Lately I have been going through some of my childhood toys which gave me a nostalgic feeling of pastimes. I looked over Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle toys, Super Mario Bros., Metroid, Mega Man and The Legend of Zelda games and even played some of the games on our widescreen TV- boy did that make the games look different compared to my families’ old 20” RCA 1980’s set.

One evening while trying to fall asleep I thought to myself, “What type of ‘world’ would I want to visit if I could just choose one?”

I could travel the fields and dungeons of Hyrule with Link just as long as I had a shield and sword to defend myself against its foes or I could roam the different worlds of the Mushroom Kingdom and stomp Goombas, smash Koopa shells and find power-ups with Mario. I could explore Middle Earth with Gandalf or go on my own in search of items of old like Bilbo Bagins did. I could hunt down Metroids with Samus as long as I could have a suit similar to hers or I could travel from planet to planet with Daniel Jackson through Stargates in search of artifacts and maybe even spend some time with the Asgard. I suppose the other thing I could do is explore the galaxy aboard the Enterprise, either the NCC-1701-A with Captain Kirk and have debates with Spock or the NCC-1701-E with Captin Picard and even enjoy some conversations with Commander Data.

I think ultimately I’d have a difficult time choosing but I think I’d choose Middle Earth as long as I could take my camera!

You may think I am a geek and that is fine with me, however I think its fun to have fantasies despite them not being “true” which is the whole point of a fantasy. Live Long and Prosper!

It’s been one year since Robin and I got married; it went by very quickly for us. I wanted to do something special for Robin and I, so I secretly booked a Bed & Breakfast in Greenville, Maine for 1 night and 1 day. There has always been a B&B in Greenville that I’ve wanted to eat and stay at; Robin and I always drove by it while heading to Kokadjo. I called Blair Hill Inn to reserve the 3rd floor room that overlooks the Moosehead Lake, a couple of months in advance just in case.

Our anniversary is October 4th, which happened to fall on a Sunday- so after church Robin and I headed towards Greenville. I told her we are going to go somewhere for the night but I couldn’t tell her where. The weather was rainy and cloudy. Upon arriving Greenville, a large fog cloud hovered over Moosehead Lake which rained on my idea of having a good view of the lake. I pulled into the B&B under the guise that I was lost and going to ask directions. After checking in I asked Robin to come inside and told her this is where we were staying.

The inside of the Inn was beautiful, it resembled its original charm with a large fireplace, dining room, game room and sitting area. After checking in, we headed up to our room that overlooked Moosehead Lake, had a king size bed, wood-burning fireplace and all-tile bathroom. We stayed in for the evening, exchanged our gifts and drank our sparkling grape juice and ate the remainder of our wedding cake, in front of the fireplace.

The next day, we got up early and ate our complimentary breakfast which was home-made by the owners themselves, while watching the previous day’s fog start to burn up from the rising sun. Later on in the morning we checked out and headed towards the boat landing for Mt. Kineo. I originally was planning on having us kayak to Mt. Kineo; however I was told it’s about a mile from the shore which normally is not bad when kayaking along a stream or river but Moosehead Lake is very large and usually has large cold waves. I decided to pay to take the ferry across the lake which was $10 a person round trip. Upon arriving on the island, the Sun started to peer through a section of the cloud veiled sky. I was looking forward to climbing this mountain as this was a first for both of us; I’ve read about the island’s history. It got its name from an American Indian that was banished there and then later on it was “discovered” by “white man” a hotel chain erected a hotel on the island however several years later you can read about the hotel during the process of being torn down and it burnt down.

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I remember hearing someone talk about Gulf Hagas in the past and thought nothing of it, and then my company’s health department hosted a hike through Gulf Hagas two weeks ago and again thought nothing of it. Last week a co-worker talked about it so I decided to look into it further. They call it “The Grand Canyon of Maine” which like anyone else that has not hiked the Gulf Hagas trail, I pictured the Grand Canyon in my mind and thought, “Yea right”. I checked MaineFoliage.com and saw that the leaf colors were moderate in the area so I talked to Robin about it and we made a date to hike all 8 miles of it (4 miles up and then 4 miles back). We both did not know what to expect other than that there are waterfalls and high ledge walls.

The weather was in the mid-sixties with clear blue skies with no breeze. Upon arriving at 10AM we paid and registered to get in; there were a lot more people hiking that day than I would have expected- I would say in total we saw about 40 people. Once we parked in Pleasant River Parking, I put my boots (not real hiking boots) on, got the Lowepro camera bags out, helped Robin put her backpack on and we headed towards the Pleasant River crossing which was about a mile out. When we arrived at the River there were a group of high school kids there crossing the ice cold, ankle deep, water. While watching them cross we changed out of our boots and into our sandals- another reason why I love my new Keen sandals, as they are so versatile for things like this. For me, the water was not very cold until the half way point of the river which by estimate was roughly 50′ wide; once we reached the middle of the river it felt like small tacks poking at my skin.

After crossing the river we put out boots back on and made our 1 mile hike to Screw Auger Falls (Map Point 3) which requires a slight deviation off trail to fully view the falls. We climbed down about 10′ overt ledge and roots until we reached the plateau of ledge that stands 8′ feet above the basin of the waterfalls. In the summer it is probably the safest area to swim if you desire. We made our way to the lower Screw Auger falls which is much larger than the upper. The viewpoint requires you to climb down 40 or so feet of steep terrain that consists of mangled roots and dirt until you reach the bottom or top of the canyon’s ledge. From there it felt like I was viewing a scene from Lord of the Rings (Rivendell); the waterfall dips down – I’d estimate around 20′- into a pool of water surrounded by trees that hung over portions of the water. Several areas from where we stood, led to an abrupt and deep canyon 80′ down. Any attempt by me at photographing the depth of this was difficult; I’m not sure if it’s the lenses that I have or if it’s my technique, but it is definitely something you should witness for yourself. After looking around and taking photos for 30 minutes or so we left and continued onwards making our way over the at-the-time smooth, root and ledge free trails. We reached the Hancock lookout, which is basically ledge that provides a narrow view of the gorge; this is where the ledge (I believe it’s ledge as I have not been able to verify if it is another mineral/strata) walls rise to their 2-300′ heights. We continued on up an incline and then all of the sudden the path stopped; we continued on as the map said a trail was there until we came to a very steep stairway of roots. Being adventurous I climbed down to an area that leveled off for about 3 feet and then a sheer drop to the bottom of the canyon. We decided to head back to the main trail, as there clearly was no discernible path for us to take.

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During the first week of September mom stayed with Robin and I for half a week and the other half with her parent’s in Dexter. I took 5 days off, two Fridays, a Thursday and Monday. We tried to get out and enjoy the end of Summer’s weather which mostly was in the cool 70’s, by walking on the Orono campus trails of which Robin used to run on during her college years.

One day the three of us wanted to kayak so we loaded my kayak and our landlord’s tandem (two-seater) kayak on the car and drove down to Sedgeunkedunk Stream; Robin in front and mom in the back of the tandem and myself in my kayak. The weather was excellent that day with temperatures around 75 and a slight sporadic breeze. We made our way around way the first two bends in the stream that consisted mostly of thick difficult to traverse Water mill-foil; after that the water cleared up in the middle so that you could see down 4′ to the murky bottom. Robin called me over as she had spotted a young Painted Turtle basking in the sun while in the midst of algae- I was unable to capture it. Shortly after, I spotted another young Painted Turtle, but again was unsuccessful. We continued on, looking for any signs of wildlife and taking in the sun. We came across, what Robin and I had thought had passed for the year, a nice patch of Lilly Flowers. Later on, I spotted a female duck with two young offspring swimming behind her. At the half-way point, Mom spotted another turtle basking in the same manor as the previous two; I slowly paddled up to the turtle, it was a large male Painted Turtle- the second largest I have caught. Once I was next to the turtle in the water, it had submersed itself but I had reached down quickly to grab a hold of its shell. It’s carapace was in the process of shedding due to growth. I placed the turtle into my storage unit and we continued on our journey. Nearing the end of the stream a Great Blue Heron had swooped up in front of the tandem out of the cattail bushes and landed 15′ to the other side where I was able to snap a photo of it. We turned around shortly after; nearing our the last stretch, where I spotted a very young Painted Turtle, it must have been a year old- it was so light that it was sitting on top of a thick growth of algae which made it very easy for me to capture. We headed onwards where the same Heron was spotted earlier had relocated in hunt for fish. I was able to get a few shots of of the Heron up close and in the unsuccessful pursuit of fish. Once on land we stopped at a near by vacant house and took photos of the turtles to compare their size.

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