Today I decided to head to Baxter State Park which is a two hour drive from home. The foliage is peaking in that region of Maine which makes an enjoyable day trip if you like foliage and taking photographs, both of which I enjoy very much.

Once I arrived at Millinocket you could begin to see Mt. Katahdin, the largest mountain in Maine and also the last mountain of the Appalachian Trail. I have never climbed it, but would love to some day. The Maine foliage website was correct; the leaves were at peak- everywhere you looked leaves were bright yellow, orange and red with a mixture of green pine. The Golden road is so beautiful, there are many places to pull over and get into the woods to fully experience the foliage. I took a few photos in the woods where the bed of the forest was blanketed with yellow leaves and orange pine needles, the scent is indescribable, I wish I could bring that scent home with me. After walking around for awhile I decided to head on, the skies were starting to cloud over which was very discomforting to me. I found another little path down the road that lead to the State power lines that circles around the park, from there a small vista of Mt. Katahdin formed. I came across yet another interesting rest area that featured a large boulder with a painting of a Black Bear near a stream that was title “Keep Maine Beautiful”. While leaving the rest area you had to actually drive about ½ mile from the Golden Road which places Katahdin behind you, I took this photo while driving down the road… there’s not a lot of places in the US where you can have sights like this.

I arrived at Abol Bridge and found one of the better places up close to take a photo of Mt. Katahdin, unfortunately at the time it was cloudy. I waited for about 20 minutes and the skies started to clear and I was able to take a few decent photos from Abol along with a nice photo stitch (cropped version). After hanging out at the bridge I headed back towards Millinocket, I decided to take a different route home and found this nice little spot. I wish I could travel more often, I love staring in awe of God’s Creation, it’s undeniably perfect.

Nate called me today and wanted to take a quick Kayak trip, I logged onto http://maps.live.com/ to plan a route. I found the perfect area that would only take a few hours and would be a mixture of leaves, dams and cityscape. We started out in Orono, near Ayers Island and would end at the Sea Dog in down town Bangor. Here’s a map overview of the trip.

We started out at 5PM, the weather was in the high 70’s, no wind and clear skies. Some of the leaves have started to change which is great. Most of the river was very calm due to an unexpected dam upstream. I had no idea it was there until we came upon a large white sign with red bold text stating, “DANGER, DAM EMINENT”. I would have taken photos of the 100+ year old mill / dam but the current was too strong to not hold onto the paddle. We kayaked around looking for some sort of way around this dam, on the left hand side of the river was walled with a slope of ledge, there was a tiny ladder that led up to a cable cart system. On the right hand side was the old mill but it sat over a portion of the dam with one ladder. We decided that the right hand side was the best course of action; we had to hold and help each other up the ladder to prevent the current from taking our kayaks. After that ordeal I found a man in the mill washing his car, he had a surprised look on his face, I think he wondered how I got passed the barbed wired fence surrounding the complex, I explained my situation and asked if there were a way around this dam. It turns out that there’s a gate on the other end of the complex that needed to be unlocked and that he would let us through. The sunset was beautiful on the river.

After getting through the gate we had to carry our kayaks down a slope of man placed cut ledge and through some bushes, we were happy to see some fast moving water, probably class II due to the dam. I helped Nate get into the rapids and took photos of him in action. I got in a little ways down because he was already in the water. We made it to Bangor and kayaked past the hospital that I work at, it was an interesting sight to see it from the water. At this point it was around 7:30PM and the sun had set. We made it to the Bangor Waterfront, one of Nate’s friends was fortunately there to assist us in getting back home, we did not want to leave the kayaks there to pickup my car.

Today Nate and I set out on our unpremeditated kayak trip. Our goal was to set sail at the Pushaw Lake dam where the lake is eventually drains into the Penobscot River, but of course we did not want to take the whole route as it would have been nearly an 8 hour trip, so we would end the voyage at Old Town where Pushaw Stream emptied into Stillwater River.

At noon we arrived to the dam and set out on the water, the weather was perfect for kayaking, mostly cloudy skies with patches of blue and cool breeze. The steam was much bigger than I had thought it would be, with water at the depth of 10-11 feet and widths up to 100 feet, with those measurements there’s very little current to help you along. We saw a fair amount of wildlife, mostly of my favorite reptile, the Turtle. At one of the bends in the stream the water became very shallow and muddy shore was littered with tree stumps, this setting is a particularly favorable habitat for turtles as it provides an area for laying eggs, feeding, mating and basking in the sun. At this point I had considered tipping myself over because I had decided to not bring my camera with me. We let the current move us around in this area so we could observe the Painted Turtles going on about their lives, everywhere you looked you could see them on logs as many as three per log basking in the sun. I was actually able to capture one of them; he was roughly 2 years old and probably has never seen a human before. We counted 20 turtles on the trip, which may seem like a lot, but considering that the trip was almost 10 miles it was minimal. We also saw many Kingfishers, Herons, two Eagles and a dead baby Beaver.

Near the end of our trip our backs and legs very getting soar, so I decided to dock on a very thick clay bank to stretch. As I was stretching I looked down and became curious with the clay and started to play with it, this was a mistake as clay can be very slippery as I soon found out. My entire backside was covered in clay, I smelt like Swampthing. I took my jeans off and paddle the rest of the trip in my boxers. That event was appeased by the next bend that I-95 passed over; I have never been underneath an interstate on water before so it was interesting. I waved at a gang of motorcyclists that acknowledged me. Being under the highway was interesting, I would have thought there’d’ be visible vibration but there was none, the noise was incredible. Ten minutes later we were at the end of our trip which took 5 hours in total.