Dan and Hannah Travel Route One from Kittery to Lubec (not Fort Kent), Maine (Part 10 of 10) – The Denouement

Seeds of doubt about completing our three-day journey on Route One from Kittery to Fort Kent creep into our heads and start to grow as we drive back to our Eastland Motel in Lubec. Wrapping up our second day of on the road, we’ve just finished hiking at Quoddy Head State Park. Click here for that blog.

Sitting with wine in our motel room (glamorous, I know), we toast two great days on the road but wonder about Day 3 of our 530-mile drive on Route One from the bottom to the top of the state of Maine.

You see, the forecast for Wednesday (Day 3) is showers and rain. Do we really want to spend the 250 miles from Lubec to Fort Kent in a car on a rainy day just to say we traveled the entire length of Route One in Maine?  Looking at each other, we just don’t. Fair-weather travelers?  I’m afraid so.

It’s like running a marathon.  No one else cares for more than a minute that you ran 26.2 miles.  Do it because you love the training, the challenge, and the satisfaction of completing a monumental task.  Do it for you. 

It’s like earning a PhD.  Don’t do it because you want people to call you “Doctor.”  From my experience it is way too much work for that misguided belief that anyone will give a sh*t that you are Dr. So and So.  Do it because it would lead to your dream job working with preservice teachers and seeing if you can cut it teaching “bigger kids.”  Your friends like you for who you are, not because of some title or that you ran a marathon.

You see, our travels north over the last two days have morphed into a hiking road trip. We hiked the Hundred Acre Wood in Brooklin and Peter’s Brook Trail in Blue Hill on Monday. Tuesday took us to Cobscook Shores, Mowry Beach, and Quoddy Head State Park. On the trails and getting lots of Fitbit steps are what we realized we wanted, not just driving on Route One. Tomorrow, we would have few such hiking options heading on the road to Fort Kent.

So today, we opt for flexibility to make the road trip ours based on what catches our fancy and what we learn as we go; not being limited and restricted to a plan hatched at home months ago. 

We did mostly keep to Route One, except when the shoreline country roads beckoned (e.g., Bold Coast).

We never did listen to music to Pandora or podcasts while driving but focused on the sights of Route One that grabbed our attention.

So what did we learn?

One, we don’t need to be a big fish in a small pond. Small towns are home to people who grew up there. I get the appeal. But these villages on, admittedly, the beautiful coast of Maine are just not our home. Home is where we have lived in York for the last thirty-nine years. We are staying put for the long-term as small fish in a small pond.

Two, being among our peeps is important. We are liberal, tree hugging, Obama Democrats that do not want to be lone wolves in a rural Red part of the state. Finding like-minded folks who also believe what we care about (i.e., the common good, the environment, truth, vaccinations, being our brother’s keeper and hope) are important to us. We’ll continue to grow that community in York.

Three, to fully know the Red part of Maine I would need at least ten days to stop in towns, go to local events (e.g., in high school gyms), and meet the rural people on their terms, in their villages and towns. You know, I like the sound of that.

Overall, I’d call our two-day road trip on Route One from Kittery to Lubec a success.

As Meatloaf sings, Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad!

Dan’s Wednesday Quote of the Week – #44 – MLK, jr

Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.

Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, jr.

Dan and Hannah Travel Route One from Kittery to Fort Kent, Maine (Part 9 of 10) – Quoddy Head State Park

The highlight of our second day traveling Route One on this mid-September Tuesday is to be our hike on the Coastal Trail on the cliffs at Quoddy Head State Park. A mere six miles from downtown Lubec, the West Quoddy Lighthouse is a beacon on the border of the United States and Canada.

Originally built in 1808, by order of President Thomas Jefferson, the original wooden tower was replaced by the current tower in 1858. With “candy-stripes,” it is the only such tower in the United States. Previously the lamp was illuminated with, get this, sperm whale oil and lard oil.

We Maine seniors get the best deals! Hiking these trails will hardly break the bank.

Parking by the lighthouse, we will have a four-mile round trip on the Coastal Trail.

With a choice of trails, we opt for the four-mile macho man/woman Coastal Trail along the steep rocky cliffs with trees toughened by the punishing by the Atlantic’s harsh winds. The cliffs are remnants of marine volcanoes! Who knew!

The Coastal Trail starts benignly enough with a level trail that offers dramatic views to the ocean.

Coastal cliffs of Quoddy Head State Park

The trail initially seems straightforward and easy going. Not so fast, my friend.

Then the trail turns mean. With rocks and roots crossing the trail, we hold onto branches as we descend; it’s more cliff climbing than hiking.

The roots they are aplenty.

Keeping close the cliffside, we come to a point where we wonder if we have lost the trail or not. It’s zero fun so we backtrack towards the Bog Trail. We are looking for an enjoyable hike not an arduous one. Such is life at 73!

Backtracking, we find our kind of trail.

Wooden puncheons make for a sweet cliff-side walk in the woods.

Opting for the level sublime Bog Trail, we catch a hiking rhythm.

Off to the bog

Got a problem? You know where to go.

With the sun soon to set, we get our 10K steps and more and prepare to return to our Eastland motel, three miles out of Lubec on Route 189. We’ve a warm bed, a continental breakfast ahead to prepare for our third and final day exploring Route One from Kittery to Fort Kent.

Part 10 provides modest evidence that we are not all that stupid

Dan and Hannah Travel Route One from Kittery to Fort Kent, Maine (Part 8 of 10) – Mowry Beach in Lubec

Just before noon this Tuesday in mid-September, a fellow hiker at the Old Farm Point of the Cobscook Shores encourages Hannah and me to head to Mowry Beach, minutes walk from downtown Lubec.  (See map below.) Looking to lunch out before we hike, we are thinking an old favorite – Italian. And by that today I mean pizza. Sadly, we learn that Morano’s Authentic Pizza, the only pasta palace in town, is open only on Fridays and Saturdays during the off-season.  Ever resourceful and quite hungry, we lunch on peanut butter on Ritz cracker sandwiches with sparkly water. You gotta admit, these kids know how to live!

Driving down the Maine side of the Lubec Channel towards the Atlantic, we have trailhead parking for fifteen.  Mowry Beach looks to the east to Campobello Island, summer getaway for Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Our less than half mile trail has us hiking on both on dirt and boardwalk through coastal scrub woodland.  See below.

Looks like a painting (iPhone-12 three cameras are simply amazing)

Situated along the edge of the village of Lubec, this property protects 1,800 feet of shoreline along a 1.2 mile beach overlooking Lubec Channel and Campobello Island.

A stone’s throw from the shoreline

At the far end of the half-mile trail/boardwalk we come to the Lubec Elementary School and return the way we came.

Along the lower portions of the beach at low tide, the remains of ancient tree stumps can be seen, quite possibly, indicating the location of a primeval forest (or so says Wikipedia!).

Primeval forest with Canada to the right of the FDR bridge

Needing to be vaccinated (which we are) and recently tested for Covid (which we are not), the FDR bridge to the Great White North of New Brunswick, Canada is off limits to us

You are literally seeing all of the quarter mile of the downtown of Lubec

Just cool, enough said.

A sign in a Main Street storefront window. We would have kindred spirits here in the Red part of Maine, but we would be in the minority.

Amid the polarization of Maine and America, there is some levity.

One tiny church for one tiny town (population 314)

So we come to another small town on the coast of Maine on a gorgeous shorts-and-tee-shirt day in mid-September. Live here? It’s still a strong no. A friend told me of friends of his from rural Maine who moved away. Asked why they moved, they responded “heroin.” Boredom can do some mean things to a person.

Our Strava app gives you the lowdown of our time in Lubec.

Part 9 takes you to the trails of Quoddy Head State Park on the Atlantic six miles from downtown Lubec.

Dan’s Wednesday Quote of the Week #43 – Nelson Mandela

As I walked out the door toward the gate that would lead to my freedom, I knew if I didn’t leave my bitterness and hatred behind, I’d still be in prison.

Nelson Mandela

Dan and Hannah Travel Route One from Kittery to Fort Kent, Maine (Part 7 of 10) – Cobscook Shores Trails in Lubec

In the dead of winter (2021) nestled in our nearly 50-year-old post and beam house in coastal York, Maine, I read in Outside magazine of the new trails of Cobscook Shores opening up in Downeast Maine near the Canadian border. 

Downeast Maine is often considered from Ellsworth to Lubec. Grand Manan in the above map is in Canada.

Some five hours from York, the trails of Cobscook Shores sing to me.  Sucker for a hiking temptress, with Hannah, I have twice postponed our hiking adventure due to rainy weather this past spring and summer.

But today, we will not be denied as we arrive before lunch in Lubec (pronounced Lou-beck). After a morning driving the 85 miles of Route One from Ellsworth to Lubec, we are ready to get our bodies moving and grooving and hit these trails. By the way, Lubec is the easternmost town/city in all these United States and is the closest continental connection to Africa in the United States!

Cobscook Shores is a system of 15 parklands spread around Cobscook Bay in Lubec.   The name “Cobscook” comes from Kapskuk, a Passamaquoddy word meaning “place where the water looks like it is boiling.”  Privately owned, Cobscook Shores offers visitors an alternative to the saturation hiking and congestion of Acadia National Park, 100 miles to the south.

At the trailhead, we have a farmer’s field for our morning hike at Old Farm Point.

The pictures and maps will take you on our hike with us.

We take Route 189 from Route One towards Lubec to Old Farm Point. Some of the Cobscook Shores trails are in Bold in the above map.

We park at the trailhead. The visitor center is in the process of being built (September 2021)

Our mid-day grassy trail is hiking literally around a working hay field. Please note that we didn’t see any pirates in Pirates Cove.

Lubec has a rich fishing history. Are you a big fan of sardines (small herrings)? Can’t say that I am! Popular in the 1800s, the smoked herring business was roaring along and, get this, employed nearly every male resident over the age of ten in Lubec. By 1900, 23 sardine factories were pumping out the little fellas night and day.

Over-fished by the 1960s, herring, the staple of the local fisherfolk, was in serious decline. The last cannery closed in 1990 and the last smokehouse shut its doors in 1991. Regulations limiting the numbers of herring caught have returned the herring to a sustainable level. Even so, lobster and shellfish are the focus of the fishing industry in Lubec today.

We would circumambulate the Old Farm in about 45 minutes. Helluva venue, yes?

Let the grassy trail begin!

Looking out to Pirates Cove at low tide. Trucks drove onto the mudflats harvesting clams, I’m guessing.

Low tide of Johnson Bay with a fair lass

A wannabe pirate doing just fine on a mid-day hike on a beautiful day.

And back one mile later where we began.

Yeah, it’s just a walk in a hayfield. No path at all, but it was sweet mile in the sunshine some 300 miles from home, almost in Canada, after a morning in the car.

The Strava app gives the details of our short hike.

After lunch, our plans to hike Black Duck Cove, another trail of the Cobscook Shores Parkland, are happily derailed by another hiker who suggests we go to Mowry Beach. Hannah and I are all about shoreline hikes and abruptly change our plans.

Part 8 takes you to Mowry Beach and into the town of Lubec.

Dan and Hannah Travel Route One from Kittery to Fort Kent, Maine (Part 6 of 10) – Ellsworth to Lubec

With the sunshine filling the sky on a day going tor 70F day this mid-September Tuesday, we are freewheeling up Route One onto our second overnight in Lubec on the Canadian border.

26 miles to Steuben

Tooling north on a very quiet Route One from Ellsworth, we have a WTF moment. A truck on the roof! A front yard ferris wheel!

Fortunately I live with a problem solver!

Abandoned ferris wheel

We walk around the property, that happens to be for sale, and see no one around. The faces out front (see below) make it a little weird. Maybe it’s just as well no one is about.

Motoring on, I am surprised how little of Route One goes along the shoreline. This scene below is one of the few glimpses of the bay to the Atlantic Ocean.

Then it’s on to Steuben. We’ve a pickleball buddy Bob with a summer place here. Never heard of the town myself, but we make a side trip into the town center to check it out.

Named after Baron Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben of Revolutionary War fame. The population is a modest 1,131. They put the small in small town.

Across from the Congregational Church (next image), this home is seen better days in the town center just to the south of the K-8 Ella Lewis Elementary School with 108 students.

The Congregational Church in the town center of Steuben backlit

On a beautiful morning in the 60s, we wonder if we could live in such a small town. Wonder no more. There’s no way in God’s good green earth that we could leave the community in York we’ve grown for the last 39 years – access to pickleball courts and pickleball players, services such as gyms, large grocery stores, and clinics and doctors that we have at our disposal. That our daughter Molly’s family is an hour away from our home closes the “moving to a small town in the middle of nowhere” door.

Further down the road is the town Of Milbridge (1300+ residents).

Just north of Steuben is Milbridge, home to the “Purple Palace at 70 Main Street right on Route One. Again, we walk around and again no one is home. I’ll have to call Lisa to find a price. She texts me back!

The Purple Palace, a Queen Anne Victorian.

Lisa texts me. Hi Dan, this is Lisa with Better Homes and Gardens. I received your message regarding 70 Main Street in Milbridge. The Purple Palace. The seller has received and accepted an offer. I should be putting the listing as pending tomorrow. Thank you for your interest. If the sale falls through, I’ll reach out. Or would you like to put in a backup offer, just let me know. Kindest regards. Lisa

Now having the address, I find it on Zillow for $199,000. The restoration has already been started, so with some TLC and sweat equity, you could be the one to bring this sweet Queen Anne Victorian back to her glory….

Sounds like the buyer would need the constructions skills of our friends, George and Fran! (see the additional pictures of the Purple Palace at the end of the blog)

28 miles from Milbridge to Machias, home of the Clippers of U-Maine Machias

Heading north we take the sideroad closer to the ocean known as the Bold Coast.

We meander off Route One to feed our need for the shoreline.

The Bold Coast takes drivers and bicyclists much close to the water’s edge.

Click here for more info on the scenic byway of the Bold Coast.

We jump off Route One for Route 1A to skirt the water’s edge.

Low tide on the Bold Coast

This wire basket for balls struck me as clever in this small fishing community.

Always looking for university spiral notebooks for my journal writing (184 journals and going strong), we walk the still empty campus of U-Maine Machias (students were arriving the next day) in search of wire-bound notebook.

With no signage for the bookstore, we walk the campus looking for someone to help us out. One student tells us the bookstore is in the library, Unfortunately, one needs an ID card to get in the bibliotecque. Another student says she has been a student here for three years and has no idea where the bookstore is. Maybe online books have come to Downeast Maine? We leave town without a treasured university spiral notebook.

We have just 28 miles before lunch to our first of three hikes for the day at Cobscook Shores in Lubec.

Part 7 describes our hike from the above trailhead at Cobscook Shores in Lubec.

For your viewing pleasure, here are four views of the Purple Palace in Milbridge, Maine referenced above.

3800 square feet is a lot of square feet for $199K

Interested? Sorry, it’s off the market, for now!

Dan and Hannah Travel Route One from Kittery to Fort Kent, Maine (Part 5 of 10) – Peter’s Brook Trail in Blue Hill, Maine

Warmed-up by hiking the 40-minute, 1.7 mile One Hundred Acre Wood Trail in Brooklin less than 30 minutes ago (click here for that blog), Hannah and I drive nine miles inland up Route 175 into the little coastal town of Blue Hill to the oceanside trailhead of the Peter’s Brook Trail. 

With trailhead parking across the country road highway from the trail, we walk a hundred yards north on the opposite side of the road knowing we have sixty minutes to hike before the sun sets on this mid-September Monday.

With the Blue Hill Harbor in the background, we prepare to hike at the trailhead parking

After eight hours car-bound driving Route One, we fall in love with the brook-side trail into the forest of Blue Hill, Maine. A waterfall awaits.

With a trail system of five miles managed by the Blue Hill Heritage Trust, we hike by the dashing stream just minutes from the ocean heading to our thundering falls.

We hike from red dot in the lower left to the red dot further up the yellow-dashed trail.

Using the Strava app, I document our hike, first to the right, then doubling back over the Three Bridges

Let’s let the images take you on this picturesque trail.

The trail beside Peter’s Brook

Rushing water heightens the sensory hiking experience for us both

Totally missing the signs to the Three Bridges and the falls overlook, we still come upon tumbling water at its best. It’s been a rainy summer in Maine.

Doubling back, this is the sign we missed. You ask, how could you miss this sign! Distracted being with each other?

We make our way over the first of three wood-planked bridges

Bridge numero dos weaves along the westside of Peter’s Brook

At 530 PM, we take the third bridge on to the falls overlook

With some slight elevation, the trail is easily negotiable, though, at times, muddy as we head inland.

With the leaf cover, the falls overlook is less dramatic than the previous falls photo.

With the setting sun, we motor fifteen miles to our overnight at the Comfort Inn in Ellsworth, Maine back onto Route One. A glass of wine awaits to toast our first day of three traveling Route One from Kittery to Fort Kent.

We left Route One east of Orland, took route 15 to Blue Hill, then after hiking at Peter’s Brook returned to Route One in Ellsworth

Part 6 describes our travels north from Ellsworth on Route One, far from home in rural Maine that we do not know. Let our education begin.

Dan: What He is Thinking About Today. – KGUA #64

For the October 11, 2021 KGUA radio Morning Writer’s Hour hosted by Mark Gross and Peggy Berryhill in Gualala, California, we are asked to freewrite to this prompt: What are You Thinking About Today? What’s On Your Mind?

First is how sore my left arm feels after getting my Pfizer booster shot yesterday afternoon.  The pain woke me up in the middle of the night. But as we all know, no pain, no gain.

Second, how energizing it is to consolidate and jettison. This morning Hannah and I got up a little after 5 AM fired up to clear off the shelves in our upstairs bedroom for Hannah’s books and to clean out le junque under our ping pong table. 

You see, we have lived in the same house for the past 39 years.  We still have our children’s middle and high school yearbooks, their photo albums, a bread machine, classic indestructible books for toddlers, CDs, and tables that we picked up on the roadside.   All things others could be using.  This morning we set out an end table by the side of our country road with a “Free” sign.  It was gone by noon.

Third, on a subject that might be just a bit too much information for some, I am beginning to train my bladder.  Yes, the B word.  It seems it’s possible to teach an old bladder new tricks.  Kegels for men are a thing.  My other excellent strategies are for those who really give a sh*t.  Contact me.  I’m your B man.

Fourth is the importance to have fun each day, but also to have activities that are “so fun.”  A recent ”so fun” time was a chili dinner with our friends, Scott and Tree, at their place before they began their trek home to California. 

It’s been another good day. 

Words – 264

Dan and Hannah at the Wedding of Kara and Charles (October 3, 2021)

Kara is my brother Richard’s youngest, his only daughter. Charles is her guy. She and the C Man (I have no idea if Charles’ college buddies call him that, but it was fun to write.) had invited some 150 guests to the Otesaga Resort Hotel in Cooperstown, New York for their nuptials on the first Sunday in October (2021). 

Otesaga Hotel

Alas, one hundred made the scene in these Times of the Delta Variant of Covid; the ceremony and cocktail hour are to be outside while the dinner/reception will be indoors.

Otsego Lake, home to Otesaga Hotel Resort

Hannah and I wondered about coming to the wedding at all, but in the end felt satisfactory precautions were taken and we are Pfizer vaccinated. Click here for the link to the blog why we chose to come to the wedding.

About five hours of driving

Carpooling with our daughter Molly and her hubby Tip, Hannah and I arrive around noon at Cooperstown, New York, the home of the Baseball Hall of Fame. Since the wedding is a 345 PM affair, we have time for lunch together with our three kids (and Tip), then walk the property at the Otesaga Resort and into town to get our 10+K steps.

Lunch of Wegman’s subs with Robyn, Molly, Will, Hannah, Dan, and Tip

Having not worn a suit in forever, I rocked the same gray suit that I wore to Molly and Tip’s wedding in 2011. With rain in the forecast, the ceremony is moved to a 120-seat ballroom. At the outset, I do wear my mask, then take it off. On, off, on off. Eventually I figure, what the hell, everyone is vaccinated and put it in my pocket.

The uncle and aunt of the bride with the groom Charles over Hannah’s shoulder

Molly and Tip who clean up well.

In Maine, the few times I go indoors, I always wear a mask. At our gym, I wear the mask in the facility but remove it when I exercise. I rarely go inside anywhere else. This afternoon, maybe half the folks are masking up for the fifteen-minute ceremony.  A 15-minute ceremony! That’s almost heaven, West Virginia.

Dan and Hannah with our daughter Robyn

Once in the side ballroom for dinner and dancing, we all sit at round tables for seven or eight. There is no social distancing. On the dancing floor, Hannah and I are shoulder to shoulder sans masks. By this time, just a few were wearing masks.  Alcohol and masks do not seem to mix. We are all vaccinated!

Eating and dancing at close range, I pretty much forget about wearing a mask myself.  By 9 PM Hannah and I wrap up while the younger generation rocks on into the night.

Six days after the wedding, no one at the wedding has tested positive for Covid. Coincidentally, two days later the pharmacist at the local Hannaford grocery store administers my Pfizer booster shot. (Glad you asked, no side effects just a sore left arm for 36 hours.)

And as Billy Shake says, All’s well that ends well.

Additional pictures from Kara and Charles’ Big Day

Will, Hannah, Dan, and Molly walking the downtown of Cooperstown

Dan and Hannah in front of the Baseball Hall of Fame on Main Street in Cooperstown, New York

Otsego Lake is the background for a joyful Molly with Tip

The women and one lucky guy! Anna, Robyn, Molly, Kara, Charles, and Tara. (Anna and Tara are my sister Patty’s kids.)