September 6-11th, 2007, Stratton, Maine. Darrin’s stay in Stratton lasted five days. There he met many Appalachian Trail hikers, all of whom he loved reminiscing with. His stay in Stratton was longer than initially planned due to the mysterious wanderings of a package I had sent him. Mailed on August 31st via priority mail, it should certainly have been in Stratton by September 5th when he arrived. The package contained a few grocery items, as well as two maps of upcoming sections of water trail. When the package hadn’t appeared by September 9th, we figured it was mi [View Full Entry]

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Wednesday, September 5th, 2007. Upper Richardson Lake, Maine. Darrin got up before dawn, skipped breakfast, and crossed Richardson Lake before daylight intensified the winds. After Richardson, Mooselookmeguntic Lake was next. Paddling was rigorous, but he managed to fight the strong headwind, and cross the Lake by paddling from one island and bay to the next to minimize his exposure to the wind. He completed Mooselookmeguntic by 12:30 p.m., and then portaged to Rangeley Lake. On Rangeley, he was thrilled to find that what had been a headwind was suddenly a phenomenal tailwind. On R [View Full Entry]

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Tuesday, September 4th, 2007. Metallik Island, Richardson Lake, Maine. Darrin awoke to a strong north wind, which never bodes well before a day of paddling on a narrow, finger-shaped lake with a north-south orientation. He set out anyway, determined to at least see what was possible. As he’d feared, the Lake’s shape funneled the wind directly at him. After three miles of fighting three-foot waves, he pulled into Red Pine Point campsite on upper Richardson Lake. There he took a short break before trying to sight a passage with calmer air. Then he set out again for another a [View Full Entry]

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Monday, September 3rd, 2007. Darrin got up early and had breakfast before paddling the Androscoggin into Umbagog Lake. The previous day’s luck was still with him, for he sailed across the Umbagog on a tailwind. From there, he reached the Rapid River. As its name implies, it is nearly all rapids, most of them unrunnable, with little flatwater between them. To avoid the Rapid, Darrin portaged 3.5 miles along a dirt road to Lower Richardson Lake. He paddled Lower Richardson through its narrows to Upper Richardson and ended his day at a campsite on Metallik Island. The evening ended [View Full Entry]

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We’ve been in Maine for a month now, and the more we see, the more we realize how much more there is to see. However the mornings are getting colder, there’s more north and stronger wind, so it’s time to start south. It gets dark now at 8:00pm The first week we were here our friends Mary and Christian took us on a general circuit around Penobscot Bay. Since then we’ve been to some incredible spots, and found a couple places we just keep going back to because they are so beautiful. There are several things that make Maine unique from [View Full Entry]

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19Aug07 - Maine - On my way back to Canada through the border crossing at Calais, Maine. I stayed a couple of nights over the weekend in Augusta. Then rode to Machias ME before crossing the border. Along the way I had to checked out the blueberry pie, coffee and ice cream at Wild Blueberry Land in Columbia Falls. It's scenic along Hwy 1 and surprising free of traffic. It wasn't until I Robbinston I ran into a lot of road construction which might have explained the lack of traffic. [View Full Entry]

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My family moved to New York in June 1997 when I was 8 years old. That year we spent our family vacation in Pine Point, Maine; a small beach town that my extended family has been visiting for nearly a century. The next 7 or 8 years summers were almost always defined by the family trip to Pine Point. We would spend the hot, sunny days sitting on the beach, hanging out in Old Orchard Beach, going to light houses or riding the log flume at Fun Town U.S.A. Only stopping to enjoy some of the best seafood in the world. [View Full Entry]

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I Say Maine, You Say Lobster, but I say Acadia Finally, I entered the last state on the Atlantic seaboard: Maine. I've been looking forward to visiting Acadia for oh so many years, I can't believe it is finally here. On my way to the park, I stopped at the Rachel Carson National Wetlands Reserve, a lengthy spread of waterways right along the Maine coast. I took a short self-guided walk, and was eaten by mosquitoes. That was it — I was buying DEET. For so many years I had relied on Skin So Soft, but with these pests, I was [View Full Entry]

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We’re currently doing an overnight passage from Point Anne Mass. to Penobscot Bay Maine, where we plan on cruising for the next month or so. We left 3 weeks ago today from Oakville, and when we reach Penobscot Bay we will have traveled 820 nautical miles. That’s slow going compared to a car, even though a nautical mile is longer than a regular mile. At the end of the last blog we had just anchored in Newport Rhode Island, and gone in to check out the town. Newport is one of the famous boating places, and it’s easy to see [View Full Entry]

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17 July Climbing Mt Katahdin People started stirring in the Katahdin Stream camp ground about 4:30AM. The climb up the mountain is a serious one, 5.2 miles up and down by the Hunt Trail. Most people who would climb today would not be “Thru Hikers” they would be weekenders, vacationers and summer camp kids. Last night as we walked past the Birches Shelters where the North bounders stay, they dark and empty. The Baxter State Park folks make every effort to make everyone aware of the arduous task of getting to the top of the mountain and safely down again. We [View Full Entry]

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