Monday
We are up at 7:30 and Carol makes us each an egg with cheese, onions and peppers and a cup of tea. The trade some tunes and then she gets on the road for her errands and I head south. Back down Rt 210 into the Delaware Water Gap. It’s a beautiful day so I stop and walk up to Digman Falls. It’s a couple of different falls and they are lovely. I would like to see them when the azaleas are in bloom. Both falls are surrounded by tons of azaleas. It must be fab in the spring. Must add that to my list! SO many places... so little time! THen I drive a bit further down and stop at a boat launch and have a swim. There is a very cute 4 year old redheaded girl there with her father ands sister. Dad is fishing and she is fascinated by the fact that I am swimming against the current and not really going anywhere.
When Iget out I chat with them. Her father grew up here and the girl offers me a PBJ sangwhich! I thnak her but decline and go and eat my own lunch. A trailer with canoes shows up dropping people off for a paddle. I question the driver and then decide to paddle myself. I drive down and pay and then join the next flight. I am dropped off witha couple from Brooklyn who have obviously never been in a canoe before. THey guy handes them paddles and pushes them off. No instructions! I get my kayak adjusted and ctach up with them and give them a quick lesson. Enough to get them going straight down the river! I paddle with them on and off and we have a nice conversation. They are staying at anearby resort for a few days. They run an online finess advice website. THey ask about dangerous animals.
I assure them they will be fine. Just don’t feed the bears! Psyche! Just kidding. The trip is ver way too quickly. THey said 4 hours but it was more like an hou and a half. Guess we paddled to fast! I get back in the van and head west. I pull off in the Pennsylvania Wilds and am looking for the campground when my coolant light starts flashing. Oops, that’s not good. I notice that the thermometer is not reading any higher so I glide down the mountain and turn into the campsite. I park and check under the hood and I am down a little on coolant. Strange since I just had the oil changed and fluids checked! There is still quite a bit of coolnat so I should be okay. I look under her but I don’t see any fluid leaking. Okay we will address this in the morning. THere is only one other tent at the very far end of the cmapground and no rangers around. I can’t find a place to pay so I go back and have some veggies for dinner and crash. This is a nice campground except it’s very close to the road. I can hear the trucks. After my veggies I have a little more lemon poppysead bread and crash. Good night.
Tuesday
In the morning trucks on the raod wake me up about 6:30. I stick my head out and it’s 44 degrees in the van. I sleep for another half hour then get up and go for a bike ride on some trails. Still no ranger so I go into Jersey Shore, Penn which is the nearest town and a garge gives a bit of coolant at no charge. Nice guy. I go into the the center of town and get some cash and load some photos and text on my websites. ATHen drive west to Rt. 219 where I turn south. This road goes all the way to Southwestern Virgina right along the Applalachain Mountains. It’s a beautiful old highway with lots of twist and bends. Old country stores, farms, little towns and state parks roll by. Lots of smells too. Farms, animals, skunks, pines, rock, It’s a good road. I cross into Maryland and stop for a break and a swim in German Lake State Park. I am almost the only one there. I swim and find that the showers are open and take a nice hot shower and wash my hair.
THen I roll on into West Virgina and pass through Thomas, WV. It’s a cool lookiing little town with a Flying Pig Cafe and The Purple Violin with a live band tonight. There are lots of windmills up on the mountain above town. I pull into the Blackwater Falls State Park and get a campsite. They send me out to pick and site and I get them to call the Purple Violin to see what band is playing. I get a site and they report the band is irish rock. Sounds interesting. So I relax for a bit and then head back down to Thomas. I can see deer along the road. I am going to have to be careful driving tonight. I get to the Purple Violin and there is a nice crowd. They want $15 cover. Wow! What is the band? Tasting Haggis out of Toronto. I have heard they are good so I pay and go in. They have locally brewed beer on draft. I am served an IPA in a mason jar. fun! The band cranks up and they really get the crowd going. Very dynamic and fun band. They have bagpipes, guitars, keys, drums, pennywhistles , harmonicas. The crowd is up and dancing. I am having fun and glad I came. They sing a song about Noseworthy and Pierce two Newfoundland fishermen. I reminds me of Phonse Noseworthy who was fixing my van last summer when he died of a herat attack! He was a really nice guy.
When the band takes a break I tell them my Noseworthy story.
The second half is good but not quite as dynamic as the first set. I laeve before it ends and before I drink too much beer! I head out of town with a couple of cars behind me. Sure enough two deer run into the road in front of me. It’s mom and a fawn. I almost clip the fawn, but miss by a foot and luckily the cars behind me don’t hit me! I start up again and soon it’s just me on the road so I take it real slow and make it back without further deer misses! HA!
I read my email and finally bunk down to read about 1 am. THis is the latest I have been up in months!
In the morning I sleep in until 8:30 then try and fill my water tank but they had a water line break and the pump is dry. Too bad. I am getting low. Hopefully the next place will have water. I drive down to see the falls. They are pretty but you can’t get too close. You must stay on the boardwalk declare numerous signs. So I walk back up the 241 steps to the vn and drive out to the Lidy Point Overlook. I walk the half mile trail out and the view is quite stunning! You can see the whole valley. There is not a single sign of nam that I can find. I take some pics and head back. THen I drive south. Down 23 and back onto 219. Very cury and winding. Lots of ups and downs. I average about 45 mph on most of it even though the speed limit is 55. Pretty road. Little towns. I am either in the mountians or just to the west of them. Looks like towns I remember from my choldhood raod trips. Signs on barns, general stores, diners and cafes. I haven’t seen a chain store all day. It’s very refreshing. I lave West Virgina into Virginia. I’m getting tired but I have targeted a campsite in the mountains of SW Virgina. I head for it and am back to winding hairpin turns.
I have left 219 and am south west of Abingdon, VA home of the Barter Theater. It’s been around a long time. WHen it was started poor people could barter goods for a ticket! Pretty cool. My father tells me that my grandfather (State Supreme Court Judge) use to like holding court down there so he could go to the Barter Theater. I need to go there sometime. I am following smaller roads and finally I am winding my way up in the mountains. 20 mph hour hairpin turns. I am getting tired and it’s dusk. Finally I see a sign for Jefferson State Forest and turn it. But there is no campsite here it’s just a hiking access. Darn. I park and wait. No cars in the lot and it’s getting dark. I doubt any parks people will be back tonight, so I steam the last of the brooccli and beans for dinner. One car comes in flies around the circle and zooms out. Never even slows down. Well, I still think I wil be okay. So I have a beer with my dinner and then crash. Lot’s of miles covered today. Mostly going around those tight hairpin turns! Good night.
Thursday Sept. 3
It’s 7:30 before any light makes it’s way back into this holler. No rangers or other cars have appeared so I eat breakfast and head south. Too bad I have a phone meeting at 10 am otherwise I would have gone hiking on one of these trails. So I drive into Tennesse and pull off the road and have my Folkfest meeting by phone and email. We get a lot of the changes made to the festival map and I drive on south headed for the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. It’s the Thursday before Labor Day and I am worried about getting a campsite. I turn on the road to Pidgeon Forge and it’s like being in Orlando. It’s all chain restuarants and attractions. there is the upside down house of Wonderworks next to the Titanic surrounded by scaffolding. Oh my god this is to much. Luckily, I soon turn off for the quiet side of the Smokies and head for Townsend, TN and then up into the Park to Cades Cove Campground. They have a site for tonight and I got the last site for Friday but are full for Saturday. Well I will cross the bridge when I come to it!
I park in my site and take a break and then head back down to Townsend. I need a few files to finish the map. I get a signal and call Jenny. She doesn’t have them yet so I do all my shopping and wait. After a while I move down next to a stream and read the NYTimes online. Finally the files come through and I finsh the map and send it back. We make one more adjustment and call it done. Then I head back up to my campsite. There is a nice family from just up the road in Knoxville next door. We have a nice chat and I show the daughter the beautiful butterfly that got caught in my car and died intact. It is very pretty but oh so delicate. I open a large fat Tire Amber Ale and drink some of it while I make some noodles and sauce for dinner. Then finish the beer and soon I am falling asleep. The neighbors on the other side have their campsite lit up bright as day, so i have all the shutters closed on that side. I am watching for stars but it’s too bright next door so I curl up with my book and son I am alseep.
Friday
I am up at 7 and on the trail at 8. I head off and walk about half a mile over to where the trailhead along a stream. I have to get to the other side and finally I find a tree that people have been using as a bridge and walk across. I am on the trail and it’s also a hiking trail which means watching out for horse puckeys. Not fun to step in! Finally I find a side trail which will make a longer hike but no horses and head up. I am in the rodedendron thickets and I am hearing a noise off to one side and it sounds like a bear. Sure enough there he comes out of the thicket up the hill from me. He stops to rip up a stump and I take a couple of fuzzy pics of him. I am watching for others but don’t see any and after a while he heads up the hill. There were signs sayi ng there was an aggressive bear in this area.
Just about the hill is the primituve campsite they closed due to bear activity. I keep a careful eye out as I head on up the trail. Soon I reach the Applachain Trail and there is the closed shelter with bear warnings posted all over. No more bears though. So I head north up the AT and soon run int a family heading south. They know about the closed shelter and are going to the next one along. I warn them to watch out for the bear. They ask what to do aout an agreesive bear and we discuss different strategies then I look at the young son a nd say “Critterman says to take the smallest person in the group and throw them in the direction of the bear and ru n as fast as you can in the other direction!”
The boy replies “only if you can catch me!” We all laugh and I head on. I hike along on top of the ridge for a few miles and then down a way and then up the flank of Rockytop Mt. I am humming the Nitty Griity Dirt Band song Down on Rockytop. I reach the top and there are two people there having lunch. I take off my pack, check out the view and chat with Brian and Laura. They are from Knoxcille on a day hike. They head on up to Thunderhead and I decide to hike along. It’s another hundred feet of elevation and is the highest peak in the area. On the way they tell me about working at Oakridge where are the US nuclear weapons are serviced and many are stored! Wow, what a place to work. Soon we are on top at 5524 ft, there is no view. SO we take sme pics of each other and then head back down.
I stop to have an apple and some water on Rocktop and they head on back down. Soon I see storm clouds coming up the ridge so I head on back down. I head back down the AT and then down a different trail back down. I stop and talk with a few people along the trail and take a few pics but soon I am caught up with Brian and Laura. Laura and I get ahead and have a nice conversation all the way to the botttom. We say good bye in the campground parking lots and I walk back over the log down the stream and back to my campsite. Stopping only to report to the rangers that the bear is still hanging around those closed campsites. I get my boots off and pull out another cold Fat Tire Amber and spend a happy while sitting with my feet up drinking beer and watching the holiday campers streaming in. I eat the rest of last night’s pasta and sauce dinner and crahs pretty early. It was a good day.
Saturday
I was up and riding my bike out of my campsite at 8. There is an eleven mile scenic drive here that is closed to motorized vehicles on Saturday. So I ride out to it and am amazed at the number and variety of people who are getting ready to ride. People of all ages and bodytypes, colors etc. It makes me very happy to see all these riders and wwalkers this early. I head out and the road is paved but just one lane wide. I thread my way through other riders and soon am out ahead and the road circumnavigates this high mountain valley. The weather is great, the sky clear and mist is rising off the fields. There are deer grazing and birds in the sky. It’s a lovely ride. The road goes up and down hills and I just keep shifting my gears to the terrain and keep riding. I make it all the way around in a bout an hour and am back in my campsite just as my neighbors are finishing their breakfast. They are amazed that i have riden the whole loop in just an hour. They offer mt some breakfast. Once I have caught my breath I have a couple of panakes and some eggs and a nice conversation. They are family of 12 in two campsites covering all ages from granny to infant. We compare stories and then they clean up the breakfast dishes and I pack up, widh them safe travel and drive south to Chattanooga, TN.
I drive the slow highway and the take the interstate into town. I see and exit for a famous battlesite and Lookout Mt which was recommended by my hiking buddies. I drive though the city but the nighboorhood is geting rough and I don’t see any signs so i turn around and backtrack into downtown and I find an empty lot by the river and unload my bike and ride down the River Park past the Hunter Art Museum and down the Riverwalk a few miles. It gets industrial so I turn around and ride back to town. I walk around the artsy district by the Museum and look at lots of outdoor scupture. You can also bike across the Tennessee River on a high old wooden bridge.
There is more park and some cool shops. I ride and walk around and watch kids playing in the ater park and riding the old fashioned carousel. I see and outdoor shop having a sale. I go in and buy a pair of shorts and a great softshell at a deep discount. Then I ride back and over to the YMCA for a hower but I just miss them. damn. So I ride back to BEYOND, put on my bathing suit and walk down a boat ramp to the River and take a stream bath and shave. I get a funny look from some guys walking down the boat ramp to fish but I don’t care because I am CLEAN and it feels great! I eat some veggies and bike back to town. The movie “Whatever Works” is just startig so i see it. It’s pretty good. Then I g across the street to a brewery and Have some beer and fish tacos. Then I bike back to BEYOND and crash. It starts to rain in the night and continues all night.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Quebec and the Adirondacks
In the morning I am in the outhouse when I hear another truck coming over that rough road. I hear Allen hail him and soon that guy is showing him where he missed the turn. I finish and join them and the guy tells me exactly how to find the short route to St. Francis Gate. Cool! That will save a lot of driving and get me to the border quicker. I eat my cereal and have a cup of tea with Allen. THen head down to the lake for a swim. It’s pretty mossy so soon I am back and I pack up, bid Allen farewell and head out. THe guys directions are spot on and soon I am at the St. Francis gate.
The Gatekeeper tells that I can see the end of the Allagash River just down the road. I have yet to canoe the Allagash. It’s a famous paddling river in the parts. One day. So I drive over through the town of Allagash and just south of it to a boat launch on the river and go for a lovely swim in the Allagash River. I stand on the rocks and dry off then drive into the town of Fort Kent where there is a Laundromat and a border crossing. I drive through town and see a part and pull in to see the fort. It is cool 2 story blockhouse that you can still walk into and up to the second floor. It is maintained by the boy scouts. There is also a campsite by the river for canoers only. And it has water so I add some more to my supply. Then I go to the information booth and ask for a laundromat. Following their lead I find Dinah's Laundromat which is the cleanest most friendly laundromat I have ever been in. Dinah helps me choose a washer and makes sure I use the correct amount of soap and that I have enough quarters. She is Acadian with a strong french accent and is bilingual like most people this close to Quebec. She really loves her customers and her establishment and it shows.
I highly recommend it to anyone going through Fort Kent. Visit Dinah weather or not you need to wash clothes. After I put away my clothes I refill my propane tank and have lunch in the Park then cross the border. The customs agent questions me closely and then tells me they are going to do a quick search and to pull into the shed. I do and soon an American agent and a Canadian agent go through BEYOND and take a quick look at everything. They are very pleasant and polite and they insist on giving me directions to the place I am camping for the night and then send me on my way with a wave and bon voyage! I follow their directions and stop at a bank and with draw a couple of hundred Canadian dollars with my ATM card. THen I drive on to the Trans ( Trans canada Highway 2) and the next exit is campground for the night. Les Jardin de la Republique Provincial Park. Looks pretty but it’s right next to the trans.
Also it’s 5 pm on Friday and beautiful weather is forecasted. Sure enough I get one of the last campsites and it’s within a stones throw of the Trans and right next to the bathroom. But it has hot showers and a swimming pool. I get my suit and grab my bike and ride over to the pool. Except that it’s closed for 15 minutes. So I walk around and there is a little theater and there a kids with violins and there is going to be a free classical concert at 7 pm. Sounds like fun. The pool is open so I swim a bit and when I feel cooler I ride back to my van and realize that my 6 pm is 7 pm here. New Brunswick is in a different time zone. I don’t change the clock because I am going to Quebec tomorrow and it’s in Eastern time. I change and ride back and watch the young people play. It a bit warm in the theater but the kids play pretty well and everyone is clapping and having fun. The last piece is all the instructors doing a Beatles medley and it is really good. A fun evening. I ride back and make some mac and cheese and then take a long hot shower and wash my hair. Then I crash on clean sheets. It’s nice to be back in Canada.
In the morning I am up early and have a couple of cups of tea, and ride around. When the botanical gardens opens at 9 I pays my money and enjoy the birds and the butterfly garden looks a lot like my jungle at home! Then I walk the gardens and they are very pretty especially the lilly and iris gardens beside a stream and the alpine garden. That was a new one for me. I ride a trail for a couple of miles then return to my campsite just in time for the 11 am checkout time and drive back onto the Trans in the other direction. I drove this road last year after Newfoundland on my way to Rochester, NY to fly home to work the Folkfest. Soon I turn off onto Route 17 which takes into Quebec and out towards the Gaspe Peninsula. It’s a pretty drive with very few cars. I see a veggies stand and stop for zucchini, green and yellow beans and red pepper. I drive to Campbellton and see and big supermarket so I pull off and buy a bunch of supplies. THen I find Sugarloaf Campground and Park. It’s also a ski resort and you can take the ski lift up and ride a mountain bike down. Looks to hairy for me. There is a big tent and there is going to be an Acadian music concert which sounds fun. I get directions to the Restigouche Battle National Historic Site and head across the bridge into Quebec. I have trouble finding it and arrive with 12 minutes to look. I have an annual pass from last year in Newfoundland that covers the cost so I go in.
It turns out to be a great place. THere was a big Naval Battle and a big French ship was sunk and they dug the site 40 years ago and found lots of relics and big pieces of the ship which are housed in the site. It’s really spectacular to see large pieces of this ship propped up for viewing and surround by cases of different bits and pieces they found on the dig. As I am leaving they tell me there will be a lecture tomorrow at 2 pm about the underwater excavation of the site. Cool! I’ll be back for that. It’s hot out so I get directions to a good beach and drive back across the bridge and out to Dalhousie and there is a beach and I go for a swim in the bay. It feels great and there are other people swimming and boating. I finish my swimming and dry off in the setting sun then almost buy an ice cram but don’t and return to the Park. The concert has started so I put to beers and chips and salsa in my pack and go to the porch outside the park office where are some Adirondack chairs and listen to the concert for awhile. It’s contemporary Acadian rock band. They are good but I was hoping for traditional music. THey have a big crowd and are making lots of noise. I finish my beer and go to my campsite which is on a pretty steep angle. I myself park on as level a spot as I can find and make a salad for dinner and listen to the music.
When the music stops I am in bed reading but soon lots of drunk people come up to the campsite. Some are camped right next to me and they are loud. I am lying in the lower bunk which is much quieter but have to top up to cool off and because of the angle I am lying reversed from how I normally lie in that bunk. So the blood won;t all rush to my head! When they start setting off fireworks I pull the top down and shut the window on that side. It’s been a long day and I am able to fall a sleep eventually. I guess my neighbors do to for I sleep fairly well. I sleep in some and when I finally get up I find the showers and have a hot shower and some tea and cereal and one of my neighbors is up and looking very hungover! I find that another neighbor has checked out and left a huge bundle of campfire wood so I pack it in the van and head out. I go to the bottom of the hill and ride my bike on some trails and then head into town to find an internet signal. I find one and park there for a while and catch up with news from home and write some emails.
Then I go to a park by the river and have a salad for lunch and drive to the tourist info for a quebec map. THen back to Restigouche where the staff sets me up the movie in English and then sits a person beside me during the lecture to translate when I need help as the lecture is in French. There are slides with titles and I pick up a lot form reading the text and ask a few questions and enjoy the lecture. I walk through the exhibit again and then thank all the staff for taking such good care of me and head up the road to another site and a campground they recommended. Canadians are such gentle helpful people! I find the campsite but drive on to see the historic site. It’s closed today so I drive around some more and find a nice place beside a river and stopped there for the night. I make some wild mushroom veggie risotto and drink some Propeller Bitter. This is my favorite Nova Scotia Brewery. It’s good stuff. I read for awhile and then fall asleep early.
In the morning I am up very early for hot chocolate, cereal and a quick stream bath.
Feels good. Not too cold! I dry off and get dressed and drive to Miguasha Park where they have an archeological site that has produced amazing fossils from the Devonian era. Lots of really cool fish and plant fossils. SOme of the fossils are actually 3 dimensional. They weren’t squished flat and you can see the actual volume of the fish. Really cool stuff. After I finish in the museum I walk down to the beach where the fossils were found and look and find some interesting rocks. One of the rangers says that one might have fossilized fish scales and asked where AI found it. I tell her and she takes it off to the lab to be analyzed. That was fun!
I drive on west to Reserve Fauntique du Port Daniel and get a campsite for the night. It’s getting dark and might storm so I wrote in my log but it never storms so I take some of the fire wood and collect some kindling and after some work with the damp kindling get a nice fire going. I drink some beer with chips and salsa and enjoy my fire. WHen it burns down I ride off to the showers and then read until I fall asleep. I finish the last book of the Earthsea trilogy. What a good series! Then off to sleep.
After brekkie I take a hike down to the river and trail ends at a place where the water runs through some rocks and makes a few great pools so I strip off and walk in. Oh! That is cold water! It takes my breath away but I get all the way in and wash off the sweat from the hike. THen I set in the sun on the rocks and dry off. Nice. Nobody walks in on me this time which is good. Soon I am dressed again and walking back to camp. I pack up and head back down the mountain. The rangers tell me I can’t get through to the next park but I see a road that looks like it goes there but it;’s too rough for me. I really wish I had 4x4 so I can go to some of the places I see but can’t reach. Maybe FURTHER BEYOND will be a 4x4! I head west again and roll in to Perce which is where my friend Cecile’s grandmother was born on a subsistence farm before moving to the States. Her great Uncle Arthur LeFoley used to own quite a bit of Bonaventure Island before it was appropriated by the government and declared a park.
I spent today in Perce and am camped above town at a campsite called Gargantua! It's pretty here. Way up a steep mountain above town. If it weren't totally fogged in the view would be great. I biked and walked around town all day. Tons of stores selling tourist junk. My favorite was walking out to the big rock Rocher at low tide. The rock formations are very beautiful. Tomorrow morning I am going to take the 9 am ferry straight out to Bonaventure Island and hike across to the bird sanctuary. All the afternoon boats take you on a tour around the islands and go to Bonaventure last. So I am waiting until tomorrow. I had a lunch of cod cheeks and poutine. (fries gravy and cheese curds) Very tasty! Veggies for dinner to keep my heart beating! HA! I met two guys from Mass and Vermont who are touring Gaspe in the opposite direction from me. We are about the only people camped at Gargantua. We have a beer and conversation. Then they leave to have dinner in Gargantua Hotel Restaurant. I am tempted but have already sliced a huge pile of veggies for dinner so I decline but agree to join them for a campfire later. As I am making my dinner it begins to thunder and soon it is pouring down rain and I enjoy my veggies pasta and a beer and then a bit of popcorn and crawl into my warm dry bunk to read.
In the morning the weather is sparkling clear and the guys tell me about their fabulous dinner and how cool it was to watch the storm from the big windows in the restaurant. Sounds like a place to remember for next visit! I have tea with them and then drive back down the 20% grade into town. Soon I am in thick fog. But I get a ticket to ride the direct ferry to the island and then a tea and a croissant in a cafe. It was an okay croissant. Then I join two other tourists and 15 Parks workers on the ferry across to Bonaventure Island which used to be a fishing community but is now a park which has a huge colony of Northern Gannets on the east side and also seal colonies. As soon as I step on the island it starts to rain. I pay me Park fee and am told there are only two trails open. Too bad. I have a great conversation with one of the Parks workers who bought a sailboat last winter in Gulfport, FL (right next to St. Pete) and then sailed it to the British Virgin Islands and worked there for the winter crewing on a large trimaran. Then I head out into the rain for the other side of the island and the birds. I can hear and smell it when I get close. Like ant large colony of animals ( including humans) it smells pretty bad. There are thousands of birds here are calling fighting, eating and breeding raising young. There are so many that all the plants are gone in the colony.
It's also very loud. This reminds me of the gannet nesting colony on southeast Newfoundland. I walk on around the south tip of the island and I spend quite a while watch gray seals below me in the water. They are such great swimmers. So graceful. The rain has stopped and I am starting to see some other people. I walk down to a beach and there is a seal just off shore that has his head out of the water watching me. He seems to enjoy watch me as much as i am enjoying watching him! Soon I walk on through the old cemetery and past some of the old houses from the fishing days. Many of which are falling down. It makes me think about how short our time on the earth really is. So insignificant compare to the rocks, the trees and the sea. Soon I am back at the landing and I talk to the rangers about the seals and then take the boat back to Perce. I drive to bakery I saw on a back street and buy a really great croissant and a coconut nut raspberry thing for the road. I pick up an internet signal in the road and send a few quick emails until traffic is getting back-up then dive on to Gaspe and onto Fornillon National Park which is on the easternmost tip of Quebec. I get a campsite and relax. THen I go to see the evening show. Too bad it’s in French. THe guy giving it is wearing a homemade bird costume and people are laughing and enjoying it. I walk back to my camp. Make some pepperoni, mac and cheese and then have a shower. I am reading this book I bought for Greece but didn’t finish. It’s called A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. It’s okay but not great. I do want to see how it ends. It’s about a young guy from Chicago whose parents die and he and his younger brother move to san Francisco where he and some friends start a magazine called Might and he takes care of his younger brother. Anyway soon I fall asleep.
I am up very early and after tea and oaties I pack up and drive out of my campsite and it’s a beautiful day so I get on my bike and ride to the very tip of Gaspe to the lighthouse at the top of a very steep hill. Boy did I have to work to get up that hill. It was a great ride. I look around the site and there is a sign proclaiming this point the northern terminus of the International Appalachian Trail. An was first hiked by a guy who started in Key West Florida and ended here. It took him almost a year to walk it. Now that’s a hike! Once I have caught my breath I walk down to the an observation platform over the sea and watch the seals and talk to a woman who is painting watercolors about painting. She has some nice paintings. Then I chat with a woman named Ly nn from Montreal who works for a large grocery chain and gets out here on business every summer and hikes in the Park. She tells me about some other good hikes and we part ways. She back to work and me to bike back to camp. I move BEYOND down to the beach and have bagels and mackerel, cheese and fruit for lunch. I eat the raspberry treat for dessert. Boy is it great! Then take a nap in the sun. that ride really wore me out. Then I hike up to the fire tower and the view is fabulous. It’s pretty clear and I can just see Newfoundland off in the distance. It’s clear in Perce and on Bonaventure Island. It must be full of tourists. The rangers were telling me they get as many as 1800 visitors a day in peak times like today!
I walk back down and all the locals stare while I take a dip in the ocean. I’m sweaty and the water is a bit warmer than I expected. As soon as I get to shore a seal shows up swimming around out where I was swimming. Pretty Cool! I drive to the North part of the park and get a campsite and Bon Ami. It’s near the road but there isn’t much traffic. II work on my travelog and gaze up at the cliff of the end of the Appalachian Mountains towering over my head. It’s quite spectacular. Then it’s rice and veggies for dinner. It’s going to be cold tonight. WHen i walk back from the shower there are a billion stars in the sky. So I stargaze for a while before crawling into a warm bunk. I don’t sleep well for some reason and wake a lot in the night. I thought I would sleep well after all that exercise today!
Friday Aug. 21
After breakfast I walked the Chutes trail down to see a small but lovely waterfall. By then the Nature Center was open so I toured that. They had some tanks of local sea critters which was interesting. I had never seen a toad crab before. Also to see a living snow crab was fun. Then I took another bike ride down the valley trail and I saw my first live porcupine! He was grazing by the road when I came around the corner, he hunch down and put up his quills. Then he headed into the brush and I lost sight of him. But he was really cool. I biked on and ended up making a big loop and there I was right back where I started! Then a local woman told me there was good swimming just below the bridge so i went in for a dip. It was very cold. Almost as cold as the water below the falls in Baxter! A walked back and the sun came out long enough to warm me off. Then I left the Park and started my drive along the top of the Gaspe Peninsula. I come around a corner and see a whole forest of huge windmills on the mountain ridge above me. I find the access road and drive up and park and sit surrounded by 20 huge windmill. It’s a very impressive sight.
Finally I drive on and I stop in the town of Grand Valle for groceries. It’s raining and there is an internet cafe so I buy 30 minutes worth of time for $5 and a beer for about the same and pay my bills and send some email. Then talk with a guy from France who is backpacking the other direction around the Gaspe. Then I drive little further until there are no cars and it’s very mountainous and I drive up a dirt road and find a place to pull off and I listen to jazz and eat some popcorn and finally I am caught up in my travelog! Yeah. I drink a beer and make veggie, pepperoni, olive pasta for dinner. It’s excellent. It’s really blowing hard and rocking van a bit and driving the rain. I have most of the windows zipped up to keep the rain out. After dinner I start the engine to make sure my battery is charged and realize i had the lights on the whole time. Wow that would have sucked to be caught up here with a dead battery! I am sure I have a good charge and the rain in really coming down. A few cars have come by but none of them have stopped so I should be okay here. The rain is really pouring down now. So I pull the top down to make sure it’s not blowing in. I start a new book of short stories by Ursula K. LeGuin. Thanks Cecile for the book. I am parked on a pretty steep angle and I keep waking up the night thinking the van is sliding down the hill! Not a great sleep and it’s still raining hard! FInally I doze off.
I am up at 7 and the rain has stopped. I get up and a car goes by but doesn’t stop. I check and the van didn’t slide down the hill in the night. I get the engine going and get her back on the road. I drive back down to the highway and head west. I stop for gas a breakfast in Vers MonSaint Pierre. Trios crepe avec bacon et the. It was very tasty and I read about the Parc National Du Gaspe. I realize that you have to take a shuttle to climb Mt. Cartier the second highest mt in Quebec but if I get on it I can just make it. I fly back to BEYOND and we fly down the dirt road to the Parc and I have just enough time to pack my gear and buy a bus ticket. Soon we are bouncing up the mountain in a school bus. Then we hike the two hours to the top. It’s an old jeep trail but very rocky. I get to the top where it’s a tundra and there is an observation tower. I hike on a little further and the guy ahead of me gets all excited and gives me his binoculars and there are three caribou grazing on the shoulder of the next mountain. Cool! I watch them for a bit and then head back up. THe clouds have come over and it’s pretty windy and cold. I set on a sheltered bench and eat my mini bagel and hummus. Then walk up the observation tower. While I am up there a spot three more caribou below on this mountain.
After watching them for a while I go down and the ranger is giving a talk but I don’t get much as it’s in French. So I head back down. I am glad I brought up my pile hoodie and my rain coat as the wind is quite chilly. When I am back below tree line I change back to my tee shirt and walk on down. At the bottom I talk with Yves and Ann from up the road. It was their first hike and they really enjoyed it. The bus comes and we ride back. THey are curious about BEYOND so I give them the tour. THen I get the ranger to book me a campsite and the other side of the Park and drive over to Mt. Albans Campground. I check out my campsite and then drive over to the Discovery Center and look at the exhibits.
There is a famous hotel with a fancy restaurant and I consider having dinner there but it will be a minimum of $45 and $15 more if i want to try a caribou steak. I decide it’s too much for this trip and head back to my campsite where I have chips and salsa and my last Propeller bitter. Buy does it taste good! I catch up journal and then cook some clam sauce and broccoli. Then a nice hot shower. It’s clear tonight with no bugs so I might light a campfire tonight. I have a lot of wood onboard still. I like my campsite. Pretty private considering the number of people here. It’s tucked down in a valley surrounded by mountains. I was on the International Appalachian Trail again today and will be tomorrow as well. This would be a beautiful section to hike some day. I was too tired to light the fire and it was quarter showers, but the water was hot and powerful. I felt great and soon was curled up in my bunk with my book.
I was up at 6:30 and after tea and cereal I started up Mt. Albans. It is overcast and a bit humid this morning, but i am psyched to hike the whole loop. off I go up through the trees and across the river. Soon the trail is getting steep but I am chugging right along. I pass a young couple having a fun conversation a francaise. THey are speaking too fast for me to pick out much. I blow past them and soon I have the trail to myself again. I stop at an open spot for some water and a young guy with a cast on his arm comes blowing by my. I am breathing hard and sweaty but he is really sweaty and blowing hard. He waves and heads on up. Soon I start again and there is a sign that I am 300 meters from the top. It’s a steep finish but soon the trees are only knee high and then they are gone and it’s tundra and I am on top. I look in the hut and there is that guy changing out of his wet gear. He has a huge cast on one arm and is struggling.
I offer and hand but he is almost done. He is from Quebec (City) and works in a bike shop. This is his last summer weekend before starting college. We decide to hike together and off we go across the grassy top of the mt. We are walking on a boardwalk and I spot a caribou off to the left. We stop and watch it for a while. This is the first he has seen in five years of visiting the Park. I feel luckily to have seen 6 in two days! They are part of a very unique herd. THe Quebec herd does not migrate like the rest. They stay in this mountain valley and just move up to the summits in the summer. They must have been cut off long ago by the glaciers and stopped migrating. THey are now genetically different from the herds of the north. But they are down to about 180 members in three herds. THey are just about at the point where they are interbreeding too closely and that will eventually weaken and kill them off.
I asked but they are not introducing new members from outside herds in to strengthen the blood line. Too bad. At the end of the grassy the mountain drops into a steep valley with a stream crashing down the rocks. It’s very beautiful. I am glad I did the hike in this direction. We start down the rocky trail and I do pretty well and keeping up with 21 year old legs. We are having a great conversation in Franglais. Luckily his french is better than my English! We have together for about 7 km until I decide to go for a swim in the river below Chute Diablo( Devil Falls) and he can’t swim with his cast so we bid each other bon voyage. I head up the rocks on the side of the stream to get out of site of the bridge. THen I strip down and ease in. Oh is it cold! But it feels great to scrub off some of the sweat from the climb. I get my head under and then out on the rocks to eat my peanut butter mini bagel and plum. Then into my clothes and I finish the hike. Once I pass the bridge the path turns level and wide. No more hills, rocks or mud! I stroll along side the river and then through a beautiful grove of cedar trees. Another 2 km and I am back at the parking lot. I get my boots of and walk to the discovery center and use the loo. I decide not to have a beer but jump in the van and head North out of the Park.
Soon I am in St. Ann de Monts and there is a cool park by the water with lots of sculpture made from carved and assembled driftwood. Neat stuff. I walk around and look at them all. Id rive around until find a internet and do my email then I stop at a supermarket for beer chips and salsa! Ricards Red this time. It’s what I had in the internet cafe and is pretty good. I head on west along the coast and when I reach Metane I spot a bunch of Rv’s parked beside a wharf behind a mall and drive down to investigate. Sure enough it’s a place where people just stop for the night. I pull along the shore and open the doors and watch the sun setting with a cold beer and some chips. The people in the next RV are pointing and I realize there is a marmot on the rocks right next to me. How cool! He is very used to people and gets right down on the ground nest to me and grazes the weeds by my tires! He is fat and happy.
He moves on down the rocks and I watch him with my binoculars for a while. Lots of other RV pull in and also there is a 45 foot wooden ketch at the dock. She is really lovely and the couple that own her walk past me to go out o n the wharf, then walk towards town. Probably to have dinner. Then an old VW bus pulls in and parks. Two guys get out and I grab another beer and go have a conversation. They are two brothers from Trois Pistoles, Quebec. They have been fishing and are getting set to fish some more after they finish eating. THey are headed east and I recommend the Point Gaspe walk. The temperature is really dropping fast. I am wearing pile but an still getting cold. So I bid them good fishing and go back to make dinner. Broccoli and rice. It’s very tasty and warms up the van. Soon I am in my bunk with the windows closed but the top up and I have my blanket and sleeping bag over me and am snug as a bug in a rug! Goodnight!
I am up at 5:45 at first light and I need the bathroom so I head across the mall parking lot towards a McDonalds sign. But soon I change course when I see a Tim’s. Soon I am sitting down with a medium hot chocolate and a sesame seeds bagel with butter. Yum. When it’s done I walk back and quietly put down the top and drive off. I drive to Rimouski, Quebec and stop at a mall to look for a new camera. I didn’t find a camera, an outdoor shop was having sale and i got some clothes and a nice set of small binoculars all on sale. Then I drove downtown and asked around and finally I found a camera shop and they had a Canon D-10 compact waterproof, freeze proof camera. So i bought it. I drove to a parking place and ate a mini bagel with sardines and cheese and read the basic on my camera.
There was a bike path so I went for a nice ride as it was an absolutely beautiful day. The bike path was really nice and went around the shore and through a nice park where I watch some guys playing beach volleyball for a while. then I rode back and packed up and drove on to Le Bic Provincial Park and got a campsite at the top of the hill and spent a couple of hours playing with my new binoculars and camera! The camera has a ton of different controls. It’s very versatile and takes good pictures. I took a trail walk and experimented with the camera then picked up some kindling and started a fire in my camp and spent a nice couple of hours sitting by the fire eating chips and salsa and drinking beer. Just as my fire was dying out my neighbors rolled up and were struggling with their fire. I went over and helped them get it going and had a nice conversation with a couple from France. They were both chemists and have a one year old daughter back in Britany. Again it was getting really cold so we put the fire out and I crawled into bed. It feels really good to have a camera again! I really missed taking pictures. This one is waterproof to 30 feet! That should open up some good possibilities for me! Good night.
I am up at first light and I drive down to the water and I hear a strange grunting noise and realize that there are harbor seals lazing on the rocks out in the middle of the little bay. I count about a dozen of them. The tide is going out and they seem to be complaining as their water is disappearing. I watch for a while then ride my bike all around their bike trails. I see a couple of deer including one with a fawn still in spots. I ride all the way out to the point and take some pics with my new camera. I stop and look at the historic buildings and then I get on the road south. I drive to Trios Pistoles to catch the ferry across the St. Lawrence River but it doesn’t run again until 4:30 pm. I try for an internet signal but can’t find on so I drive on south to Rieveire du Loup where the ferry should go at 2 pm. It’s 11 am but cars are already lining up so I get in line and break out the chips and my book. About 20 minutes later I notice the Rv in front of me is moving. I drop the chips and fly into the drivers seat and crank up the engine as the guy waves me onto the ferry.
Wow they are loading early! I’ll bet we leave at noon. I go up and sit in the cafe and treat myself to a cheeseburger platter. It lands in front of my right at noon, just as the boat starts moving. Cool. The cheeseburger is passable, and filling. I walk around and take pics then read my book and soon we are on the other side. I get off the ferry and drive North up to Lac St. Jean. I pick up internet in Chicoutini and take pictures of the Pyramide du Ha Ha. It sit in the town Parc. Must have been commissioned by The Joker! All of a sudden the mountains are gone and the land is flat and covered with crops. Big farms here. I turn south back into the mountains and then up a dirt road to lac du La Belle Reviere. It ‘s remote campsite and I really use my franglais to procure a campsite. The wind is really blowing up. It’s very chilly and getting dark so I go and find the showers. I take a nice hot shower and then write my journal and make broccoli rice for dinner. It tastes excellent. I listen to Tom Waits and write in my log until the power is gone and then crash. The temp has dropped to below 50 F so I close the windows and roll up in my blankets and am a sleep almost immediately. This is as far North as I am going. Tomorrow I head south. It’s been a good run but I am ready to point my nose towards home. To quote a NGDB songs. “Put out the fire call in the dogs and head it on back to Bowlegs. “ Always liked that song.
At daybreak I get dressed and hightail it to the bathroom. It’s cold this morning and just barely light so I get back in my warm blankets for a while. I get up at 7:30 and have tea and cereal with dried blueberries then hit the road. To my chagrin the small road west i want to take is impassable so i go back North then west to Rt 155. I stop for gas and then as a farm stand. The wind is blowing really hard and has just blown over all their berries. The whole floor is a carpet of blue and raspberries! It’s a sad sight. They are scrambling to get them back in boxes. I buy fresh corn beans tomatoes and some blueberries. Then I start south. It’s a very scenic highway winding through mountains and along a rappidy river. Soon I am in town of LaToque. I stop for groceries and another block of ice. I have some blueberries and plums for lunch. Then I drive on south and snack on sunflower seeds and sesame sticks as I go. Soon I am the outskirts of Montreal.
I drive in and on to Sherbrook St. which runs the length if the City east to west. It’s 3:30 so I pull off into a Parc by the Botanical gardens but they want a lot to park so I drive on downtown. I south closer to the water and in the older section of the City I see and public market with parking behind it. It’s 4 pm and the radio is talking about how horrible traffic is. I get out and walk through the market and down the street. It’s an old kind of rundown neighborhood. Lots of young people, artists and immigrants. I find an old bookstore and browse then talk to the owner for awhile. He has interesting collection of French Expressionist and Surrealist plays. Including and very old copy of UBU ROI by Alfred Jarry. A very revolutionary play in it’s time. Then owner is a big Jack Kerouac fan and knows St. Pete because of Jack. We talk for a while and he gives me directions to a couple of good restaurants He has never owned a car. He has owned the bookshop for 30 years. His wife is an advocat (lawyer) and the walk or use public transport.
They rent a car occasionally so go to the U.S. for Kerouac festivals!
. He doesn’t know how secure my parking space is but says all side streets are free so I move. I find a nice looking quiet spot on a side street. My bike is folded inside the covered with dirty clothes. That ought to stop any thief! I walk around and find the restaurant and then walk further around the area. Montreal is pretty warm tonight. No coat needed and the sky is clear. Everyone is out in the Parks playing. I take pics and walk and listen and smell. So different to be in a City after the Gaspesie! I want to come back here and get a hotel and ride my bike all over! My feet are getting tired so I land in a sidewalk pub for a beer. I sit in the only empty table and there are some people next to me and one guy is wearing shirt saying Rappongi Ravers. Looks like it was a japanese sports team shirt he found in a thrift shop. He is talking to a smartly dressed woman wearing a black dress with a belt that say Love Juicy. What a great couple. They are the only people talking in mostly English. My french has gotten much better over the last few weeks but I still cant’s follow a rapid conversation. So it’s fun to listen to them. I was trying to get a stealth pic of them but my flash went off.
Damn! Then the guy was telling a story and waving his hands around when his ring flew off and hit my foot. I gave it to him and complemented them on their outfits. They left soon and I walked to the French restaurant. Le Petit Extra on Ontario Street just a few blocks south of the Pont Jacques Cartier. It looks nice so I go in and the menu looks great. They have entrees and a fixed Price menu. I ask about the fixe pree and he says ha can adjust it if I can’t eat the whole thing. So I agree and order fish soup, lamb shish kebobs with a tomato cumin sauce and a glass of the house red. The soup is really good. Served with some toasts and parmesan and sauce that comes with bouillabaisse. It’s amazing. The lamb dish is terrific. Served with a cake of rice topped with yellow squash zucchini and parmesan. Wow it’s cooked just right. and the tomato coulis is great. I am too full for dessert so i cash out and walk back to BEYOND. It’s dark and I am tired. The street is quiet so I crawl in the back and am able to fold down the bed with the bicycle and I read to see if anyone notices me. No sign of any so I pull the shades and crash.
Friday
I am up 6:30 and I drive to the corner diner to use the restroom and have breakfast. The,oef,crepe,fruite,pomme frites. THe syrup came in a teapot like the tea. I refilled my tea cup from the syrup pot by mistake. GRR! I thought the tea looked thick! Then I moved my bike back to the rack and hit the road. Back on Sherbrook St and head west. Through the rest of the city. My map indicated Sherbrook St. running over a bridge and out of the city as Rt. 138 which is the road I want. Well it doesn’t. I had to fiddle around but I finally found it about 8:45 and fought my way out. Soon I was back in famland and rooling smoothly south. I crossed the border at Malone, NY with no problems. No hard questions or search! I rolled on into Malone and checked my phone for messages and read my email. I had a nice talk with my father. He might be joining me in GA. It would be geat to finish my trip with him. I go to Mineke but they can’t give me an oil change unitl tomorrow, and the Pizza Hut doesn’t have the buffet, so head south into the Adirondack Park.
I stop at the Interpretive Center and ask about campsite availability. She doesn’t know but guve me a huge brochure. I try callling one and can’t really hear them so I drive on down to Fish Pond. Supposed to be beautiful. I get a site and it’s okay right on the water. But all the campsites are one the water! All 300+ sites. Wow! I haven’t seen this many people in a long time. I decide to drive into Lake Saranac and the on into Lake Placid. Looking for a cool jakcet I saw in Rimouski but didn’t want to buy in Canada. Can’t find it in either town. So I head back and eat sunflower seeds as I drive. Then make some of the brocclli and corn for dinner. I have chips salsa and beer while I am cooking. I decide to bike to the showers and end up biking a long way. It seems like I am half way around the Lake. Good thing I brought an extra head light! I take my shpwer and the water is good and hot. I jump back on the bike and decide to ride the rest of the way around the lake home. Well it takes me about 40 minutes! There was a lot more lake this way. I end up riding along the main road and then through the woods but finally I make back home! What a trek; my fingers were pretty numb by the time I finished. I relax for a while and write in m log and then into bed. I read some of The Shipping News and the off to sleep.
In the morning I up right as the sun is coloring the sky. I hit the head and take some pictures, then go back to bed for a while. It’s quite chilly this morning. Maybe 48 degrees. It feels to to crawl back in my warm covers. I wkae up at 9 and eat some creal and blueberries then head south with a cup of hot chocolate. I come around the corner of Raquette Lake and there is a swimming area with people in the water and a parking space. Cool. I grab it and walk over to the beach. It’s warm on the sand so I get my chair and book and sit in the sun. I still have on a pile jacket and hat but the sun is warm. Soon I get my courage up and change into my suit and into the water. It’s really much warmer than I expected. Certainly warmer than the water I have been swimming in lately. It’s a tiny swimming area so I can’t really swim so I float for while then swim a bit and wrap up in my towel and sit in the sun. When I am wrmer and dryer I go change and grab he chips and eat them while I read. Glorious. There is a seaplne that gives rides and it’s fun watching him take off and land about every half hour. Then I drive to Blue Mountain Lake and spend the afternoon in the Adirondack Museum. It’s as cool as I remember, with a great section on wooden boats. When the staff finally push me out the door I head south still on Rt. 30 and find a campsite on Leaky Lake. It’s up above the lake but off by myself. I am just settling in with a beer when the rain starts. It gets going and rains steadily through a dinner of yellow beans corn and pepperoni mac n cheese. By the time I get into bed it’s raining pretty hard and continues all night. But I amsnug and warm with U K LeGuin’s Twelve Winds. Good Night.
In the morning it’s still raining and very gray. I get up and have my cereal and make a cup of tea then drive over to the showers. No quarters needed but the water is icy cold. Not very nice on a cold rainy day! I am wash my hair because I am visting my friend Carol tomorrow and I want to be presentable! Quick scrub, faster rinse and I am out shivering! Back into my clothes and over to the recycking center to process my trash. I have been very pleased to see that most campgrounds have centers for recycling. It’s a good thing! I drive south to Amerstam in teh fog and rain. It’s beautiful to see the misty on the mountains, but even nicer to be in a car with the heater on! In Amerstdam, NY I see a Jiffy Lube and pull in. They can get to her about 10 minutes. Great! So about 20 minutes later I am on the road again. Just down the road I see a laudromat and pull in. Let’s get a bunch of chores done today! My clothes are in and I see a Pizza Hut across the street but no buffet on Sautrday. When my laudry is folded and stowed I drove on and there is a movie theater. I pull in but the Jlia Child movie I want to see downs’t start for hours. Too bad. I contue south on Route 30 through the Schoharie Valley. Rolling hills and farms. Lots of old houses. It’s very pretty out here.
Old stone churches and graveyards. I see some familar place that bring back nice memories. I see a church bar-b-que supper and pull over. As usual I am right at the end. THey are out of sides so I buy half a chicken. It’s tasty! I am the only one eating and the lady gives me two ribs to try. I eat one and it’s flavorful but a bit tough. I save it and some of the chicken for dinner. I thank the foolks and head south. Soon I turn off 30 and work my way over to Rt. 28 East and head into the Catskill Mts towards Kingston. I stop in Phonec ia, NY and head for the Wooded Valley campground. It’ss takes me a but of driving around but finally I make up to the end of the right road and it’s verty pretty. I get a site right on the Creek. Cool! They assure me the showers are hot. Quarters required but hot! I have some beer and veggies for dinner and then walk off to look for the showers. THey are nice and clean and the water is hot! What a pleasure after a cold rainy day! I get back to BEYOND and type in my log until the rain starts again. THen I cewal into bed and read and story by Ursula before nodding off. Snug and warm istening to the rain and the creek.
Sunday Aug 30
I sleep in a bit today. Then I haave cereal and the last of the Quebec blueberries. I make tea for the road and drive back down the mountain to Rt. 28 and the 30 miles to Carol’s house. The further I descend the more the sun comes out until I roll up carol’s strret under a clear blue sky. It’s great to see Carol and the crocs I left at her house are right where i left them! Hello old friends. We chat and I help with a photoshop project and eat some stale popcaorn she made last night. It’s really good. She cooked it in olive oil onion and garlic and the poured butter with a hint of maple syrup over it! Wow it’s good even the next day. The we jump in here convertible, drop the top and drive up into the village of Rosedale. Carol drives me past a house she is considering buying. It needs work but is in a good location. Not too remote and the neighbors look nice. The catskills are a very expensive. Lot’s of people from NYC have summer places there. Plus all the eealthy artists, musicians and hippes that want to be near Woodstock live all around.
We stop in Rosedale at the bakery and get some foccacia and lemon poppysead bread for lunch. We go across the street to a Cheesehop and thrift store. I find a copy of One Hundred Years of Solitude for $3 and buy it. A great book and I will need one more for the trip home. G. G. Marquez is one of my favorite authors. The we drive up to the very famous Mohunk Mountain Resort where she works as a florist. I have heard about this place for years but never seen it. It’s pretty pricey and has been open since the late 1800’s. It was built as a place for people to go and commune with nature. I must say that I had my reservations about it but it is an amazing place. They have really worked hard to keep it as pristine as possible. It’s right up on a mountain with a high mountain spring fed lake and it building is really amazing. There are hundreds of rooms that all have working fireplaces all in one old stone building! It is an amazing example of dream architecture from the late 1880’s. It was a perfect late summer day and we walk , hiked, swam, picniced and had a really great time. I took a ton of pics that I will get on my website eventually. If I were ever to go to a resort this is one would be very high on my list. It’s a very beautiful place.
We are getting hungry so we drave down to the Rosedale Tavern for dinner. The waitress is raving about the corn seafood chowder. I don’t really get good chodwer in the south especially corn chowder. ANd I really never see seafood corn chowder. SO I oder a bowl and we both order a porkchop an an apple maple glaze. The chowder is excellent. It’s the real McCoy. I savor it to the last drop. THe porkchop comes and is immense with mash potatoes and yellow swuah and zuchini. It is also very tasty and I eat the whole thing along with a locally brewed beer. Glad we hiked and swam today. It was a real treat to spend the day with Carol at Mohunk and to have such great food! We rool out to the car and stop at the movie rental place for The Science of Sleep and Burn After Reading. We start with Science which I really enjoy and Carol ahs never seen. It’s artsy and quirky but she is tired and dozes off. I enjoy it but we are too tired to watch Burn. Too bad as I have never seen it. We both collapse into bed. What a great day! I can’t wait see my Mohunk Pics! Good night.
The Gatekeeper tells that I can see the end of the Allagash River just down the road. I have yet to canoe the Allagash. It’s a famous paddling river in the parts. One day. So I drive over through the town of Allagash and just south of it to a boat launch on the river and go for a lovely swim in the Allagash River. I stand on the rocks and dry off then drive into the town of Fort Kent where there is a Laundromat and a border crossing. I drive through town and see a part and pull in to see the fort. It is cool 2 story blockhouse that you can still walk into and up to the second floor. It is maintained by the boy scouts. There is also a campsite by the river for canoers only. And it has water so I add some more to my supply. Then I go to the information booth and ask for a laundromat. Following their lead I find Dinah's Laundromat which is the cleanest most friendly laundromat I have ever been in. Dinah helps me choose a washer and makes sure I use the correct amount of soap and that I have enough quarters. She is Acadian with a strong french accent and is bilingual like most people this close to Quebec. She really loves her customers and her establishment and it shows.
I highly recommend it to anyone going through Fort Kent. Visit Dinah weather or not you need to wash clothes. After I put away my clothes I refill my propane tank and have lunch in the Park then cross the border. The customs agent questions me closely and then tells me they are going to do a quick search and to pull into the shed. I do and soon an American agent and a Canadian agent go through BEYOND and take a quick look at everything. They are very pleasant and polite and they insist on giving me directions to the place I am camping for the night and then send me on my way with a wave and bon voyage! I follow their directions and stop at a bank and with draw a couple of hundred Canadian dollars with my ATM card. THen I drive on to the Trans ( Trans canada Highway 2) and the next exit is campground for the night. Les Jardin de la Republique Provincial Park. Looks pretty but it’s right next to the trans.
Also it’s 5 pm on Friday and beautiful weather is forecasted. Sure enough I get one of the last campsites and it’s within a stones throw of the Trans and right next to the bathroom. But it has hot showers and a swimming pool. I get my suit and grab my bike and ride over to the pool. Except that it’s closed for 15 minutes. So I walk around and there is a little theater and there a kids with violins and there is going to be a free classical concert at 7 pm. Sounds like fun. The pool is open so I swim a bit and when I feel cooler I ride back to my van and realize that my 6 pm is 7 pm here. New Brunswick is in a different time zone. I don’t change the clock because I am going to Quebec tomorrow and it’s in Eastern time. I change and ride back and watch the young people play. It a bit warm in the theater but the kids play pretty well and everyone is clapping and having fun. The last piece is all the instructors doing a Beatles medley and it is really good. A fun evening. I ride back and make some mac and cheese and then take a long hot shower and wash my hair. Then I crash on clean sheets. It’s nice to be back in Canada.
In the morning I am up early and have a couple of cups of tea, and ride around. When the botanical gardens opens at 9 I pays my money and enjoy the birds and the butterfly garden looks a lot like my jungle at home! Then I walk the gardens and they are very pretty especially the lilly and iris gardens beside a stream and the alpine garden. That was a new one for me. I ride a trail for a couple of miles then return to my campsite just in time for the 11 am checkout time and drive back onto the Trans in the other direction. I drove this road last year after Newfoundland on my way to Rochester, NY to fly home to work the Folkfest. Soon I turn off onto Route 17 which takes into Quebec and out towards the Gaspe Peninsula. It’s a pretty drive with very few cars. I see a veggies stand and stop for zucchini, green and yellow beans and red pepper. I drive to Campbellton and see and big supermarket so I pull off and buy a bunch of supplies. THen I find Sugarloaf Campground and Park. It’s also a ski resort and you can take the ski lift up and ride a mountain bike down. Looks to hairy for me. There is a big tent and there is going to be an Acadian music concert which sounds fun. I get directions to the Restigouche Battle National Historic Site and head across the bridge into Quebec. I have trouble finding it and arrive with 12 minutes to look. I have an annual pass from last year in Newfoundland that covers the cost so I go in.
It turns out to be a great place. THere was a big Naval Battle and a big French ship was sunk and they dug the site 40 years ago and found lots of relics and big pieces of the ship which are housed in the site. It’s really spectacular to see large pieces of this ship propped up for viewing and surround by cases of different bits and pieces they found on the dig. As I am leaving they tell me there will be a lecture tomorrow at 2 pm about the underwater excavation of the site. Cool! I’ll be back for that. It’s hot out so I get directions to a good beach and drive back across the bridge and out to Dalhousie and there is a beach and I go for a swim in the bay. It feels great and there are other people swimming and boating. I finish my swimming and dry off in the setting sun then almost buy an ice cram but don’t and return to the Park. The concert has started so I put to beers and chips and salsa in my pack and go to the porch outside the park office where are some Adirondack chairs and listen to the concert for awhile. It’s contemporary Acadian rock band. They are good but I was hoping for traditional music. THey have a big crowd and are making lots of noise. I finish my beer and go to my campsite which is on a pretty steep angle. I myself park on as level a spot as I can find and make a salad for dinner and listen to the music.
When the music stops I am in bed reading but soon lots of drunk people come up to the campsite. Some are camped right next to me and they are loud. I am lying in the lower bunk which is much quieter but have to top up to cool off and because of the angle I am lying reversed from how I normally lie in that bunk. So the blood won;t all rush to my head! When they start setting off fireworks I pull the top down and shut the window on that side. It’s been a long day and I am able to fall a sleep eventually. I guess my neighbors do to for I sleep fairly well. I sleep in some and when I finally get up I find the showers and have a hot shower and some tea and cereal and one of my neighbors is up and looking very hungover! I find that another neighbor has checked out and left a huge bundle of campfire wood so I pack it in the van and head out. I go to the bottom of the hill and ride my bike on some trails and then head into town to find an internet signal. I find one and park there for a while and catch up with news from home and write some emails.
Then I go to a park by the river and have a salad for lunch and drive to the tourist info for a quebec map. THen back to Restigouche where the staff sets me up the movie in English and then sits a person beside me during the lecture to translate when I need help as the lecture is in French. There are slides with titles and I pick up a lot form reading the text and ask a few questions and enjoy the lecture. I walk through the exhibit again and then thank all the staff for taking such good care of me and head up the road to another site and a campground they recommended. Canadians are such gentle helpful people! I find the campsite but drive on to see the historic site. It’s closed today so I drive around some more and find a nice place beside a river and stopped there for the night. I make some wild mushroom veggie risotto and drink some Propeller Bitter. This is my favorite Nova Scotia Brewery. It’s good stuff. I read for awhile and then fall asleep early.
In the morning I am up very early for hot chocolate, cereal and a quick stream bath.
Feels good. Not too cold! I dry off and get dressed and drive to Miguasha Park where they have an archeological site that has produced amazing fossils from the Devonian era. Lots of really cool fish and plant fossils. SOme of the fossils are actually 3 dimensional. They weren’t squished flat and you can see the actual volume of the fish. Really cool stuff. After I finish in the museum I walk down to the beach where the fossils were found and look and find some interesting rocks. One of the rangers says that one might have fossilized fish scales and asked where AI found it. I tell her and she takes it off to the lab to be analyzed. That was fun!
I drive on west to Reserve Fauntique du Port Daniel and get a campsite for the night. It’s getting dark and might storm so I wrote in my log but it never storms so I take some of the fire wood and collect some kindling and after some work with the damp kindling get a nice fire going. I drink some beer with chips and salsa and enjoy my fire. WHen it burns down I ride off to the showers and then read until I fall asleep. I finish the last book of the Earthsea trilogy. What a good series! Then off to sleep.
After brekkie I take a hike down to the river and trail ends at a place where the water runs through some rocks and makes a few great pools so I strip off and walk in. Oh! That is cold water! It takes my breath away but I get all the way in and wash off the sweat from the hike. THen I set in the sun on the rocks and dry off. Nice. Nobody walks in on me this time which is good. Soon I am dressed again and walking back to camp. I pack up and head back down the mountain. The rangers tell me I can’t get through to the next park but I see a road that looks like it goes there but it;’s too rough for me. I really wish I had 4x4 so I can go to some of the places I see but can’t reach. Maybe FURTHER BEYOND will be a 4x4! I head west again and roll in to Perce which is where my friend Cecile’s grandmother was born on a subsistence farm before moving to the States. Her great Uncle Arthur LeFoley used to own quite a bit of Bonaventure Island before it was appropriated by the government and declared a park.
I spent today in Perce and am camped above town at a campsite called Gargantua! It's pretty here. Way up a steep mountain above town. If it weren't totally fogged in the view would be great. I biked and walked around town all day. Tons of stores selling tourist junk. My favorite was walking out to the big rock Rocher at low tide. The rock formations are very beautiful. Tomorrow morning I am going to take the 9 am ferry straight out to Bonaventure Island and hike across to the bird sanctuary. All the afternoon boats take you on a tour around the islands and go to Bonaventure last. So I am waiting until tomorrow. I had a lunch of cod cheeks and poutine. (fries gravy and cheese curds) Very tasty! Veggies for dinner to keep my heart beating! HA! I met two guys from Mass and Vermont who are touring Gaspe in the opposite direction from me. We are about the only people camped at Gargantua. We have a beer and conversation. Then they leave to have dinner in Gargantua Hotel Restaurant. I am tempted but have already sliced a huge pile of veggies for dinner so I decline but agree to join them for a campfire later. As I am making my dinner it begins to thunder and soon it is pouring down rain and I enjoy my veggies pasta and a beer and then a bit of popcorn and crawl into my warm dry bunk to read.
In the morning the weather is sparkling clear and the guys tell me about their fabulous dinner and how cool it was to watch the storm from the big windows in the restaurant. Sounds like a place to remember for next visit! I have tea with them and then drive back down the 20% grade into town. Soon I am in thick fog. But I get a ticket to ride the direct ferry to the island and then a tea and a croissant in a cafe. It was an okay croissant. Then I join two other tourists and 15 Parks workers on the ferry across to Bonaventure Island which used to be a fishing community but is now a park which has a huge colony of Northern Gannets on the east side and also seal colonies. As soon as I step on the island it starts to rain. I pay me Park fee and am told there are only two trails open. Too bad. I have a great conversation with one of the Parks workers who bought a sailboat last winter in Gulfport, FL (right next to St. Pete) and then sailed it to the British Virgin Islands and worked there for the winter crewing on a large trimaran. Then I head out into the rain for the other side of the island and the birds. I can hear and smell it when I get close. Like ant large colony of animals ( including humans) it smells pretty bad. There are thousands of birds here are calling fighting, eating and breeding raising young. There are so many that all the plants are gone in the colony.
It's also very loud. This reminds me of the gannet nesting colony on southeast Newfoundland. I walk on around the south tip of the island and I spend quite a while watch gray seals below me in the water. They are such great swimmers. So graceful. The rain has stopped and I am starting to see some other people. I walk down to a beach and there is a seal just off shore that has his head out of the water watching me. He seems to enjoy watch me as much as i am enjoying watching him! Soon I walk on through the old cemetery and past some of the old houses from the fishing days. Many of which are falling down. It makes me think about how short our time on the earth really is. So insignificant compare to the rocks, the trees and the sea. Soon I am back at the landing and I talk to the rangers about the seals and then take the boat back to Perce. I drive to bakery I saw on a back street and buy a really great croissant and a coconut nut raspberry thing for the road. I pick up an internet signal in the road and send a few quick emails until traffic is getting back-up then dive on to Gaspe and onto Fornillon National Park which is on the easternmost tip of Quebec. I get a campsite and relax. THen I go to see the evening show. Too bad it’s in French. THe guy giving it is wearing a homemade bird costume and people are laughing and enjoying it. I walk back to my camp. Make some pepperoni, mac and cheese and then have a shower. I am reading this book I bought for Greece but didn’t finish. It’s called A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. It’s okay but not great. I do want to see how it ends. It’s about a young guy from Chicago whose parents die and he and his younger brother move to san Francisco where he and some friends start a magazine called Might and he takes care of his younger brother. Anyway soon I fall asleep.
I am up very early and after tea and oaties I pack up and drive out of my campsite and it’s a beautiful day so I get on my bike and ride to the very tip of Gaspe to the lighthouse at the top of a very steep hill. Boy did I have to work to get up that hill. It was a great ride. I look around the site and there is a sign proclaiming this point the northern terminus of the International Appalachian Trail. An was first hiked by a guy who started in Key West Florida and ended here. It took him almost a year to walk it. Now that’s a hike! Once I have caught my breath I walk down to the an observation platform over the sea and watch the seals and talk to a woman who is painting watercolors about painting. She has some nice paintings. Then I chat with a woman named Ly nn from Montreal who works for a large grocery chain and gets out here on business every summer and hikes in the Park. She tells me about some other good hikes and we part ways. She back to work and me to bike back to camp. I move BEYOND down to the beach and have bagels and mackerel, cheese and fruit for lunch. I eat the raspberry treat for dessert. Boy is it great! Then take a nap in the sun. that ride really wore me out. Then I hike up to the fire tower and the view is fabulous. It’s pretty clear and I can just see Newfoundland off in the distance. It’s clear in Perce and on Bonaventure Island. It must be full of tourists. The rangers were telling me they get as many as 1800 visitors a day in peak times like today!
I walk back down and all the locals stare while I take a dip in the ocean. I’m sweaty and the water is a bit warmer than I expected. As soon as I get to shore a seal shows up swimming around out where I was swimming. Pretty Cool! I drive to the North part of the park and get a campsite and Bon Ami. It’s near the road but there isn’t much traffic. II work on my travelog and gaze up at the cliff of the end of the Appalachian Mountains towering over my head. It’s quite spectacular. Then it’s rice and veggies for dinner. It’s going to be cold tonight. WHen i walk back from the shower there are a billion stars in the sky. So I stargaze for a while before crawling into a warm bunk. I don’t sleep well for some reason and wake a lot in the night. I thought I would sleep well after all that exercise today!
Friday Aug. 21
After breakfast I walked the Chutes trail down to see a small but lovely waterfall. By then the Nature Center was open so I toured that. They had some tanks of local sea critters which was interesting. I had never seen a toad crab before. Also to see a living snow crab was fun. Then I took another bike ride down the valley trail and I saw my first live porcupine! He was grazing by the road when I came around the corner, he hunch down and put up his quills. Then he headed into the brush and I lost sight of him. But he was really cool. I biked on and ended up making a big loop and there I was right back where I started! Then a local woman told me there was good swimming just below the bridge so i went in for a dip. It was very cold. Almost as cold as the water below the falls in Baxter! A walked back and the sun came out long enough to warm me off. Then I left the Park and started my drive along the top of the Gaspe Peninsula. I come around a corner and see a whole forest of huge windmills on the mountain ridge above me. I find the access road and drive up and park and sit surrounded by 20 huge windmill. It’s a very impressive sight.
Finally I drive on and I stop in the town of Grand Valle for groceries. It’s raining and there is an internet cafe so I buy 30 minutes worth of time for $5 and a beer for about the same and pay my bills and send some email. Then talk with a guy from France who is backpacking the other direction around the Gaspe. Then I drive little further until there are no cars and it’s very mountainous and I drive up a dirt road and find a place to pull off and I listen to jazz and eat some popcorn and finally I am caught up in my travelog! Yeah. I drink a beer and make veggie, pepperoni, olive pasta for dinner. It’s excellent. It’s really blowing hard and rocking van a bit and driving the rain. I have most of the windows zipped up to keep the rain out. After dinner I start the engine to make sure my battery is charged and realize i had the lights on the whole time. Wow that would have sucked to be caught up here with a dead battery! I am sure I have a good charge and the rain in really coming down. A few cars have come by but none of them have stopped so I should be okay here. The rain is really pouring down now. So I pull the top down to make sure it’s not blowing in. I start a new book of short stories by Ursula K. LeGuin. Thanks Cecile for the book. I am parked on a pretty steep angle and I keep waking up the night thinking the van is sliding down the hill! Not a great sleep and it’s still raining hard! FInally I doze off.
I am up at 7 and the rain has stopped. I get up and a car goes by but doesn’t stop. I check and the van didn’t slide down the hill in the night. I get the engine going and get her back on the road. I drive back down to the highway and head west. I stop for gas a breakfast in Vers MonSaint Pierre. Trios crepe avec bacon et the. It was very tasty and I read about the Parc National Du Gaspe. I realize that you have to take a shuttle to climb Mt. Cartier the second highest mt in Quebec but if I get on it I can just make it. I fly back to BEYOND and we fly down the dirt road to the Parc and I have just enough time to pack my gear and buy a bus ticket. Soon we are bouncing up the mountain in a school bus. Then we hike the two hours to the top. It’s an old jeep trail but very rocky. I get to the top where it’s a tundra and there is an observation tower. I hike on a little further and the guy ahead of me gets all excited and gives me his binoculars and there are three caribou grazing on the shoulder of the next mountain. Cool! I watch them for a bit and then head back up. THe clouds have come over and it’s pretty windy and cold. I set on a sheltered bench and eat my mini bagel and hummus. Then walk up the observation tower. While I am up there a spot three more caribou below on this mountain.
After watching them for a while I go down and the ranger is giving a talk but I don’t get much as it’s in French. So I head back down. I am glad I brought up my pile hoodie and my rain coat as the wind is quite chilly. When I am back below tree line I change back to my tee shirt and walk on down. At the bottom I talk with Yves and Ann from up the road. It was their first hike and they really enjoyed it. The bus comes and we ride back. THey are curious about BEYOND so I give them the tour. THen I get the ranger to book me a campsite and the other side of the Park and drive over to Mt. Albans Campground. I check out my campsite and then drive over to the Discovery Center and look at the exhibits.
There is a famous hotel with a fancy restaurant and I consider having dinner there but it will be a minimum of $45 and $15 more if i want to try a caribou steak. I decide it’s too much for this trip and head back to my campsite where I have chips and salsa and my last Propeller bitter. Buy does it taste good! I catch up journal and then cook some clam sauce and broccoli. Then a nice hot shower. It’s clear tonight with no bugs so I might light a campfire tonight. I have a lot of wood onboard still. I like my campsite. Pretty private considering the number of people here. It’s tucked down in a valley surrounded by mountains. I was on the International Appalachian Trail again today and will be tomorrow as well. This would be a beautiful section to hike some day. I was too tired to light the fire and it was quarter showers, but the water was hot and powerful. I felt great and soon was curled up in my bunk with my book.
I was up at 6:30 and after tea and cereal I started up Mt. Albans. It is overcast and a bit humid this morning, but i am psyched to hike the whole loop. off I go up through the trees and across the river. Soon the trail is getting steep but I am chugging right along. I pass a young couple having a fun conversation a francaise. THey are speaking too fast for me to pick out much. I blow past them and soon I have the trail to myself again. I stop at an open spot for some water and a young guy with a cast on his arm comes blowing by my. I am breathing hard and sweaty but he is really sweaty and blowing hard. He waves and heads on up. Soon I start again and there is a sign that I am 300 meters from the top. It’s a steep finish but soon the trees are only knee high and then they are gone and it’s tundra and I am on top. I look in the hut and there is that guy changing out of his wet gear. He has a huge cast on one arm and is struggling.
I offer and hand but he is almost done. He is from Quebec (City) and works in a bike shop. This is his last summer weekend before starting college. We decide to hike together and off we go across the grassy top of the mt. We are walking on a boardwalk and I spot a caribou off to the left. We stop and watch it for a while. This is the first he has seen in five years of visiting the Park. I feel luckily to have seen 6 in two days! They are part of a very unique herd. THe Quebec herd does not migrate like the rest. They stay in this mountain valley and just move up to the summits in the summer. They must have been cut off long ago by the glaciers and stopped migrating. THey are now genetically different from the herds of the north. But they are down to about 180 members in three herds. THey are just about at the point where they are interbreeding too closely and that will eventually weaken and kill them off.
I asked but they are not introducing new members from outside herds in to strengthen the blood line. Too bad. At the end of the grassy the mountain drops into a steep valley with a stream crashing down the rocks. It’s very beautiful. I am glad I did the hike in this direction. We start down the rocky trail and I do pretty well and keeping up with 21 year old legs. We are having a great conversation in Franglais. Luckily his french is better than my English! We have together for about 7 km until I decide to go for a swim in the river below Chute Diablo( Devil Falls) and he can’t swim with his cast so we bid each other bon voyage. I head up the rocks on the side of the stream to get out of site of the bridge. THen I strip down and ease in. Oh is it cold! But it feels great to scrub off some of the sweat from the climb. I get my head under and then out on the rocks to eat my peanut butter mini bagel and plum. Then into my clothes and I finish the hike. Once I pass the bridge the path turns level and wide. No more hills, rocks or mud! I stroll along side the river and then through a beautiful grove of cedar trees. Another 2 km and I am back at the parking lot. I get my boots of and walk to the discovery center and use the loo. I decide not to have a beer but jump in the van and head North out of the Park.
Soon I am in St. Ann de Monts and there is a cool park by the water with lots of sculpture made from carved and assembled driftwood. Neat stuff. I walk around and look at them all. Id rive around until find a internet and do my email then I stop at a supermarket for beer chips and salsa! Ricards Red this time. It’s what I had in the internet cafe and is pretty good. I head on west along the coast and when I reach Metane I spot a bunch of Rv’s parked beside a wharf behind a mall and drive down to investigate. Sure enough it’s a place where people just stop for the night. I pull along the shore and open the doors and watch the sun setting with a cold beer and some chips. The people in the next RV are pointing and I realize there is a marmot on the rocks right next to me. How cool! He is very used to people and gets right down on the ground nest to me and grazes the weeds by my tires! He is fat and happy.
He moves on down the rocks and I watch him with my binoculars for a while. Lots of other RV pull in and also there is a 45 foot wooden ketch at the dock. She is really lovely and the couple that own her walk past me to go out o n the wharf, then walk towards town. Probably to have dinner. Then an old VW bus pulls in and parks. Two guys get out and I grab another beer and go have a conversation. They are two brothers from Trois Pistoles, Quebec. They have been fishing and are getting set to fish some more after they finish eating. THey are headed east and I recommend the Point Gaspe walk. The temperature is really dropping fast. I am wearing pile but an still getting cold. So I bid them good fishing and go back to make dinner. Broccoli and rice. It’s very tasty and warms up the van. Soon I am in my bunk with the windows closed but the top up and I have my blanket and sleeping bag over me and am snug as a bug in a rug! Goodnight!
I am up at 5:45 at first light and I need the bathroom so I head across the mall parking lot towards a McDonalds sign. But soon I change course when I see a Tim’s. Soon I am sitting down with a medium hot chocolate and a sesame seeds bagel with butter. Yum. When it’s done I walk back and quietly put down the top and drive off. I drive to Rimouski, Quebec and stop at a mall to look for a new camera. I didn’t find a camera, an outdoor shop was having sale and i got some clothes and a nice set of small binoculars all on sale. Then I drove downtown and asked around and finally I found a camera shop and they had a Canon D-10 compact waterproof, freeze proof camera. So i bought it. I drove to a parking place and ate a mini bagel with sardines and cheese and read the basic on my camera.
There was a bike path so I went for a nice ride as it was an absolutely beautiful day. The bike path was really nice and went around the shore and through a nice park where I watch some guys playing beach volleyball for a while. then I rode back and packed up and drove on to Le Bic Provincial Park and got a campsite at the top of the hill and spent a couple of hours playing with my new binoculars and camera! The camera has a ton of different controls. It’s very versatile and takes good pictures. I took a trail walk and experimented with the camera then picked up some kindling and started a fire in my camp and spent a nice couple of hours sitting by the fire eating chips and salsa and drinking beer. Just as my fire was dying out my neighbors rolled up and were struggling with their fire. I went over and helped them get it going and had a nice conversation with a couple from France. They were both chemists and have a one year old daughter back in Britany. Again it was getting really cold so we put the fire out and I crawled into bed. It feels really good to have a camera again! I really missed taking pictures. This one is waterproof to 30 feet! That should open up some good possibilities for me! Good night.
I am up at first light and I drive down to the water and I hear a strange grunting noise and realize that there are harbor seals lazing on the rocks out in the middle of the little bay. I count about a dozen of them. The tide is going out and they seem to be complaining as their water is disappearing. I watch for a while then ride my bike all around their bike trails. I see a couple of deer including one with a fawn still in spots. I ride all the way out to the point and take some pics with my new camera. I stop and look at the historic buildings and then I get on the road south. I drive to Trios Pistoles to catch the ferry across the St. Lawrence River but it doesn’t run again until 4:30 pm. I try for an internet signal but can’t find on so I drive on south to Rieveire du Loup where the ferry should go at 2 pm. It’s 11 am but cars are already lining up so I get in line and break out the chips and my book. About 20 minutes later I notice the Rv in front of me is moving. I drop the chips and fly into the drivers seat and crank up the engine as the guy waves me onto the ferry.
Wow they are loading early! I’ll bet we leave at noon. I go up and sit in the cafe and treat myself to a cheeseburger platter. It lands in front of my right at noon, just as the boat starts moving. Cool. The cheeseburger is passable, and filling. I walk around and take pics then read my book and soon we are on the other side. I get off the ferry and drive North up to Lac St. Jean. I pick up internet in Chicoutini and take pictures of the Pyramide du Ha Ha. It sit in the town Parc. Must have been commissioned by The Joker! All of a sudden the mountains are gone and the land is flat and covered with crops. Big farms here. I turn south back into the mountains and then up a dirt road to lac du La Belle Reviere. It ‘s remote campsite and I really use my franglais to procure a campsite. The wind is really blowing up. It’s very chilly and getting dark so I go and find the showers. I take a nice hot shower and then write my journal and make broccoli rice for dinner. It tastes excellent. I listen to Tom Waits and write in my log until the power is gone and then crash. The temp has dropped to below 50 F so I close the windows and roll up in my blankets and am a sleep almost immediately. This is as far North as I am going. Tomorrow I head south. It’s been a good run but I am ready to point my nose towards home. To quote a NGDB songs. “Put out the fire call in the dogs and head it on back to Bowlegs. “ Always liked that song.
At daybreak I get dressed and hightail it to the bathroom. It’s cold this morning and just barely light so I get back in my warm blankets for a while. I get up at 7:30 and have tea and cereal with dried blueberries then hit the road. To my chagrin the small road west i want to take is impassable so i go back North then west to Rt 155. I stop for gas and then as a farm stand. The wind is blowing really hard and has just blown over all their berries. The whole floor is a carpet of blue and raspberries! It’s a sad sight. They are scrambling to get them back in boxes. I buy fresh corn beans tomatoes and some blueberries. Then I start south. It’s a very scenic highway winding through mountains and along a rappidy river. Soon I am in town of LaToque. I stop for groceries and another block of ice. I have some blueberries and plums for lunch. Then I drive on south and snack on sunflower seeds and sesame sticks as I go. Soon I am the outskirts of Montreal.
I drive in and on to Sherbrook St. which runs the length if the City east to west. It’s 3:30 so I pull off into a Parc by the Botanical gardens but they want a lot to park so I drive on downtown. I south closer to the water and in the older section of the City I see and public market with parking behind it. It’s 4 pm and the radio is talking about how horrible traffic is. I get out and walk through the market and down the street. It’s an old kind of rundown neighborhood. Lots of young people, artists and immigrants. I find an old bookstore and browse then talk to the owner for awhile. He has interesting collection of French Expressionist and Surrealist plays. Including and very old copy of UBU ROI by Alfred Jarry. A very revolutionary play in it’s time. Then owner is a big Jack Kerouac fan and knows St. Pete because of Jack. We talk for a while and he gives me directions to a couple of good restaurants He has never owned a car. He has owned the bookshop for 30 years. His wife is an advocat (lawyer) and the walk or use public transport.
They rent a car occasionally so go to the U.S. for Kerouac festivals!
. He doesn’t know how secure my parking space is but says all side streets are free so I move. I find a nice looking quiet spot on a side street. My bike is folded inside the covered with dirty clothes. That ought to stop any thief! I walk around and find the restaurant and then walk further around the area. Montreal is pretty warm tonight. No coat needed and the sky is clear. Everyone is out in the Parks playing. I take pics and walk and listen and smell. So different to be in a City after the Gaspesie! I want to come back here and get a hotel and ride my bike all over! My feet are getting tired so I land in a sidewalk pub for a beer. I sit in the only empty table and there are some people next to me and one guy is wearing shirt saying Rappongi Ravers. Looks like it was a japanese sports team shirt he found in a thrift shop. He is talking to a smartly dressed woman wearing a black dress with a belt that say Love Juicy. What a great couple. They are the only people talking in mostly English. My french has gotten much better over the last few weeks but I still cant’s follow a rapid conversation. So it’s fun to listen to them. I was trying to get a stealth pic of them but my flash went off.
Damn! Then the guy was telling a story and waving his hands around when his ring flew off and hit my foot. I gave it to him and complemented them on their outfits. They left soon and I walked to the French restaurant. Le Petit Extra on Ontario Street just a few blocks south of the Pont Jacques Cartier. It looks nice so I go in and the menu looks great. They have entrees and a fixed Price menu. I ask about the fixe pree and he says ha can adjust it if I can’t eat the whole thing. So I agree and order fish soup, lamb shish kebobs with a tomato cumin sauce and a glass of the house red. The soup is really good. Served with some toasts and parmesan and sauce that comes with bouillabaisse. It’s amazing. The lamb dish is terrific. Served with a cake of rice topped with yellow squash zucchini and parmesan. Wow it’s cooked just right. and the tomato coulis is great. I am too full for dessert so i cash out and walk back to BEYOND. It’s dark and I am tired. The street is quiet so I crawl in the back and am able to fold down the bed with the bicycle and I read to see if anyone notices me. No sign of any so I pull the shades and crash.
Friday
I am up 6:30 and I drive to the corner diner to use the restroom and have breakfast. The,oef,crepe,fruite,pomme frites. THe syrup came in a teapot like the tea. I refilled my tea cup from the syrup pot by mistake. GRR! I thought the tea looked thick! Then I moved my bike back to the rack and hit the road. Back on Sherbrook St and head west. Through the rest of the city. My map indicated Sherbrook St. running over a bridge and out of the city as Rt. 138 which is the road I want. Well it doesn’t. I had to fiddle around but I finally found it about 8:45 and fought my way out. Soon I was back in famland and rooling smoothly south. I crossed the border at Malone, NY with no problems. No hard questions or search! I rolled on into Malone and checked my phone for messages and read my email. I had a nice talk with my father. He might be joining me in GA. It would be geat to finish my trip with him. I go to Mineke but they can’t give me an oil change unitl tomorrow, and the Pizza Hut doesn’t have the buffet, so head south into the Adirondack Park.
I stop at the Interpretive Center and ask about campsite availability. She doesn’t know but guve me a huge brochure. I try callling one and can’t really hear them so I drive on down to Fish Pond. Supposed to be beautiful. I get a site and it’s okay right on the water. But all the campsites are one the water! All 300+ sites. Wow! I haven’t seen this many people in a long time. I decide to drive into Lake Saranac and the on into Lake Placid. Looking for a cool jakcet I saw in Rimouski but didn’t want to buy in Canada. Can’t find it in either town. So I head back and eat sunflower seeds as I drive. Then make some of the brocclli and corn for dinner. I have chips salsa and beer while I am cooking. I decide to bike to the showers and end up biking a long way. It seems like I am half way around the Lake. Good thing I brought an extra head light! I take my shpwer and the water is good and hot. I jump back on the bike and decide to ride the rest of the way around the lake home. Well it takes me about 40 minutes! There was a lot more lake this way. I end up riding along the main road and then through the woods but finally I make back home! What a trek; my fingers were pretty numb by the time I finished. I relax for a while and write in m log and then into bed. I read some of The Shipping News and the off to sleep.
In the morning I up right as the sun is coloring the sky. I hit the head and take some pictures, then go back to bed for a while. It’s quite chilly this morning. Maybe 48 degrees. It feels to to crawl back in my warm covers. I wkae up at 9 and eat some creal and blueberries then head south with a cup of hot chocolate. I come around the corner of Raquette Lake and there is a swimming area with people in the water and a parking space. Cool. I grab it and walk over to the beach. It’s warm on the sand so I get my chair and book and sit in the sun. I still have on a pile jacket and hat but the sun is warm. Soon I get my courage up and change into my suit and into the water. It’s really much warmer than I expected. Certainly warmer than the water I have been swimming in lately. It’s a tiny swimming area so I can’t really swim so I float for while then swim a bit and wrap up in my towel and sit in the sun. When I am wrmer and dryer I go change and grab he chips and eat them while I read. Glorious. There is a seaplne that gives rides and it’s fun watching him take off and land about every half hour. Then I drive to Blue Mountain Lake and spend the afternoon in the Adirondack Museum. It’s as cool as I remember, with a great section on wooden boats. When the staff finally push me out the door I head south still on Rt. 30 and find a campsite on Leaky Lake. It’s up above the lake but off by myself. I am just settling in with a beer when the rain starts. It gets going and rains steadily through a dinner of yellow beans corn and pepperoni mac n cheese. By the time I get into bed it’s raining pretty hard and continues all night. But I amsnug and warm with U K LeGuin’s Twelve Winds. Good Night.
In the morning it’s still raining and very gray. I get up and have my cereal and make a cup of tea then drive over to the showers. No quarters needed but the water is icy cold. Not very nice on a cold rainy day! I am wash my hair because I am visting my friend Carol tomorrow and I want to be presentable! Quick scrub, faster rinse and I am out shivering! Back into my clothes and over to the recycking center to process my trash. I have been very pleased to see that most campgrounds have centers for recycling. It’s a good thing! I drive south to Amerstam in teh fog and rain. It’s beautiful to see the misty on the mountains, but even nicer to be in a car with the heater on! In Amerstdam, NY I see a Jiffy Lube and pull in. They can get to her about 10 minutes. Great! So about 20 minutes later I am on the road again. Just down the road I see a laudromat and pull in. Let’s get a bunch of chores done today! My clothes are in and I see a Pizza Hut across the street but no buffet on Sautrday. When my laudry is folded and stowed I drove on and there is a movie theater. I pull in but the Jlia Child movie I want to see downs’t start for hours. Too bad. I contue south on Route 30 through the Schoharie Valley. Rolling hills and farms. Lots of old houses. It’s very pretty out here.
Old stone churches and graveyards. I see some familar place that bring back nice memories. I see a church bar-b-que supper and pull over. As usual I am right at the end. THey are out of sides so I buy half a chicken. It’s tasty! I am the only one eating and the lady gives me two ribs to try. I eat one and it’s flavorful but a bit tough. I save it and some of the chicken for dinner. I thank the foolks and head south. Soon I turn off 30 and work my way over to Rt. 28 East and head into the Catskill Mts towards Kingston. I stop in Phonec ia, NY and head for the Wooded Valley campground. It’ss takes me a but of driving around but finally I make up to the end of the right road and it’s verty pretty. I get a site right on the Creek. Cool! They assure me the showers are hot. Quarters required but hot! I have some beer and veggies for dinner and then walk off to look for the showers. THey are nice and clean and the water is hot! What a pleasure after a cold rainy day! I get back to BEYOND and type in my log until the rain starts again. THen I cewal into bed and read and story by Ursula before nodding off. Snug and warm istening to the rain and the creek.
Sunday Aug 30
I sleep in a bit today. Then I haave cereal and the last of the Quebec blueberries. I make tea for the road and drive back down the mountain to Rt. 28 and the 30 miles to Carol’s house. The further I descend the more the sun comes out until I roll up carol’s strret under a clear blue sky. It’s great to see Carol and the crocs I left at her house are right where i left them! Hello old friends. We chat and I help with a photoshop project and eat some stale popcaorn she made last night. It’s really good. She cooked it in olive oil onion and garlic and the poured butter with a hint of maple syrup over it! Wow it’s good even the next day. The we jump in here convertible, drop the top and drive up into the village of Rosedale. Carol drives me past a house she is considering buying. It needs work but is in a good location. Not too remote and the neighbors look nice. The catskills are a very expensive. Lot’s of people from NYC have summer places there. Plus all the eealthy artists, musicians and hippes that want to be near Woodstock live all around.
We stop in Rosedale at the bakery and get some foccacia and lemon poppysead bread for lunch. We go across the street to a Cheesehop and thrift store. I find a copy of One Hundred Years of Solitude for $3 and buy it. A great book and I will need one more for the trip home. G. G. Marquez is one of my favorite authors. The we drive up to the very famous Mohunk Mountain Resort where she works as a florist. I have heard about this place for years but never seen it. It’s pretty pricey and has been open since the late 1800’s. It was built as a place for people to go and commune with nature. I must say that I had my reservations about it but it is an amazing place. They have really worked hard to keep it as pristine as possible. It’s right up on a mountain with a high mountain spring fed lake and it building is really amazing. There are hundreds of rooms that all have working fireplaces all in one old stone building! It is an amazing example of dream architecture from the late 1880’s. It was a perfect late summer day and we walk , hiked, swam, picniced and had a really great time. I took a ton of pics that I will get on my website eventually. If I were ever to go to a resort this is one would be very high on my list. It’s a very beautiful place.
We are getting hungry so we drave down to the Rosedale Tavern for dinner. The waitress is raving about the corn seafood chowder. I don’t really get good chodwer in the south especially corn chowder. ANd I really never see seafood corn chowder. SO I oder a bowl and we both order a porkchop an an apple maple glaze. The chowder is excellent. It’s the real McCoy. I savor it to the last drop. THe porkchop comes and is immense with mash potatoes and yellow swuah and zuchini. It is also very tasty and I eat the whole thing along with a locally brewed beer. Glad we hiked and swam today. It was a real treat to spend the day with Carol at Mohunk and to have such great food! We rool out to the car and stop at the movie rental place for The Science of Sleep and Burn After Reading. We start with Science which I really enjoy and Carol ahs never seen. It’s artsy and quirky but she is tired and dozes off. I enjoy it but we are too tired to watch Burn. Too bad as I have never seen it. We both collapse into bed. What a great day! I can’t wait see my Mohunk Pics! Good night.
virginia to maine
After breakfast I took a shower and packed all my gear and then had the bright idea of calling my cousin Joe who lives in Charlottesville,VA a out an hour up Rt. 29. I was a ble to get his cellphone number and he was available to have lunch with me. Cool! It’s been a few years since I saw him. I jumped in BEYOND and drove to the gas station. I pulled up to the propane tank right as the propane truck pulled up to fill it and had to wait. So I filled my gas tank and washed the windows, then filled the propane tank. I drove out onto 29 and they were working o n the road and the traffic was backed up but luckily it didn’t last long and I was soon freeway flying up 29 and onto the UVA campus to met Joe. We hooked up and since he had brought his lunch and my aunt had loaded me up with food. We chose to picnic on a nearby shaded picnic table. We caught up and family business and Joe told me about the property he has bought along the James and is drawing up a house for. He is an architect so I am sure it will be a cool house. Then he went back to work and I drove on up 29 to Madison were I turned on to Rt. 133 which goes right along the edge of the mountains and up to Front Royale. Soon I was on Interstate 81 headed north. It got rainy and misty in the Poconos. I pulled off at a sign for a state park but was unable to find it or a gas station. So I headed back to the interstate where there was gas at the next exit. Then I drove onto 80 east and off to the Hickory Run State Park. I drove about 6 miles off the interstate into the Delaware State Forest. I finally found the campground and asked for a site. She said they had a plenty. I asked for a quiet one, but she insisted I choose my own and come back to pay for it. There were hundreds of sites and almost no campers. So I choose one and bicycled back up the hill and paid for it. Then I made some squash onions and tomato and relaxed for the night. It was wonderfully quiet so I slept up top to the sounds of a burbling stream. Nice!
I slept until 9 it was so peaceful. Then I ate a bagel with blue(stinky) cheese and salami. It was very tasty and then loaded my travel log and pictures. Then I got my bathing suit and bicycled over to the lake for a swim. It was cloudy but not raining. The lake was a nice temperature. There were other people there but not really swimming. I pretty much had the swimming to myself which was cool. Then I rode back to my campsite and packed up the van and took on some fresh water and headed out. Then I noticed that my check engine light was on. Crap! Could be nothing but it makes me a bit stressed. So I drive up to Rt 209 which goes through the Delaware Water Gap and into Kingston, NY where my friend Carol lives. As soon as I get on 209 there is a sign that they are working on the road. I decide to go anyway and there was a detour but then I had the road almost to myself. It was a lovely drive. The Delaware water Gap was really pretty. I am going to have to go back and camp there sometime. Then on through Port Jervis and into the Catskill Mountains and finally into Kingston. I arrived 30 minutes before Carol so I took a minute to look up a VW dealer on the net so I can get the engine checked. She still feels great so we will see. It’s great to see Carol and her three cats. She is a painter and I working on a portrait commission. She is off to a good start on the painting. She shows me some more of her current work and then we decide to drive into Woodstock (yes the Woodstock, but not where the concert was) She has a great little VW convertible so we put the top down and cruise on out to the Little Bear for some really good Chinese food. Woodstock was full of hippies and smelled like too much patchouli as always but we got a great table over looking the stream and had some great seafood with hot chili and Mongolian lamb. Excellent. THen we took a drive around Ashkotan. It’s the huge reservoir for New York City. They flooded whole village to make it. Carol says there are still bad feelings locally about it. We watched the light fade of the lake and surrounding mountains. It was pretty magical. Then back to her apartment for a glass of wine and a look at my pictures of Greece. Then off to bed as Carol gets up at 6 am for work. I slept on her couch bed. Good night!
Up at 6 for a cup of tea with Carol then she flew off to work and I hung around for another hour. Carol clued me in to the fact that AutoZone will check your car computer error message for free! Cool. And that the local VOlkswagen place is really bad. SO I go to autozone and they give me the computer I run the check and it comes up Exhaust Gas fault and Transmission Clutch Relay. Hmm. I’m not worried by the exhaust gas but the TCR that could be something. BEYOND feels good and it’s too early to call George who rebuilt my transmission so I driver across Connecticut on the country roads. When I reach Torrington CT (I was born in a hospital here) there is another Auto zone so I pull in and check the computer again. It comes up only Exhaust gas fault this time. That makes me feel better. I drive onto to Hartford and get on the interstate to the Mass Pike. I stop for fuel and eat the rest of my Chinese food for lunch then drive on to 95 North to 128 out to Essex, Mass, When my friends Tom and Peggy live. When I get there I call George about the Transmission Fault code. He says if it feels good it’s probably okay since the code cleared. That makes me feel better.
My friend Peggy had something going on with her heart and is supposed to rest. I am about an hour early and don’t hear any kid noise from the house so I stay in the van. If Peg is resting I don;t want to wake her. Then she drives up in Tom’s car. SHe is looks great and feels good. The tests have cleared her complete nothing to worry about. That’s a big relief. So we go into t he house and see the three kids and see their artwork and eat some fruit.
Tom works at home and is in his office on a phone conference. We are supposed to leave at 4:30 to play disc golf(frisbee golf) He finally appears at close to five and we rush off to meet his brother John. We can’t play at the course closest to his house as the whole Park has been rented for the summer for an Adam Sandler movie. There is lots of talk around Adam and the crew around town. Word has it that Adam is a pretty nice guy.
We catch up with John and have a great golf session. They are both really good. I haven’t played in 9 months when I lost my driver on the course in St. Pete in an impenetrable palmetto clump. We finish just as the rain starts. We pickup a bottle of Pinot Noir on the way home and there are make your own burritos. We have burritos and wine for dinner then break out the music. Tom loves to sit down and share music as much as I do. We spend an hour swapping music and then we watch a movie. I can’t remember the name right now but it was fun. A fantasy film about parallel world’s and people who can cross over.
Then it was time for bed. Another long and excellent day.
Friday
In the morning I helped Peggy and Bob make blueberry pancakes for the kids. We made a huge pile of cakes and ate almost all of them. Then Peggy and I took the kids over to her parent’s house. Tom and Lois are out of town but an aunt and some cousins are house sitting. The weather is very windy and rainy. We run off to take a tour of an historic home there in Gloucester. The original owner was a designer and kept adding on and decorating all the rooms differently. The finally house has about 40 rooms that are all decorated in different periods and styles. It is a fascinating place with rooms in all different colors with lots of different colored old bottles in the windows and everything is designed to go together. The others owners were very appreciative of the designs and kept almost all of the rooms faithful to the original design. A very cool house.
Then we went back to Check on the kids and discovered that a small sailboat out on the dock had turned turtle (flipped over) So we righted it and and go all the kids out to bail the water out of all of the boats. THe winds is still blowing hard but the rain has stopped. So we load up everyone and drive out to Crane’s Beach. We are almost the only people there and the life guards are sitting in their truck but the rain has gone so we all brave the waves and swim. The surf is very high but I make it out past the breakers and keep an eye on all the kids who are playing in the surf in case on gets dragged out. THey re having fun jumping over and under the breaking waves. The water is pretty chilly and soon I am cold so I head back in and most of the kids are cold too so we load back up and drive down the road to a new ice cream place that has opened. I have deer tracks ice cream which is vanilla with white chocolate chunks and macadamia nuts. It’s pretty good. Then we all head back home and swim in the pool to wash off. Soon Tom is finished with work so we cook some steak on the grill and eat it with fresh corn and green beans. THen Tom and I break out the beer and the music and do some serious listening. until his son Elliott comes down and reminds us that he is sleeping on the couch tonight since Bob and Foster are in his room. SO we finish up bu listening to some of Elliott’s metal tunes and then call it a night. I take a shower and head out ot BEYOND. It’s nice and cool and the wind and rain have stopped. It will be good sleeping tonight.
Saturday
I am up at 7:30 and make a cup of tea while I wait for the house to wake I read a book that Peggy recommended. Soon TOm is up and we have cereal and then get to work putting a roof on the treehouse he is building for Lindsay and Jenny. He has hoisted two big cross beams about 8 feet up onto a triangle of trees and constructed a platform. He wants to put and tent roof on it. When I look I suggest that we get some PVC tube and make a barrel roof instead. He concurs and we go in search of long PVC. In Florida every Home Depot sells 12 and maybe longer lengths but in Mass you can only get 10 ft lengths. So we buy some 10 footers, some connecters and dowels to put inside and strengthen the joints, PVC cement and conduit clips. We stuff it all into BEYOND and head back. After lunch on left over burritos we head out and sand the dowels so fit inside the PVC. Then we cut pieces to length and assemble our roof supports. THen we get out the bug dope and tools and head up to the treehouse. The mosquitos are really fierce but we tough it out. I assemble the roof while Tom pulls out a big length of fish net he bought and begins to stretch it off one end of the treehouse like a big hammock. Soon we have the roof in place and I help him finish off the hammock. It is super cool and reminds me of the trampoline on a catamaran. We take quick turn lying in ti and then retreat to get the girls. We bring them up and string up the mosquito netting and they are thrilled with the roof and hammock. So we all retreat back to the house. Tom and I grab beer chips and salsa and head for the screen house. Peggy and the kids make pasta with Peg’;s homemade pesto and we all eat dinner in the screen house. Then Tom has to take a business call so I read and play dominos with Jenny. Then it’s late when Tom finishes his call so we say good night. I shower off the sweat and mosquito parts and head for bed.
Sunday
I am up early again and Tom a nd I have cereal and then Tom and I take a ride down to the clay studio because I have a project I want us to try. I saw some violin shaped vessels in a shop in Greece and want to make one with him. We roll out some clay and form it into the basic shape but then it starts to look like a human torso and I start working it in that direction and Tom goes off to trim some plates he made the other day. I get the torso looking really cool and am smoothing the surface but I work it too far and it begins to sag! Too bad. So I collapse it and beat the clay back down so Tom can reuse it. I would like to try it about with a heat gun so I can stabilize it as I go next time. I phone my friend Celia in Arlington and arrange to visit on Monday. When Tom is finished we head home and he ends up working for the rest of the day with a quick dinner break of roast pork and veggies. After dinner I plot my route to Celia’s house in Arlington and then read until Bed.
Monday
I get up and help PEggy make blueberry pancakes for the kids. THen I pack up BEYOND and at 9:30 I head south. The traffic is clear and I make good time to Arlington and have no trouble finding Celia’s house. She isn’t there and I am a little early so I walk around the block. Celia pulls up as I am coming back up the street and recognizes me. She looks almost the same 22 years later! She and her husband Steve have two kids about Winfree and Estill’s age. They are of at camp so I get the house tour. Celia took a break from making her collage, assembly boxes when the kids came but is trying to get back into making some art. Soon we have to go pick up her son Tommy who is 8 and is at comic drawing class. Celia drives now which different (but not on the highway) We get a cup of tea and chat while we wait for her son. Then he want s to play with his friend. HIs friend’s Father Chris works at the Fogg Art Museum as an art handler and is a painter himself. We have a good chat while the kids eat and they go off with Chris. Celia takes we to the park where Paul Revere did his famous ride long ago and we go for a walk and continue catching up. THen we pick up Tom and her daughter Julia from camp and all head to the lake to swim. It’s warm to day and the water feels good except there is quite a bit of chlorine in it. I have fun playing with Tommy. Then we go home and change and Celia and Steve have a meeting so She dropped me and the kids off at her sister Rebecca’s house. Her husband Chris (?) is very nice but the kids are out of control. They are a pretty wild bunch bunch and don’t pay much attention to their parents. Finally we bundle them into the car and head for a chinese restaurant the kids like. Celia’s kids keep picking on their cousin Abby and she screams and throws tantrums. It’s very weird. I wonder how they developed these behaviors! It’s also exhausting. We eat at the buffet and it’s okay but the kids are out of control. Running around and screaming. Defying all attempts to the get them to behave. Celia’s sister Rebecca joins us and she can’t control them either. Finally we finish eating and walk to a playground where the kids burn off energy and we play play with the new Blackberry to Harvard bought her. She works in their Museum staffing department. WHen it gets dark we drag the kids back to the car. We try to stop on the corner for ice cream but the freezer is broken so so Chris(?) and I drive to the supermarket for the same same brand. It’s a local super premium. We get home and Celia and Steve are there. We have to fight with the kids to make them wait for their ice cream as I insist that they get served last for being so disrespectful to their parents. I bought the ice cream so I could serve how I felt like! The ice cream was good. When we got back it was bedtime for the kids. Celia, Steve and I drank some wine and talked while Steve and I compared music collections. He working in the home audio industry and we both love music. Then Steve had an early meeting so we all crashed. I slept in BEYOND in the driveway and it was much cooler than in the house!
Tuesday
I get up and have tea and cereal with Celia and then catch the bus right in front of their house for Harvard Station. I walk through Harvard Square and spend the day walking around looking at the buildings, the projects in the Design Center and then the Art Museum. THe main Museums are close for renovation but they have part of each collection in another building for viewing. There is floor of modern art, one of classical and American paintings and sculpture and a floor of Oriental art and sculpture. I enjoyed the pieces and must return when the Museums are reopened. THen I walk around some more and find the farmer’s market I remember from a few years ago is set up. It is the most expensive market I have ever seen but I buy to peaches and sample some handmade Mexican chocolate ( I bought some before) it’s very grainy but tasty with a hint of cinnamon. There is a chamber group playing beside the fountain so I sit on a rock in the shade and listen and watch kids play in the water. WHen I finish I get a cal from Celia that they are going swimming and then the family has an engagement. We agree on a time for dinner and I spend the afternoon walking around Harvard Square. Most of the small boutiques have been replaced by chain stores SIGH! It has really lost a lot of it;s charm. I walk in the Harvard Coop and look at the books and find an Eastern Mountain Sports and replace the soap container the airport security confiscated on my way to Greece hen I catch the bus back to Celia’s house. THe fare is cheaper with a Charlie transit card so i buy a one use card. Good to know for the future. I get back to Celia’s too late to swim. I write in my log until they return and There is an email from my stepmother about visiting her son Steve and a report on the cover my father is making to go over the deck he and I build last spring. WHen Celia gets home I cook some squash and onions for dinner and she feeds the kids mac and cheese. When Steve gets home we have a quick dinner and they all leave for something. I finish my dinner and then clean the kitchen which is a bit messy. I try to call another fiend of mine Dana whom I also worked with at StageWest years ago. I think I get his mother and she gives me his brother’s number call to get his number and then tells me that his father died a few days ago. Ouch! I leave messages on both phone number with my number for Dana to call me and the take a shower. I write more in my log, until they return with the Tim Burton Movie Coraline. Celia make popcorn and Steve tells me bit about the theater sounds system that he helped develop part of the technology for. Steve has work to do and heads upstairs. Celia the kids and I get our popcorn and 3D glasses and watch the movie. Like all TIm Burton movies it has a great look and a good story line. Very enjoyable. Then off to bed. No phone call from Dana. I know he lives in the Boston area but can’t find a phone number for him. Maybe tomorrow. Good night!
Wednesday
Well no messages from Dana. Maybe he is too caught up in dealing with the death of his father. I had tea with Steve before he went to work. Then split and bagel with Celia. Sill no word from Dana and Celia is off with the kids and rush hour is over o i lock up the house and head for Concord, MA. Soon I spot a bike path and stop. I bicycled on the Minuteman Commuter Bike Trail. It was a nice ride probably 6 miles. There was a bike shop and then end. I didn’t have money so I got directions and drove over and bought a spare bike tube. The stopped at CVS for a pair of clip on sunglasses that fit. And then found my way to Concord and over to Walden Pond where I swam. Toured the replica of Thoreau's house. HA! Cute little place! I walked around the lake and saw the actual site of his house. Then swam again. His most famous statement we all learned in school has always been important to me. "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan- like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion." I was pleased to see the actual place. I have contemplated these word often over the years. I am still inspired by them. Then I drove north into New Hampshire and stopped along the way at a roadside stand for squash then at the super market for onion and milk. Then a little further and stopped for the night at Pawtuckaway State Park.
I find my site and get the top up and the rain starts. And then the phone rings and it’s my step m other’s son Steve. We arrange for me to call him the next afternoon to arrange a time and place to hook up. Then I drink beer and eat some chips and finally bike to the washroom for a shower. I forgot it took quarters and biked back up the hill but it was worth it to get clean as it was pretty warm and humid. Then back to Beyond to write in my log and sleep. Another fine day except I wish I had heard from Dana. Too bad. ‘Night!
I sleep in until 8 and have tea and wheat chex for brekkie. Love wheat chex! Used to have them at camp in New Hampshire when I was a kid. Maybe that’s why I really wanted them today. I clean the van and collected all my dirty clothes and looked for my bathing suit. I had it at Celia’s house and remember drying it in the van but have not seen it since. Looked everywhere i could think of. Even called Celia to have her look in the driveway in case it fell out of the van. Damn, now I have left my shoes at Carol’s and lost my bathing suit. What next. Hope my head is screwed on tight. I got my pack ready and drove down to beside the marsh where a trail leads up to a fire tower and headed off at a fast walk to try and out run the skeeters. No luck I ended up spraying DEET on my elbows, ankles and back of my neck to keep them at bay. They are really thick from all the rain this year. Finally i get up on the mountain where there is some wind blowing and and the bugs retreat. It’s a nice hike and soon I m up on top and the breeze is great. There are some teenagers on the tower having fun speculating on the number of band members in the Sex Pistols. When I get to the tower I throw out that I think there were three. Sid Vicious, Johnny Rotten and the drummer. They laugh and head down so I can see the view. It’s overcast but you can still quite a ways. There are maps indicating what can be seen in each direction. Pretty cool. Then I eat my apple and walk back down. The walk down is less buggy as the sun has come out and when I reach the bottom I drive down to the beach for a swim. The sun is out and the water is a perfect temperature so i swam for a while then sit on a picnic table and read. I have a granola bar and a plum for lunch. Then I go back to BEYOND and change into dry clothes and call Steve. He calls me right back and we arrange to meet at 5:50 at the big liquor store outside of Portsmouth, NH Steve is a wine seller. I drive into town and find a laundromat. I get all the sheets and dirty clothes together and get them started the notice a book on the counter. Wow! It’s the final book of Ursula K. LeGuin’s Earthsea Trilogy The Farthest Shore. I have been thinking about re reading these books. In fact I looked for them in my house for the trip but didn;t see them. Cool! SO I read some of it and finish cleaning the van and manage to spill a bunch of my detergent in the parking lot. Klutz! Still no bathing suit. I check my email a Celia has looked but can’t find it at their house. What a mystery. When my clothes are finished I stack them in the back seat and drive into Portsmouth. I find the liquor store and am early so I drive on into town and go the the Portsmouth Brewery where they brew my favorite brown ale Smuttynose. I finally find a parking space next to a park and walk up the hill. I find the brewery with just enough time for a pint and decide to try and IPA. It’s very good, also Smuttynose. I pay and am walking back down the hill when my phone rings. It’s Steve saying he told me the wrong time to meet and where am I. I tell him near the brewery and we arrange to meet back there in 20 minutes. So back up the hill. Through a store that I thought was going to be od building parts but was just stuff and a used book store. The owner thinks he has the other two Eathsea books but can’t find them. Too bad. So I walk to the brewery and there is Steve talking to an old friend. Steve used to work here and knows lots of the clients. We have a pint of summer ale and talk with his friend then Steve tries to sell some wine to the manager and we are off to pick up his kids from karate. They want to ride in BEYOND but she is full of clean folded clothes so they ride with their Dad and I follow them home to Dover, NH. We say hi to Beth and chat in the kitchen over a beer while Steve cooks up some shrimp with rice veg and feta cheese. We eat on the porch and then I go to meet the new goats and the geese. Then Chase plays me a song on the piano and Tucker their new computer game. Then they are off to bed. I take a shower. Beth, Steve and i watch part of a movie on TV but soon head for bed. The weather is nice and cool so i sleep in BEYOND. Good night.
The next morning I have breakfast with Steve and then we go out to the barn to feed the animals. Then we go into town to the store for food.
THe boys ride with me up to camp. We stop at the store in Milton Mills for ice cream in the pouring rain. It’s coming down as hard as a Florida summer storm. We run for the van and drive on. THe boys help me with all the turns and soon we are at camp. We run back and forth until we have all the supplies in the house then we put everything away. It’s still pouring so we put on a movie. Pink Panther. The new version with Steve Martin. It was pretty good. THe boys loved it. THen I played chess against Tucker and finally won. It was pretty close. We are pretty evenly matched. By this time the rain has almost stopped so we swim. When we are finally cold Beth arrives and we scrounge around for dry kindling and get a fire going in the stove. Soon the camp is warm and we are all in dry clothes so we have a glass of wine and start the movie Princess Bride! I love this one. About half way through I start dinner. Mushroom risotto, mango salsa, and squash and onions. We try to reach Steve to see if he is on time but no answer. Beth gets pissed. Finally we start the grill and Steve shows up just in time to grill the salmon and other fish. It’s ready just after the risotto so I serve it all up and we open another bottle of wine and feast! It all tastes great and we enjoy our meal except Beth is silent and she and the boys go to bed after dinner. Steve and I stay up for a while and drink a bit more wine and talk. Then off to bed. Hopefully there will be no sleep driving tonight! I hav e only done it once and that was right here last July 4th! Scary place as the road is just wide enough for my van with steep drop on either side.
In the morning Beth has gone home to clean. They live in an B &B and guests are coming. Steve and I have tea and coffee and then go down to the lake for a swim. Soon the boys are up and Steve makes a big breakfast. Eggs from their hens bacon toast. Very good. Then we spend the rest of the day n the water. As Ratty says in WInd in the WIllows “There is nothing as satisfying as messing about in boats!” We sew up the sail on the sunfish and she sails fine. Then we take the big motor boat out for a spin around the the lake. Steve points out the Ossippe Mt ring inside of which we went to Camp Merrowvista when we were teens. Those mts bring back memories. We paddle boat over to the neighbors pulling the boys on the big float. THen we tow them back and notice ripe blueberries. So we go back in the small motor boat to pick and wind up driving to different spots around the lake but finally finding a bonanza and come back with a huge pile of berries. Steve and I make burgers and corn for dinner along with left overs from the night before. We feast and then we make a zen rock garden and light a fire and torches along the water front and prepare for a wine tasting with the neighbors. Steve and I sample the wine and soon the friends show and we have wine and chocolate until everyone is tired and then we put out the torches and head the fire and head for bed. What a great day!
In the morning it’s blue berry pancakes and bacon for brekkie then a swim and I pack up my gear say my good byes and head east to meet up with Cecile and family in Durham, ME. It’s a sad goodbye but I am sure I will be back for more messing about in boats. Steve thanks again for your hospitality. I always have a great time with you!
I find my way to Acton, ME and then take the blue highways East until I am near Bradbury Mt. State park where I camped and rode my bike last year. Some rough trails! I call Cecile to see if they want to meet me there for a hike but they are picking blueberries so I drive over to join them. Cecile and her son Percy are done picking (too many bugs) so they jump in the van with me and we drive back to the house. I am warmly greeted by Mike, Julie and Dick. It’s great to see them again this year. I met Julie and Dick (Cecile’s folks) last year and we all had a great time. One of Cecile’s sister Joanne returned with Bridget and soon we are having a beer and a snacky lunch and talking around the table. Then we fly kites for a while and look at fixing the lawn mower. We discuss going into town or a concert but decide to cook dinner instead. I make mushroom, chicken risotto and squash and onions and Cecile makes some chicken and other veggies. We have a nice meal and then Mike does the dishes and we all play Boggle. It’s a new game for me but I enjoy it. I’m not much of a game player but this one involves words and I have fun. Then we all head for bed.
I am up way too early so I make a cup of tea and head back to bed. Soon all are up and we have cereal and toast for breakfast. Then Cecile and family and I head out to meet Joanna to kayak and Mike goes off to hit golf balls. IT’s a beautiful day and the kayak place is swamped but soon we are on the water and we have a nice hour and a half paddle then return our gear and head to a restaurant and Cecile and I have some good fresh clams for lunch. Then back to the house. We all relax for a bit and then Mike, Percy and I head off to a disc golf course just down the road and play The Beast! It’s Mike and Percy’s first time but the both throw frisbee very well. We all have a fun frustrating time bouncing off trees but complete the course in good time and zoom home for dinner. Cecile and her father have gone off to fiddle camp so the rest of us eat and great meal Julie has prepared. Roast pork. mashed, green beans and finally blueberry pie with ice cream! What a great meal. Mike and I clean up and read until the rest are home then all are tired and off to bed.
In the morning we are up for tea and cereal and then we organize and picnic and car arrangements. Cecile Bridget and I drive BEYOND to the store for more supplies and I visit the farmers market for squash, onions, zuchini kale and a bluberry bar. I run the store and buy some pepperoni. We pack up the van and the others met us then we caravan up the coast to Rockland. We stop to see Suze another Bates graduate who is a good friend of Mike and Cecile's. We find her house and then all head for the beach for a picnic. Suz has a son Harry and soon some of his friends and their parents show up. It’s very foggy and Eva is not able to fly off Matinicus to meet us. Too bad! We have a picnic in the fog and then Mike Percy and I go for a swim. THe water is brisk! But I swim a bit and then dry off and we are all off to Suze’s house. We talk and watch some schoolhouse rock then I drive Suze and Cecile to the pizza shop and grab and slice for me and head north to Rockport, ME to meet my friend Carrie. She is working for the summer at the Maine Media Workshops. She has to run a slide show so we head over to the venue to ge tit set up and I take a walk. It’s a beautiful place but all the house are for sale by Sotheby’s so you know it’s outrageously expensive! The slides shows are really cool. And then Carrie and I go out and drinks some wine and talk about future plans. THen I drive back and sleep in front of Suze’s house. It takes me a while but I finally find it and crash.
In the morning I am up early and Suze is just leaving for work. She let’s me in to use the bathroom and a quick shower then I drive over to the coffeehouse where she works and I have tea and a blackberry scone. It’s also a used bookstore and I look and sure enough they have the other two Earthsea trilogy books. Cool! I get them for $5 and now I am set to read the trilogy again. I wander around town and then to the tourist bureau to see if the Matinicus plane got off. Eve isn;t on it our the boat so I call. She is going to try to get over in the afternoon and will call me. I move BEYOND to all day parking and head for the Farnsworth Museum and am entranced by Andrew Wyeth’s watercolors! THey are amazing. I also see the work of the LOVE sculpture man and many other painter in the Wyeth family. THen I get a call the Eve is coming over. Great! I call Cecile and we agree to meet half way in Damariscotta, ME. Eve is a bit late but here so we hug then say hello to Suze. She declines to join us as her man is flying back in from fishing in Alaska! We hit the road and soon are at the rest stop out side town. Cecile and family show up minus Dick and Julie and we drive into town and find aa pub and order burgers and beer, just what Eva wanted! We have a great time catching up and the Mike and the kids go for a walk and Eva, Cecile and I pay and then walk and continue or conversation. it’s sprinkles a bit and then pours and Eva is worried about getting home so she and head back to Rockland and when we get there the weather is clear enough to fly so Eva heads home and I walk back to BEYOND and drive back to see Carrie and some more slide shows. THen I park in front of the hotel where she is living and grab a quick shower in her room and crash. Another great day!
Thursday
In the morning I cleaned out BEYOND while Carrie went to the gym. Then we went into Hamden for breakfast at a cool cafe there. Breakfast wraps and juice. Then Carrie dropped me off at the hotel and I charged my computer and tried to download pictures to my computer but I keep getting a memory card error. It looks like my camera is broken. Damn! It’s going to be hard to get it fixed on the road.
So I go online and try to get a campsite at Acadia National Park but it
s totally booked except for the campground that only takes walk-ins. Carrie’s dad is coming up for the weekend and she really want s to take him camping in Acadia. So I pack up and drive over to see carrie and work and give her back her room key and head south for the Olson House which is where Andrew Wyeth painted Christina’s World and many other paintings. THen back to Rockland where I gas up and have Pizza Hut buffet for lunch then head for Acadia to see if I can get a campsite. It’s a beautiful day and the traffic is not too bad so I enjoy the drive and arrive at the Seawall Campground at 4:30 and get the very last campsite for one night. It’s in the Rv area right by the bathroom but I am in. I am informed that I can get in line at 8 am and I should ne able to get a campsite in the tent area(Carrie and her Dad are bringing a tent) for the next two nights. So I take a walk set up camp cook dinner and then crash. I feel like I have been on other people’s time for weeks! It feels good to be on my own schedule. I read and soon I am curled up under my blanket fast asleep!
Cereal and tea for breakfast then I drive up to Echo Pond and go for a swim then I hike up the cliff. It gets very steep and includes 4 steel ladders then i am on the top of the cliff looking back down at the lake and there are ripe blueberries! Yes! Then I hike on up to the top of the Beech Mt. where there is a fire tower and a fine view in most directions. It’s a clear blue sky except for one black cloud in the north. I eat an apple and head back down and take another trail that goes along the cliffs over the lake. Then back down to the lake for a swim. When I ge there that black cloud is over the lake nd the wind has kicked up! I quickly jump into the lake and enjoy the waves the wind is kicking up. People are scurrying for their cars but I hang out on the beach and soon the storm passes and I lie in the sun with my book and warm up and dry off in the sun. I am reading the Earthsea Trilogy and enjoying it as much as the last time a read it. Probably 20 years ago. WHen I am warm I pack up and drive back to my campsite and change my clothes. THe local chapter of the VFW is having a lobster dinner tonight to raise money for student scholarships. I decide to drive in to Southwest Harbor and join the fun. I show up just before 7 pm and find out that it started at 5 and I am the last customer! Wow just squeaked by. But the stars were shining for me as they had lots of really fresh mussels and they gave me a double portion! Yum. THe lobster was excellent and fresh corn on the cob. THen brownies and ice cream. What a feast. THey gave me extra brownies and corn to take with me for Carrie and her father who are joining me tomorrow. I went back to camp and crashed after that great feed.
Saturday
I am up early eating oaties (off band cherrios) and drinking tea. It’s a gorgeous day. No fog in sight so I ride my bike down the road to the Bass Harbor Lighthouse. THere are lots of boats headed out of the channel to take advantage of the amazing day. I ride back and stop to hike two trails that go down around two old harbors. No buildings any more but very pretty views. One there is a family swimming and the father waits down current to catch the kids as the water pushes them past. They are having a blast. THey all have biblical names and are calling their parents ABA and ZAZA, which I find fascinating. On the other trail there is a section of trail that is surrounded by a cloud of light purple wild roses. It smells like heaven. THe best perfume ever! I ride back to camp and have a bite of lunch and then lie down to read as Carrie and Don should arrive soon. And about 10 minutes later they roll in. After hellos we load up and head into SOuthwest harbor to get a sandwich togo and then off to drive to the top of Cadillac Mountain. THere is a lecture or something that carrie wants to see. We never find the lecture but eventually we find a parking space and walk around and take pictures and then go for a hike. We walk down a ridge for a while a pick a few blueberries then head back up. We get back in the car and drive around the carriage road stopping to see the Thundering Hole but the tide is too low for thunder. Then Jordan Lake house. And finally we decide to drive into Bar Harbor for dinner. We get lucky and find a parking space right in the center of town. We walk down to the harbor and then to the Patagonia store and some other outdoor clothing stores to see if there is anything we must have. Nothing insists so we get directions to a mexican place and have dinner. Pork and Chicken tortilla with a very sweet mole sauce for Carrie and I and her father has some soft tacos. Then we drive back to the campground and walk down along the shore to look at the moon and stars. The sky is completely clear and it’s very dark here and we can see a trillion stars and the moon is painting a gold path across the sea. Lovely. THen off to bed.
Sunday
We are up pretty early and all have hot chocolate and oaties for breakfast. Then we drive up to Echo Lake and take the same hike up to the overlook and the Beech Mt fire tower. Carrie and DOn doe well and we all enjoy the hike and follow it with another quick swim. Then Don and Carrie have to drive back for Carrie has work to do. DOn is a real quirky guy. Pleasant but a bit out of control. IT’s almost like he and Carrie have reversed roles and she is the parent of an unruly child. It was fascinating to watch the dynamic. Anyway I go for another swim then grab some fruit and a chair and eat lunch and swim again then read in the sun and when dry pack up and drive further down east along Route 1 and then a side run down scenic route 192, as recommended by Outside magazine. I knew it would be good for something! Then route 189 and onto West Quoddy Head, ME which is the easternmost point in the US. I was here years ago on a geology trip from Bates but it’s fun to come back. In the last 3 years I have been to the NorthWest, Southern and now Easternmost points in the US. Guess I will have to get back to San Diego again soon to complete the corners! THen I drive about 5 miles across the Canadian border into New Brunswick to cam p at the Campobello Roosevelt International Park. Our President had a summer home there. It used to be quite a resort but now it’s a very pretty provincial park. And I happy turn off the engine and make some pasta with red sauce and lots of veggies for dinner. THen I get a really nice hot shower and scrape of the last almost week of dirt. Swimming everyday helps but a hot shower really feels great. Then back to BEYOND where I quickly fall asleep. Good night.
Tea and a bagel with roasted red pepper humus for brekkie with tea and I am on the road again. Again kudos to Outside magazine for recommending Cobscook State Park where they lend you the equipment to dig clams. I pony up my $4 park admission and deposit a 20 for the clam rake and basket and am directed to a mud flat. I walk out in my watershoes and they are promptly sucked off my feet by the mire! SO I dig them up and scrub them clean and leave them on high ground and walk barefoot into the tidal stream and start looking for the clams breathing holes. After a few tries I am getting pretty good at find the buggers. No really big ones but big enough! It is hard muddy work. I can see why my friend Tom switched from digging clams to painting houses during the summers for college money! I didn’t get started on the falling tide but right past dead low and soon the water is coming back in and I am near enough to the Bay of Fundy that it’s coming in fast enough that I start wading back to whence I began. I dig a few more clams along the way but soon my basket floats away whenever Search through a rake full of mud. Of course I find some of my best clams! Soon the water is deep enough and I am muddy enough that call it quits and remove as much mud as possible from my shoes, body and the clams then go back to BEYOND and pull into the picnic area to a spot looking over the sea and I cook and eat all of the clams! Delicious! Well worth the effort. Then I wash all the dishes and return my rake and basket collect my $20 and head north back to route 1 and up to Calais, ME. There I consult the tourist info place about a phone number for the North woods Company. THe are the logging company that owns most of Northern Maine. There used to be a little museum there but it has closed. SO I find an internet signal and do some email. I wanted to call some people but I am so close to Canada that I am getting their cell network so I hold off until I am further inland. THen I drive north up Route 1 and onto ROute 6 west throug ha thunder storm then I head up a gravel road to a campground and make my calls. But soon lose the signal. About 5 miles of pretty rough gravel road I reach the campground by a lake and relax then make veggies with hummus and parmesan cheese for dinner. Take a shower to wash of the last of the clam mud and crash.
Tuesday
I am up early for a hummus bagel and then get on the road. As I drive out over the mountain I get a message from Jenny at Creative Clay and my timing is perfect to call her and we work on the layout for the FolkArt and Music Festival. Then I drive north and stop at a pretty river for a swim but it’s very buggy and the rocks are slimy and current swift so I am only in briefly then dry off and drive onto route 2 north when I crosses 95 I pick up a phone signal and talk to my friend Chris. He has been doing some serious biking which is great. I write some business email and then head into the North end of Baxter State Park. I drive 9 miles into the campground on the pond below North Traveler Mt. I get the last site in that campground and am glad I did as it’s very pretty here. I take a quick up on Sadler Mt and make it almost to the top stepping over at least four piles of bear poop. One very fresh. Before heading back down for a swim. THere has been lost of rain and the rocks are very slippery. I take my time and soon I am in the Lake swimming in nice cold water and watching the sun set over the mountain. I find out there are ripe blueberries up on the Ledges so I grab a container and run the half mile up there and find huge blueberries. I pick and watch the sun emerge from the clouds painting the rocks red and then set. I pick for another 15 minutes and then run back down before it’s too dark to see the trail.
Then I drink a beer and make some risotto with veggies and fall asleep.
Wed
I am up and ready to hike at 8 am. I head out on the Traveler Mt Loop but in my haste I miss a signpost and head off on the wrong trail. It’s running along a pretty stream but not climbing to much. THen It dead ends into a pretty waterfall. I can;t find any more trail so I do the only logical thing. I get naked and swim. I ma drying on a rock when I hear a voice and I have company I quickly slide into my shorts and a young couple join me by the waterfall. THey are both physicians from Windsor. ME down ear Portland taking a weeks vacation. We have nice chat and I eat my bagel with humus then walk back down. I find the sign I missed but it’s too late to do the loop so I head up North Traveler Mt. It soon is very steep with lots of loose rock. Soon there are more blueberries than I have ever seen. I head up on the shoulder of the mountain and stop for a rest and chat with some other hikers and then head for the top at 3144 ft. Just below the top I stop for a chat with Nancy from Belfast, ME. Finally on top and it’s clear and I can see the top of Baxter peak in the distance. I climbed it last year. Then i walk back down stopping to big the biggest and fattest berries I see along the way. When I get back down I have a full pint of berries and talk to nancy some more and swim and then drive out of the park until I get a good cellphone signal then I see a gravel road back to an old cemetery and pull off. I get a call through t o my father have a nice chat with him them make some mac, cheese and pepperoni and watch the stars come out. Nancy said to look for shooting stars so I eat in the dark and watch but don;t see any and soon my eyes are closing and I call it an night. It’s been a long but nice day.
THursday
In the morning I drive into town and the north on route 11 to Ashland, ME where I gas up, but more drinking water in my tank and then drive to the North Wood Company gate. The woman on the gate is not very friendly and says I can’t a take a bicycle in and that the bridge is out and I can’t get to ROund Lake where I want to camp. SO I drive away and head for the next gate at Portage. before I get there I fold my bicycle up and put it inside the van. This woman is more pleasant and I get my permit and head in. But she also says I can’t get through to the Allagash gate because the bridge is out. I head in and find my way to Deboullie Mt Reserve. A few logging trucks fly past me but I just get out of the way. It’s their road. Then I am in the reserve and have to creep over a really rocky section of road but find a nice campsite and pull in. I put up the top and crawl up for a read and a nap. In a little while I was awakened by another car coming up the road behind me. He came up then backed down then cam up again and I heard him get out of his car and walk along side BEYOND. I called out to him and startled him. He asked if I knew how to get to more campsites down the road. I told him I did not. He said he was going to take the site next to me and to come over for a glass of wine. I told him I would be over in a bit. I read some more while he set up camp and then got up and put on my bathing suit thinking about a swim before the wine. When I came around the van there he was sitting at his picnic table with the wine all ready. S I went over and introduced myself. His name was Allen and he was a retired TWA pilot. I went back to BEYOND for a wine glass and joined him in sipping some pinot noir. He had been kayaking around on some of the lakes and streams in the north Woods. And lo and behold he had just come in one of the gates I am trying to get out! Yes! I figured there would be a way out going North instead of retracing my steps. He missed a turn and came the long way around but we look at the map a try to find the turn he missed. He drove 40 extra miles. We keep seeing vehicles drive past us on a very rough and rocky road. Maybe that is it. He offers me a canned ham and mustard sandwich. Having had only tortilla chips since breakfast I accept. Goes pretty well with the wine. We have been camping in many of the same parts of the country and spend the rest of the afternoon drinking wine and telling stories. He offers to open a can of chicken and make chicken and mustard sandwiches for dinner. I decline and invite him for dinner and I settle him in BEYOND with his glass and proceed to make fresh veggies over pasta with humus and parmesan cheese. He has been camping in bear country and eating out of cans for a couple of weeks and really enjoys the fresh veggies. After dinner and a few more stories I have drunk enough wine to be pretty sloshed and am ready for bed. I send him home and crash. It was fun to meet another traveler. He had some great stories enjoyed mine equally. Good night.
I slept until 9 it was so peaceful. Then I ate a bagel with blue(stinky) cheese and salami. It was very tasty and then loaded my travel log and pictures. Then I got my bathing suit and bicycled over to the lake for a swim. It was cloudy but not raining. The lake was a nice temperature. There were other people there but not really swimming. I pretty much had the swimming to myself which was cool. Then I rode back to my campsite and packed up the van and took on some fresh water and headed out. Then I noticed that my check engine light was on. Crap! Could be nothing but it makes me a bit stressed. So I drive up to Rt 209 which goes through the Delaware Water Gap and into Kingston, NY where my friend Carol lives. As soon as I get on 209 there is a sign that they are working on the road. I decide to go anyway and there was a detour but then I had the road almost to myself. It was a lovely drive. The Delaware water Gap was really pretty. I am going to have to go back and camp there sometime. Then on through Port Jervis and into the Catskill Mountains and finally into Kingston. I arrived 30 minutes before Carol so I took a minute to look up a VW dealer on the net so I can get the engine checked. She still feels great so we will see. It’s great to see Carol and her three cats. She is a painter and I working on a portrait commission. She is off to a good start on the painting. She shows me some more of her current work and then we decide to drive into Woodstock (yes the Woodstock, but not where the concert was) She has a great little VW convertible so we put the top down and cruise on out to the Little Bear for some really good Chinese food. Woodstock was full of hippies and smelled like too much patchouli as always but we got a great table over looking the stream and had some great seafood with hot chili and Mongolian lamb. Excellent. THen we took a drive around Ashkotan. It’s the huge reservoir for New York City. They flooded whole village to make it. Carol says there are still bad feelings locally about it. We watched the light fade of the lake and surrounding mountains. It was pretty magical. Then back to her apartment for a glass of wine and a look at my pictures of Greece. Then off to bed as Carol gets up at 6 am for work. I slept on her couch bed. Good night!
Up at 6 for a cup of tea with Carol then she flew off to work and I hung around for another hour. Carol clued me in to the fact that AutoZone will check your car computer error message for free! Cool. And that the local VOlkswagen place is really bad. SO I go to autozone and they give me the computer I run the check and it comes up Exhaust Gas fault and Transmission Clutch Relay. Hmm. I’m not worried by the exhaust gas but the TCR that could be something. BEYOND feels good and it’s too early to call George who rebuilt my transmission so I driver across Connecticut on the country roads. When I reach Torrington CT (I was born in a hospital here) there is another Auto zone so I pull in and check the computer again. It comes up only Exhaust gas fault this time. That makes me feel better. I drive onto to Hartford and get on the interstate to the Mass Pike. I stop for fuel and eat the rest of my Chinese food for lunch then drive on to 95 North to 128 out to Essex, Mass, When my friends Tom and Peggy live. When I get there I call George about the Transmission Fault code. He says if it feels good it’s probably okay since the code cleared. That makes me feel better.
My friend Peggy had something going on with her heart and is supposed to rest. I am about an hour early and don’t hear any kid noise from the house so I stay in the van. If Peg is resting I don;t want to wake her. Then she drives up in Tom’s car. SHe is looks great and feels good. The tests have cleared her complete nothing to worry about. That’s a big relief. So we go into t he house and see the three kids and see their artwork and eat some fruit.
Tom works at home and is in his office on a phone conference. We are supposed to leave at 4:30 to play disc golf(frisbee golf) He finally appears at close to five and we rush off to meet his brother John. We can’t play at the course closest to his house as the whole Park has been rented for the summer for an Adam Sandler movie. There is lots of talk around Adam and the crew around town. Word has it that Adam is a pretty nice guy.
We catch up with John and have a great golf session. They are both really good. I haven’t played in 9 months when I lost my driver on the course in St. Pete in an impenetrable palmetto clump. We finish just as the rain starts. We pickup a bottle of Pinot Noir on the way home and there are make your own burritos. We have burritos and wine for dinner then break out the music. Tom loves to sit down and share music as much as I do. We spend an hour swapping music and then we watch a movie. I can’t remember the name right now but it was fun. A fantasy film about parallel world’s and people who can cross over.
Then it was time for bed. Another long and excellent day.
Friday
In the morning I helped Peggy and Bob make blueberry pancakes for the kids. We made a huge pile of cakes and ate almost all of them. Then Peggy and I took the kids over to her parent’s house. Tom and Lois are out of town but an aunt and some cousins are house sitting. The weather is very windy and rainy. We run off to take a tour of an historic home there in Gloucester. The original owner was a designer and kept adding on and decorating all the rooms differently. The finally house has about 40 rooms that are all decorated in different periods and styles. It is a fascinating place with rooms in all different colors with lots of different colored old bottles in the windows and everything is designed to go together. The others owners were very appreciative of the designs and kept almost all of the rooms faithful to the original design. A very cool house.
Then we went back to Check on the kids and discovered that a small sailboat out on the dock had turned turtle (flipped over) So we righted it and and go all the kids out to bail the water out of all of the boats. THe winds is still blowing hard but the rain has stopped. So we load up everyone and drive out to Crane’s Beach. We are almost the only people there and the life guards are sitting in their truck but the rain has gone so we all brave the waves and swim. The surf is very high but I make it out past the breakers and keep an eye on all the kids who are playing in the surf in case on gets dragged out. THey re having fun jumping over and under the breaking waves. The water is pretty chilly and soon I am cold so I head back in and most of the kids are cold too so we load back up and drive down the road to a new ice cream place that has opened. I have deer tracks ice cream which is vanilla with white chocolate chunks and macadamia nuts. It’s pretty good. Then we all head back home and swim in the pool to wash off. Soon Tom is finished with work so we cook some steak on the grill and eat it with fresh corn and green beans. THen Tom and I break out the beer and the music and do some serious listening. until his son Elliott comes down and reminds us that he is sleeping on the couch tonight since Bob and Foster are in his room. SO we finish up bu listening to some of Elliott’s metal tunes and then call it a night. I take a shower and head out ot BEYOND. It’s nice and cool and the wind and rain have stopped. It will be good sleeping tonight.
Saturday
I am up at 7:30 and make a cup of tea while I wait for the house to wake I read a book that Peggy recommended. Soon TOm is up and we have cereal and then get to work putting a roof on the treehouse he is building for Lindsay and Jenny. He has hoisted two big cross beams about 8 feet up onto a triangle of trees and constructed a platform. He wants to put and tent roof on it. When I look I suggest that we get some PVC tube and make a barrel roof instead. He concurs and we go in search of long PVC. In Florida every Home Depot sells 12 and maybe longer lengths but in Mass you can only get 10 ft lengths. So we buy some 10 footers, some connecters and dowels to put inside and strengthen the joints, PVC cement and conduit clips. We stuff it all into BEYOND and head back. After lunch on left over burritos we head out and sand the dowels so fit inside the PVC. Then we cut pieces to length and assemble our roof supports. THen we get out the bug dope and tools and head up to the treehouse. The mosquitos are really fierce but we tough it out. I assemble the roof while Tom pulls out a big length of fish net he bought and begins to stretch it off one end of the treehouse like a big hammock. Soon we have the roof in place and I help him finish off the hammock. It is super cool and reminds me of the trampoline on a catamaran. We take quick turn lying in ti and then retreat to get the girls. We bring them up and string up the mosquito netting and they are thrilled with the roof and hammock. So we all retreat back to the house. Tom and I grab beer chips and salsa and head for the screen house. Peggy and the kids make pasta with Peg’;s homemade pesto and we all eat dinner in the screen house. Then Tom has to take a business call so I read and play dominos with Jenny. Then it’s late when Tom finishes his call so we say good night. I shower off the sweat and mosquito parts and head for bed.
Sunday
I am up early again and Tom a nd I have cereal and then Tom and I take a ride down to the clay studio because I have a project I want us to try. I saw some violin shaped vessels in a shop in Greece and want to make one with him. We roll out some clay and form it into the basic shape but then it starts to look like a human torso and I start working it in that direction and Tom goes off to trim some plates he made the other day. I get the torso looking really cool and am smoothing the surface but I work it too far and it begins to sag! Too bad. So I collapse it and beat the clay back down so Tom can reuse it. I would like to try it about with a heat gun so I can stabilize it as I go next time. I phone my friend Celia in Arlington and arrange to visit on Monday. When Tom is finished we head home and he ends up working for the rest of the day with a quick dinner break of roast pork and veggies. After dinner I plot my route to Celia’s house in Arlington and then read until Bed.
Monday
I get up and help PEggy make blueberry pancakes for the kids. THen I pack up BEYOND and at 9:30 I head south. The traffic is clear and I make good time to Arlington and have no trouble finding Celia’s house. She isn’t there and I am a little early so I walk around the block. Celia pulls up as I am coming back up the street and recognizes me. She looks almost the same 22 years later! She and her husband Steve have two kids about Winfree and Estill’s age. They are of at camp so I get the house tour. Celia took a break from making her collage, assembly boxes when the kids came but is trying to get back into making some art. Soon we have to go pick up her son Tommy who is 8 and is at comic drawing class. Celia drives now which different (but not on the highway) We get a cup of tea and chat while we wait for her son. Then he want s to play with his friend. HIs friend’s Father Chris works at the Fogg Art Museum as an art handler and is a painter himself. We have a good chat while the kids eat and they go off with Chris. Celia takes we to the park where Paul Revere did his famous ride long ago and we go for a walk and continue catching up. THen we pick up Tom and her daughter Julia from camp and all head to the lake to swim. It’s warm to day and the water feels good except there is quite a bit of chlorine in it. I have fun playing with Tommy. Then we go home and change and Celia and Steve have a meeting so She dropped me and the kids off at her sister Rebecca’s house. Her husband Chris (?) is very nice but the kids are out of control. They are a pretty wild bunch bunch and don’t pay much attention to their parents. Finally we bundle them into the car and head for a chinese restaurant the kids like. Celia’s kids keep picking on their cousin Abby and she screams and throws tantrums. It’s very weird. I wonder how they developed these behaviors! It’s also exhausting. We eat at the buffet and it’s okay but the kids are out of control. Running around and screaming. Defying all attempts to the get them to behave. Celia’s sister Rebecca joins us and she can’t control them either. Finally we finish eating and walk to a playground where the kids burn off energy and we play play with the new Blackberry to Harvard bought her. She works in their Museum staffing department. WHen it gets dark we drag the kids back to the car. We try to stop on the corner for ice cream but the freezer is broken so so Chris(?) and I drive to the supermarket for the same same brand. It’s a local super premium. We get home and Celia and Steve are there. We have to fight with the kids to make them wait for their ice cream as I insist that they get served last for being so disrespectful to their parents. I bought the ice cream so I could serve how I felt like! The ice cream was good. When we got back it was bedtime for the kids. Celia, Steve and I drank some wine and talked while Steve and I compared music collections. He working in the home audio industry and we both love music. Then Steve had an early meeting so we all crashed. I slept in BEYOND in the driveway and it was much cooler than in the house!
Tuesday
I get up and have tea and cereal with Celia and then catch the bus right in front of their house for Harvard Station. I walk through Harvard Square and spend the day walking around looking at the buildings, the projects in the Design Center and then the Art Museum. THe main Museums are close for renovation but they have part of each collection in another building for viewing. There is floor of modern art, one of classical and American paintings and sculpture and a floor of Oriental art and sculpture. I enjoyed the pieces and must return when the Museums are reopened. THen I walk around some more and find the farmer’s market I remember from a few years ago is set up. It is the most expensive market I have ever seen but I buy to peaches and sample some handmade Mexican chocolate ( I bought some before) it’s very grainy but tasty with a hint of cinnamon. There is a chamber group playing beside the fountain so I sit on a rock in the shade and listen and watch kids play in the water. WHen I finish I get a cal from Celia that they are going swimming and then the family has an engagement. We agree on a time for dinner and I spend the afternoon walking around Harvard Square. Most of the small boutiques have been replaced by chain stores SIGH! It has really lost a lot of it;s charm. I walk in the Harvard Coop and look at the books and find an Eastern Mountain Sports and replace the soap container the airport security confiscated on my way to Greece hen I catch the bus back to Celia’s house. THe fare is cheaper with a Charlie transit card so i buy a one use card. Good to know for the future. I get back to Celia’s too late to swim. I write in my log until they return and There is an email from my stepmother about visiting her son Steve and a report on the cover my father is making to go over the deck he and I build last spring. WHen Celia gets home I cook some squash and onions for dinner and she feeds the kids mac and cheese. When Steve gets home we have a quick dinner and they all leave for something. I finish my dinner and then clean the kitchen which is a bit messy. I try to call another fiend of mine Dana whom I also worked with at StageWest years ago. I think I get his mother and she gives me his brother’s number call to get his number and then tells me that his father died a few days ago. Ouch! I leave messages on both phone number with my number for Dana to call me and the take a shower. I write more in my log, until they return with the Tim Burton Movie Coraline. Celia make popcorn and Steve tells me bit about the theater sounds system that he helped develop part of the technology for. Steve has work to do and heads upstairs. Celia the kids and I get our popcorn and 3D glasses and watch the movie. Like all TIm Burton movies it has a great look and a good story line. Very enjoyable. Then off to bed. No phone call from Dana. I know he lives in the Boston area but can’t find a phone number for him. Maybe tomorrow. Good night!
Wednesday
Well no messages from Dana. Maybe he is too caught up in dealing with the death of his father. I had tea with Steve before he went to work. Then split and bagel with Celia. Sill no word from Dana and Celia is off with the kids and rush hour is over o i lock up the house and head for Concord, MA. Soon I spot a bike path and stop. I bicycled on the Minuteman Commuter Bike Trail. It was a nice ride probably 6 miles. There was a bike shop and then end. I didn’t have money so I got directions and drove over and bought a spare bike tube. The stopped at CVS for a pair of clip on sunglasses that fit. And then found my way to Concord and over to Walden Pond where I swam. Toured the replica of Thoreau's house. HA! Cute little place! I walked around the lake and saw the actual site of his house. Then swam again. His most famous statement we all learned in school has always been important to me. "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan- like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion." I was pleased to see the actual place. I have contemplated these word often over the years. I am still inspired by them. Then I drove north into New Hampshire and stopped along the way at a roadside stand for squash then at the super market for onion and milk. Then a little further and stopped for the night at Pawtuckaway State Park.
I find my site and get the top up and the rain starts. And then the phone rings and it’s my step m other’s son Steve. We arrange for me to call him the next afternoon to arrange a time and place to hook up. Then I drink beer and eat some chips and finally bike to the washroom for a shower. I forgot it took quarters and biked back up the hill but it was worth it to get clean as it was pretty warm and humid. Then back to Beyond to write in my log and sleep. Another fine day except I wish I had heard from Dana. Too bad. ‘Night!
I sleep in until 8 and have tea and wheat chex for brekkie. Love wheat chex! Used to have them at camp in New Hampshire when I was a kid. Maybe that’s why I really wanted them today. I clean the van and collected all my dirty clothes and looked for my bathing suit. I had it at Celia’s house and remember drying it in the van but have not seen it since. Looked everywhere i could think of. Even called Celia to have her look in the driveway in case it fell out of the van. Damn, now I have left my shoes at Carol’s and lost my bathing suit. What next. Hope my head is screwed on tight. I got my pack ready and drove down to beside the marsh where a trail leads up to a fire tower and headed off at a fast walk to try and out run the skeeters. No luck I ended up spraying DEET on my elbows, ankles and back of my neck to keep them at bay. They are really thick from all the rain this year. Finally i get up on the mountain where there is some wind blowing and and the bugs retreat. It’s a nice hike and soon I m up on top and the breeze is great. There are some teenagers on the tower having fun speculating on the number of band members in the Sex Pistols. When I get to the tower I throw out that I think there were three. Sid Vicious, Johnny Rotten and the drummer. They laugh and head down so I can see the view. It’s overcast but you can still quite a ways. There are maps indicating what can be seen in each direction. Pretty cool. Then I eat my apple and walk back down. The walk down is less buggy as the sun has come out and when I reach the bottom I drive down to the beach for a swim. The sun is out and the water is a perfect temperature so i swam for a while then sit on a picnic table and read. I have a granola bar and a plum for lunch. Then I go back to BEYOND and change into dry clothes and call Steve. He calls me right back and we arrange to meet at 5:50 at the big liquor store outside of Portsmouth, NH Steve is a wine seller. I drive into town and find a laundromat. I get all the sheets and dirty clothes together and get them started the notice a book on the counter. Wow! It’s the final book of Ursula K. LeGuin’s Earthsea Trilogy The Farthest Shore. I have been thinking about re reading these books. In fact I looked for them in my house for the trip but didn;t see them. Cool! SO I read some of it and finish cleaning the van and manage to spill a bunch of my detergent in the parking lot. Klutz! Still no bathing suit. I check my email a Celia has looked but can’t find it at their house. What a mystery. When my clothes are finished I stack them in the back seat and drive into Portsmouth. I find the liquor store and am early so I drive on into town and go the the Portsmouth Brewery where they brew my favorite brown ale Smuttynose. I finally find a parking space next to a park and walk up the hill. I find the brewery with just enough time for a pint and decide to try and IPA. It’s very good, also Smuttynose. I pay and am walking back down the hill when my phone rings. It’s Steve saying he told me the wrong time to meet and where am I. I tell him near the brewery and we arrange to meet back there in 20 minutes. So back up the hill. Through a store that I thought was going to be od building parts but was just stuff and a used book store. The owner thinks he has the other two Eathsea books but can’t find them. Too bad. So I walk to the brewery and there is Steve talking to an old friend. Steve used to work here and knows lots of the clients. We have a pint of summer ale and talk with his friend then Steve tries to sell some wine to the manager and we are off to pick up his kids from karate. They want to ride in BEYOND but she is full of clean folded clothes so they ride with their Dad and I follow them home to Dover, NH. We say hi to Beth and chat in the kitchen over a beer while Steve cooks up some shrimp with rice veg and feta cheese. We eat on the porch and then I go to meet the new goats and the geese. Then Chase plays me a song on the piano and Tucker their new computer game. Then they are off to bed. I take a shower. Beth, Steve and i watch part of a movie on TV but soon head for bed. The weather is nice and cool so i sleep in BEYOND. Good night.
The next morning I have breakfast with Steve and then we go out to the barn to feed the animals. Then we go into town to the store for food.
THe boys ride with me up to camp. We stop at the store in Milton Mills for ice cream in the pouring rain. It’s coming down as hard as a Florida summer storm. We run for the van and drive on. THe boys help me with all the turns and soon we are at camp. We run back and forth until we have all the supplies in the house then we put everything away. It’s still pouring so we put on a movie. Pink Panther. The new version with Steve Martin. It was pretty good. THe boys loved it. THen I played chess against Tucker and finally won. It was pretty close. We are pretty evenly matched. By this time the rain has almost stopped so we swim. When we are finally cold Beth arrives and we scrounge around for dry kindling and get a fire going in the stove. Soon the camp is warm and we are all in dry clothes so we have a glass of wine and start the movie Princess Bride! I love this one. About half way through I start dinner. Mushroom risotto, mango salsa, and squash and onions. We try to reach Steve to see if he is on time but no answer. Beth gets pissed. Finally we start the grill and Steve shows up just in time to grill the salmon and other fish. It’s ready just after the risotto so I serve it all up and we open another bottle of wine and feast! It all tastes great and we enjoy our meal except Beth is silent and she and the boys go to bed after dinner. Steve and I stay up for a while and drink a bit more wine and talk. Then off to bed. Hopefully there will be no sleep driving tonight! I hav e only done it once and that was right here last July 4th! Scary place as the road is just wide enough for my van with steep drop on either side.
In the morning Beth has gone home to clean. They live in an B &B and guests are coming. Steve and I have tea and coffee and then go down to the lake for a swim. Soon the boys are up and Steve makes a big breakfast. Eggs from their hens bacon toast. Very good. Then we spend the rest of the day n the water. As Ratty says in WInd in the WIllows “There is nothing as satisfying as messing about in boats!” We sew up the sail on the sunfish and she sails fine. Then we take the big motor boat out for a spin around the the lake. Steve points out the Ossippe Mt ring inside of which we went to Camp Merrowvista when we were teens. Those mts bring back memories. We paddle boat over to the neighbors pulling the boys on the big float. THen we tow them back and notice ripe blueberries. So we go back in the small motor boat to pick and wind up driving to different spots around the lake but finally finding a bonanza and come back with a huge pile of berries. Steve and I make burgers and corn for dinner along with left overs from the night before. We feast and then we make a zen rock garden and light a fire and torches along the water front and prepare for a wine tasting with the neighbors. Steve and I sample the wine and soon the friends show and we have wine and chocolate until everyone is tired and then we put out the torches and head the fire and head for bed. What a great day!
In the morning it’s blue berry pancakes and bacon for brekkie then a swim and I pack up my gear say my good byes and head east to meet up with Cecile and family in Durham, ME. It’s a sad goodbye but I am sure I will be back for more messing about in boats. Steve thanks again for your hospitality. I always have a great time with you!
I find my way to Acton, ME and then take the blue highways East until I am near Bradbury Mt. State park where I camped and rode my bike last year. Some rough trails! I call Cecile to see if they want to meet me there for a hike but they are picking blueberries so I drive over to join them. Cecile and her son Percy are done picking (too many bugs) so they jump in the van with me and we drive back to the house. I am warmly greeted by Mike, Julie and Dick. It’s great to see them again this year. I met Julie and Dick (Cecile’s folks) last year and we all had a great time. One of Cecile’s sister Joanne returned with Bridget and soon we are having a beer and a snacky lunch and talking around the table. Then we fly kites for a while and look at fixing the lawn mower. We discuss going into town or a concert but decide to cook dinner instead. I make mushroom, chicken risotto and squash and onions and Cecile makes some chicken and other veggies. We have a nice meal and then Mike does the dishes and we all play Boggle. It’s a new game for me but I enjoy it. I’m not much of a game player but this one involves words and I have fun. Then we all head for bed.
I am up way too early so I make a cup of tea and head back to bed. Soon all are up and we have cereal and toast for breakfast. Then Cecile and family and I head out to meet Joanna to kayak and Mike goes off to hit golf balls. IT’s a beautiful day and the kayak place is swamped but soon we are on the water and we have a nice hour and a half paddle then return our gear and head to a restaurant and Cecile and I have some good fresh clams for lunch. Then back to the house. We all relax for a bit and then Mike, Percy and I head off to a disc golf course just down the road and play The Beast! It’s Mike and Percy’s first time but the both throw frisbee very well. We all have a fun frustrating time bouncing off trees but complete the course in good time and zoom home for dinner. Cecile and her father have gone off to fiddle camp so the rest of us eat and great meal Julie has prepared. Roast pork. mashed, green beans and finally blueberry pie with ice cream! What a great meal. Mike and I clean up and read until the rest are home then all are tired and off to bed.
In the morning we are up for tea and cereal and then we organize and picnic and car arrangements. Cecile Bridget and I drive BEYOND to the store for more supplies and I visit the farmers market for squash, onions, zuchini kale and a bluberry bar. I run the store and buy some pepperoni. We pack up the van and the others met us then we caravan up the coast to Rockland. We stop to see Suze another Bates graduate who is a good friend of Mike and Cecile's. We find her house and then all head for the beach for a picnic. Suz has a son Harry and soon some of his friends and their parents show up. It’s very foggy and Eva is not able to fly off Matinicus to meet us. Too bad! We have a picnic in the fog and then Mike Percy and I go for a swim. THe water is brisk! But I swim a bit and then dry off and we are all off to Suze’s house. We talk and watch some schoolhouse rock then I drive Suze and Cecile to the pizza shop and grab and slice for me and head north to Rockport, ME to meet my friend Carrie. She is working for the summer at the Maine Media Workshops. She has to run a slide show so we head over to the venue to ge tit set up and I take a walk. It’s a beautiful place but all the house are for sale by Sotheby’s so you know it’s outrageously expensive! The slides shows are really cool. And then Carrie and I go out and drinks some wine and talk about future plans. THen I drive back and sleep in front of Suze’s house. It takes me a while but I finally find it and crash.
In the morning I am up early and Suze is just leaving for work. She let’s me in to use the bathroom and a quick shower then I drive over to the coffeehouse where she works and I have tea and a blackberry scone. It’s also a used bookstore and I look and sure enough they have the other two Earthsea trilogy books. Cool! I get them for $5 and now I am set to read the trilogy again. I wander around town and then to the tourist bureau to see if the Matinicus plane got off. Eve isn;t on it our the boat so I call. She is going to try to get over in the afternoon and will call me. I move BEYOND to all day parking and head for the Farnsworth Museum and am entranced by Andrew Wyeth’s watercolors! THey are amazing. I also see the work of the LOVE sculpture man and many other painter in the Wyeth family. THen I get a call the Eve is coming over. Great! I call Cecile and we agree to meet half way in Damariscotta, ME. Eve is a bit late but here so we hug then say hello to Suze. She declines to join us as her man is flying back in from fishing in Alaska! We hit the road and soon are at the rest stop out side town. Cecile and family show up minus Dick and Julie and we drive into town and find aa pub and order burgers and beer, just what Eva wanted! We have a great time catching up and the Mike and the kids go for a walk and Eva, Cecile and I pay and then walk and continue or conversation. it’s sprinkles a bit and then pours and Eva is worried about getting home so she and head back to Rockland and when we get there the weather is clear enough to fly so Eva heads home and I walk back to BEYOND and drive back to see Carrie and some more slide shows. THen I park in front of the hotel where she is living and grab a quick shower in her room and crash. Another great day!
Thursday
In the morning I cleaned out BEYOND while Carrie went to the gym. Then we went into Hamden for breakfast at a cool cafe there. Breakfast wraps and juice. Then Carrie dropped me off at the hotel and I charged my computer and tried to download pictures to my computer but I keep getting a memory card error. It looks like my camera is broken. Damn! It’s going to be hard to get it fixed on the road.
So I go online and try to get a campsite at Acadia National Park but it
s totally booked except for the campground that only takes walk-ins. Carrie’s dad is coming up for the weekend and she really want s to take him camping in Acadia. So I pack up and drive over to see carrie and work and give her back her room key and head south for the Olson House which is where Andrew Wyeth painted Christina’s World and many other paintings. THen back to Rockland where I gas up and have Pizza Hut buffet for lunch then head for Acadia to see if I can get a campsite. It’s a beautiful day and the traffic is not too bad so I enjoy the drive and arrive at the Seawall Campground at 4:30 and get the very last campsite for one night. It’s in the Rv area right by the bathroom but I am in. I am informed that I can get in line at 8 am and I should ne able to get a campsite in the tent area(Carrie and her Dad are bringing a tent) for the next two nights. So I take a walk set up camp cook dinner and then crash. I feel like I have been on other people’s time for weeks! It feels good to be on my own schedule. I read and soon I am curled up under my blanket fast asleep!
Cereal and tea for breakfast then I drive up to Echo Pond and go for a swim then I hike up the cliff. It gets very steep and includes 4 steel ladders then i am on the top of the cliff looking back down at the lake and there are ripe blueberries! Yes! Then I hike on up to the top of the Beech Mt. where there is a fire tower and a fine view in most directions. It’s a clear blue sky except for one black cloud in the north. I eat an apple and head back down and take another trail that goes along the cliffs over the lake. Then back down to the lake for a swim. When I ge there that black cloud is over the lake nd the wind has kicked up! I quickly jump into the lake and enjoy the waves the wind is kicking up. People are scurrying for their cars but I hang out on the beach and soon the storm passes and I lie in the sun with my book and warm up and dry off in the sun. I am reading the Earthsea Trilogy and enjoying it as much as the last time a read it. Probably 20 years ago. WHen I am warm I pack up and drive back to my campsite and change my clothes. THe local chapter of the VFW is having a lobster dinner tonight to raise money for student scholarships. I decide to drive in to Southwest Harbor and join the fun. I show up just before 7 pm and find out that it started at 5 and I am the last customer! Wow just squeaked by. But the stars were shining for me as they had lots of really fresh mussels and they gave me a double portion! Yum. THe lobster was excellent and fresh corn on the cob. THen brownies and ice cream. What a feast. THey gave me extra brownies and corn to take with me for Carrie and her father who are joining me tomorrow. I went back to camp and crashed after that great feed.
Saturday
I am up early eating oaties (off band cherrios) and drinking tea. It’s a gorgeous day. No fog in sight so I ride my bike down the road to the Bass Harbor Lighthouse. THere are lots of boats headed out of the channel to take advantage of the amazing day. I ride back and stop to hike two trails that go down around two old harbors. No buildings any more but very pretty views. One there is a family swimming and the father waits down current to catch the kids as the water pushes them past. They are having a blast. THey all have biblical names and are calling their parents ABA and ZAZA, which I find fascinating. On the other trail there is a section of trail that is surrounded by a cloud of light purple wild roses. It smells like heaven. THe best perfume ever! I ride back to camp and have a bite of lunch and then lie down to read as Carrie and Don should arrive soon. And about 10 minutes later they roll in. After hellos we load up and head into SOuthwest harbor to get a sandwich togo and then off to drive to the top of Cadillac Mountain. THere is a lecture or something that carrie wants to see. We never find the lecture but eventually we find a parking space and walk around and take pictures and then go for a hike. We walk down a ridge for a while a pick a few blueberries then head back up. We get back in the car and drive around the carriage road stopping to see the Thundering Hole but the tide is too low for thunder. Then Jordan Lake house. And finally we decide to drive into Bar Harbor for dinner. We get lucky and find a parking space right in the center of town. We walk down to the harbor and then to the Patagonia store and some other outdoor clothing stores to see if there is anything we must have. Nothing insists so we get directions to a mexican place and have dinner. Pork and Chicken tortilla with a very sweet mole sauce for Carrie and I and her father has some soft tacos. Then we drive back to the campground and walk down along the shore to look at the moon and stars. The sky is completely clear and it’s very dark here and we can see a trillion stars and the moon is painting a gold path across the sea. Lovely. THen off to bed.
Sunday
We are up pretty early and all have hot chocolate and oaties for breakfast. Then we drive up to Echo Lake and take the same hike up to the overlook and the Beech Mt fire tower. Carrie and DOn doe well and we all enjoy the hike and follow it with another quick swim. Then Don and Carrie have to drive back for Carrie has work to do. DOn is a real quirky guy. Pleasant but a bit out of control. IT’s almost like he and Carrie have reversed roles and she is the parent of an unruly child. It was fascinating to watch the dynamic. Anyway I go for another swim then grab some fruit and a chair and eat lunch and swim again then read in the sun and when dry pack up and drive further down east along Route 1 and then a side run down scenic route 192, as recommended by Outside magazine. I knew it would be good for something! Then route 189 and onto West Quoddy Head, ME which is the easternmost point in the US. I was here years ago on a geology trip from Bates but it’s fun to come back. In the last 3 years I have been to the NorthWest, Southern and now Easternmost points in the US. Guess I will have to get back to San Diego again soon to complete the corners! THen I drive about 5 miles across the Canadian border into New Brunswick to cam p at the Campobello Roosevelt International Park. Our President had a summer home there. It used to be quite a resort but now it’s a very pretty provincial park. And I happy turn off the engine and make some pasta with red sauce and lots of veggies for dinner. THen I get a really nice hot shower and scrape of the last almost week of dirt. Swimming everyday helps but a hot shower really feels great. Then back to BEYOND where I quickly fall asleep. Good night.
Tea and a bagel with roasted red pepper humus for brekkie with tea and I am on the road again. Again kudos to Outside magazine for recommending Cobscook State Park where they lend you the equipment to dig clams. I pony up my $4 park admission and deposit a 20 for the clam rake and basket and am directed to a mud flat. I walk out in my watershoes and they are promptly sucked off my feet by the mire! SO I dig them up and scrub them clean and leave them on high ground and walk barefoot into the tidal stream and start looking for the clams breathing holes. After a few tries I am getting pretty good at find the buggers. No really big ones but big enough! It is hard muddy work. I can see why my friend Tom switched from digging clams to painting houses during the summers for college money! I didn’t get started on the falling tide but right past dead low and soon the water is coming back in and I am near enough to the Bay of Fundy that it’s coming in fast enough that I start wading back to whence I began. I dig a few more clams along the way but soon my basket floats away whenever Search through a rake full of mud. Of course I find some of my best clams! Soon the water is deep enough and I am muddy enough that call it quits and remove as much mud as possible from my shoes, body and the clams then go back to BEYOND and pull into the picnic area to a spot looking over the sea and I cook and eat all of the clams! Delicious! Well worth the effort. Then I wash all the dishes and return my rake and basket collect my $20 and head north back to route 1 and up to Calais, ME. There I consult the tourist info place about a phone number for the North woods Company. THe are the logging company that owns most of Northern Maine. There used to be a little museum there but it has closed. SO I find an internet signal and do some email. I wanted to call some people but I am so close to Canada that I am getting their cell network so I hold off until I am further inland. THen I drive north up Route 1 and onto ROute 6 west throug ha thunder storm then I head up a gravel road to a campground and make my calls. But soon lose the signal. About 5 miles of pretty rough gravel road I reach the campground by a lake and relax then make veggies with hummus and parmesan cheese for dinner. Take a shower to wash of the last of the clam mud and crash.
Tuesday
I am up early for a hummus bagel and then get on the road. As I drive out over the mountain I get a message from Jenny at Creative Clay and my timing is perfect to call her and we work on the layout for the FolkArt and Music Festival. Then I drive north and stop at a pretty river for a swim but it’s very buggy and the rocks are slimy and current swift so I am only in briefly then dry off and drive onto route 2 north when I crosses 95 I pick up a phone signal and talk to my friend Chris. He has been doing some serious biking which is great. I write some business email and then head into the North end of Baxter State Park. I drive 9 miles into the campground on the pond below North Traveler Mt. I get the last site in that campground and am glad I did as it’s very pretty here. I take a quick up on Sadler Mt and make it almost to the top stepping over at least four piles of bear poop. One very fresh. Before heading back down for a swim. THere has been lost of rain and the rocks are very slippery. I take my time and soon I am in the Lake swimming in nice cold water and watching the sun set over the mountain. I find out there are ripe blueberries up on the Ledges so I grab a container and run the half mile up there and find huge blueberries. I pick and watch the sun emerge from the clouds painting the rocks red and then set. I pick for another 15 minutes and then run back down before it’s too dark to see the trail.
Then I drink a beer and make some risotto with veggies and fall asleep.
Wed
I am up and ready to hike at 8 am. I head out on the Traveler Mt Loop but in my haste I miss a signpost and head off on the wrong trail. It’s running along a pretty stream but not climbing to much. THen It dead ends into a pretty waterfall. I can;t find any more trail so I do the only logical thing. I get naked and swim. I ma drying on a rock when I hear a voice and I have company I quickly slide into my shorts and a young couple join me by the waterfall. THey are both physicians from Windsor. ME down ear Portland taking a weeks vacation. We have nice chat and I eat my bagel with humus then walk back down. I find the sign I missed but it’s too late to do the loop so I head up North Traveler Mt. It soon is very steep with lots of loose rock. Soon there are more blueberries than I have ever seen. I head up on the shoulder of the mountain and stop for a rest and chat with some other hikers and then head for the top at 3144 ft. Just below the top I stop for a chat with Nancy from Belfast, ME. Finally on top and it’s clear and I can see the top of Baxter peak in the distance. I climbed it last year. Then i walk back down stopping to big the biggest and fattest berries I see along the way. When I get back down I have a full pint of berries and talk to nancy some more and swim and then drive out of the park until I get a good cellphone signal then I see a gravel road back to an old cemetery and pull off. I get a call through t o my father have a nice chat with him them make some mac, cheese and pepperoni and watch the stars come out. Nancy said to look for shooting stars so I eat in the dark and watch but don;t see any and soon my eyes are closing and I call it an night. It’s been a long but nice day.
THursday
In the morning I drive into town and the north on route 11 to Ashland, ME where I gas up, but more drinking water in my tank and then drive to the North Wood Company gate. The woman on the gate is not very friendly and says I can’t a take a bicycle in and that the bridge is out and I can’t get to ROund Lake where I want to camp. SO I drive away and head for the next gate at Portage. before I get there I fold my bicycle up and put it inside the van. This woman is more pleasant and I get my permit and head in. But she also says I can’t get through to the Allagash gate because the bridge is out. I head in and find my way to Deboullie Mt Reserve. A few logging trucks fly past me but I just get out of the way. It’s their road. Then I am in the reserve and have to creep over a really rocky section of road but find a nice campsite and pull in. I put up the top and crawl up for a read and a nap. In a little while I was awakened by another car coming up the road behind me. He came up then backed down then cam up again and I heard him get out of his car and walk along side BEYOND. I called out to him and startled him. He asked if I knew how to get to more campsites down the road. I told him I did not. He said he was going to take the site next to me and to come over for a glass of wine. I told him I would be over in a bit. I read some more while he set up camp and then got up and put on my bathing suit thinking about a swim before the wine. When I came around the van there he was sitting at his picnic table with the wine all ready. S I went over and introduced myself. His name was Allen and he was a retired TWA pilot. I went back to BEYOND for a wine glass and joined him in sipping some pinot noir. He had been kayaking around on some of the lakes and streams in the north Woods. And lo and behold he had just come in one of the gates I am trying to get out! Yes! I figured there would be a way out going North instead of retracing my steps. He missed a turn and came the long way around but we look at the map a try to find the turn he missed. He drove 40 extra miles. We keep seeing vehicles drive past us on a very rough and rocky road. Maybe that is it. He offers me a canned ham and mustard sandwich. Having had only tortilla chips since breakfast I accept. Goes pretty well with the wine. We have been camping in many of the same parts of the country and spend the rest of the afternoon drinking wine and telling stories. He offers to open a can of chicken and make chicken and mustard sandwiches for dinner. I decline and invite him for dinner and I settle him in BEYOND with his glass and proceed to make fresh veggies over pasta with humus and parmesan cheese. He has been camping in bear country and eating out of cans for a couple of weeks and really enjoys the fresh veggies. After dinner and a few more stories I have drunk enough wine to be pretty sloshed and am ready for bed. I send him home and crash. It was fun to meet another traveler. He had some great stories enjoyed mine equally. Good night.
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