ironton, Ohio.

We stayed one night at Oak Hill Campground in Wayne National Forest. Happily, we were able to level the camper by putting the rear wheels of the truck up on blocks, so we didn’t have to unhitch.

Sometimes we come to a place and stay a night or two and we wish we could stay longer. Sometimes we are booked for several days and after a couple of days we are ready to leave, but our itinerary has us staying longer.

This was a pretty area. The understory of the woods was full of redbuds.

And there was a lot of sassafras, one of my favorites that’s not too common. Notice this single plant has leaves that are entire, mitten shaped, and three lobed. The root of the sassafras is the original source of root beer. Although I would not dig one up, if you do the roots are very aromatic and do smell like root beer.

Early Sunday morning Matey and I hiked down the hill to the Rock House trail. We walked the length of this paved trail. Signs along the way explained how in the early 1800’s iron ore was dug out of the exposed ledges, the trees were cut down to make charcoal for furnaces and iron was produced from the ore. The slag was dumped in the ravines. In typical European fashion, once the ore was gone and the trees were all cut the area was abandoned. It has healed now and the trail was nice. The trail ended with this wooden walkway leading in to…

a huge overhang of rock, the “Rock House”.

It was pretty and rather dramatic.

Since the campground host told me this was the only trail from the campground that was not overgrown, I was glad to have been there and ready to move on. A one night stay was just right.