Northern Maine

I am enjoying the song of a cardinal near our coach as we rise to the first light of day.  We are on the road at 6:10 am and the temperature is 56 degrees.  We are headed from Bangor to the most northerly site we must travel to in Maine to inspect four campgrounds.  It is a Saturday and the roads are quiet as we start out without weekday commuters.  I am on the hunt to see a moose as well.  The first “wildlife” I spot is a red fox pouncing on something in the grass along Interstate 95 but we are past before I can grab my camera.  Still I am thrilled because I have seen something I can classify as other than domestic.

Further into northern Maine, we realize this area has abundant lakes of varying sizes.

 

View from one of our campgrounds of Long Lake in St. Agatha, ME.

"Saturn" - creative roadside "art" along the way.  We also saw "Jupiter" below.

These "planets" were created by the Mars Hill (a town's name) Rotary.

We are entering an area in Maine that the Amish have settled into with road signs that display a horse and carriage and state “Share The Road” and we see “evidence” of the horse’s passing along the side of the road where they travel.  I am keen to see a carriage, but alas it is not to be.  At a gas station, we see a woman pumping gas with the traditional head garment the Amish wear but obviously she is driving a pickup truck.  Maybe she is a Quaker or follows the faith a little less strictly? Curious, I did some research and found the following from a State of Maine tourism site:

“Among Maine’s newer immigrants are the Amish. Quietly and determinedly, the Amish began arriving in Maine in the mid 1990s, seeking reasonably priced farmlands and a location where their rural lifestyle wasn’t endangered by development; a place where they could practice their faith and raise their families in peace.

Maine’s Amish first settled in Smyrna, a rural town just west of Houlton in southern Aroostook County; then Easton, near Fort Fairfield, in central Aroostook; and more recently in Unity and Thorndike, neighboring towns folded in the rolling countryside east of Waterville.

In Maine’s Amish communities, cars share the roads with bicycles and horse-drawn buggies, and the Amish, dressed in simple garb, often can be seen working the fields, shopping local markets, and walking along roadways.

A visit to one of Maine’s Amish communities provides not only a window into a traditional lifestyle, but also the opportunity to purchase Amish-made goods. Local shops, such as the Pioneer Place General Store, in Smyrna, sell locally made furniture as well as jams; small signs indicate farms where breads, produce, and other foods may be purchased; and Amish-owned businesses make and sell sheds, offer repair services for buggies and harnesses, and manufacture metal roofs. 

Note: taking photographs is discouraged.”

 

The "mountains" of Maine topped with wind generators similar to hills in California.

Another view of wildlife presents itself when we pass a field with several deer including a buck with a large rack of antlers.  Still no moose even as we travel further north and the Interstate has fewer exits.  It seems as if we are traveling into a wilderness without towns or population to spoil it and with nothing but forest as far as our eyes can see.  The only “occupants” we see consistently are large crows along the road scavenging whatever carrion or scraps they can find along the road.  Along or in groups of two or three they seem to talk to each other with beaks wide open and they are fat with shiny feathers, which seem to indicate their searches along the road are productive.  I once heard that Native Americans believed crows where their returning ancestors.  I imagine here in this wilderness that if that were true, they are laughing at us as we pass by knowing we are well out of our comfort zone of modern life’s conveniences into a place they can still claim as their own.  The legend is further enhanced as we pass two crows sitting on electric wires looking down at a third taunting him and seeming to watch his work to see if it is a productive endeavor.  I think they should be the state bird from the number we have seen along the road, but they have chosen the “Black-capped Chickadee” for their state bird.

Potato fields in blossom.

In Houlton, Maine we start to pass potato farms and learn they have a “Potato Blossom Festival” here annually.  Indeed the fields are in bloom as we pass by.  Here the forest has relented and fields occupy rolling hills as far as you can see.  Barns sport the names of their owners and little stands with new potatoes and green beans are available along the road.  Cemeteries have the name of a family on their entrance gates and one called “Jewel Cemetery” catches my eye.  We learn there is a branch of the University of Maine here in Maine’s northern most county in Presque Isle founded in 1903.  We see a sign for “Swedish Colony” founded in 1870 and learn that Maine officials actively recruited several hundred immigrants from Sweden at that time who came and formed a vibrant Swedish community that follows their ancestral traditions even today.

 

I'll believe it when I see one...

Now there are signs posted that say “Break for Moose” and I am further teased that I might catch a view of one of these elusive animals.  I think of those Chick-fil-A signs that say, “Break for Chikin” and this must be the Maine version.  Believe me, I’d break for a moose because I want to get a damn good picture!  So far my eyes are peeled to no avail. At one of our stops, the campground owner relates he saw a moose swimming in his lake this morning and I am sad I missed it.  As if to soothe the moment, we see our first loon swimming in his lake.  Later in the day I find a small moose pendant hand drawn by the campground owner’s daughter and I decide it may be the only “moose” I see on this trek to northern Maine!

We end our day with a beautiful sunset that could compare to Arizona sunsets 15 hours after starting our journey.  

A Maine sunset amid the firs.

Snoopy's Corner:

Ok, for two days Mom and Dad have been gone working from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.  I am busy amusing myself with pillows and eating a toy or two (won't do that again...it made me sick.)  I'll be glad when they are done inspecting these campgrounds and we can hang out all day together!