Saturday, June 7, 2008

Grafton Notch

Hi everyone! We had such a fun day today! We decided to go somewhere neither of us had gone before, which in this case was Grafton Notch State Park in western Maine. Ron read about it in the literature we got with our State Park Pass which is what prompted our interest in the first place.

We started the day out with breakfast here at home (veggie omelets!) and then packed up a cooler with food and water. We recently got a GPS while we were on our visit to my parents in PA so we didn't even need a map...just plugged in our destination and away we went! The ride there was nice, very scenic and took about two hours.

The first place we stopped when we got there was Screw Auger Falls. It was basically a picnic area situated along a beautiful stream with cascading waterfalls such as the one below.

After that we headed up the road to Mother Walker Falls where we did some off-path exploring of our own. It was a lot of fun and we probably got to see a lot of things that the average person wouldn't. This is a cool waterfall that ran kinda behind and under some large boulders and this is where it came out.


The next place we stopped at was Moose Cave. There was an actual cave there that had a river (well, creek...) running through it. It was so named for the unfortunate moose that fell into it long ago. You couldn't enter the cave but you could look down into it and see the water. At that same stop they had an area you walked through called the Moss Garden. It featured a couple different kinds of moss including this cool Reindeer Moss which was very stiff and in a way resembled coral.


The last part of our visit was to take a hike though the beautiful forests of Maine. The path that we took started with the Eyebrow Trail. Let me state here that we rather foolishly didn't look into the difficultly level of this trail before starting it. And if we had we might not have done it. But we did do it, and at least in this case, all's well that ends well. It started innocently enough as a level path through the woods, very nice scenery. Then we come to a stone staircase...

...which we head up. The incline was a nice change of pace from the beginning part of the trail. But as we're going along we realize that the incline isn't leveling out. We just keep heading up! And not only that, but it's getting steeper! Here's Ron as we've come to an area so steep that there is a guide wire to grip.


Then there was the next part with the ladder(!)...


..and then the oversized metal staples that someone helpfully pounded into the stone.


At this point we were about an hour into the hike and were were wondering if we had bit off a bit more than we could chew! But we had food and water with us and the weather was beautiful and being two moderately fit young(ish) men, we decided to trudge on.

We're really glad we did, because not too long after that we were rewarded at the top of the mountain with some extraordinary views...




The path then headed back down the mountain and at this point joined the Appalachian Trail! So we got to walk a mile of that which seemed very cool in a historic kinda way.

Here's a shot of Ron crossing one of the foot bridges along the trail...

After all the hiking, which took us two hours, we were pretty hungry. So we headed back to our first stop and made use of the picnicking facilities. And from there made our way back home. Overall it was a great day and we'll surely be heading back again for some more hiking...maybe some easier trails this time, though...

On the knitting front, I am working on a pair of socks from Charlene Schurch's "Sensational Knitted Socks." These are my first big intarsia project and I'll have more info on that including a picture or two in the next post.


LISTENING TO: GOSSIP - "Standing In The Way Of Control"


I was first introduced to Gossip on Charles' blog. This trio from the northwestern US rocks. An awesome mix of punk ideals and soulful vocals...something you might think wouldn't work well together, but they manage to pull it off. Check out the video for the title track.





3 comments:

Mel said...

We went up to Grafton Notch last fall when David's cousin visited from SD - first time I'd been to that part of the state in probably 20 years. You should really plan to go back when the leaves are changing.

We also saw the Gossip perform at the True Colors concert in Boston last year. I hadn't heard of them before but immediately downloaded the album from iTunes afterwards because they were so good.

Paul said...

What beautiful photos! The views from the top were certainly worth the long hike. Stunning!

Anonymous said...

Hey You!! Sorry haven't been around, got a ton of things that are going on with me right now. It isn't the best news, but the bad had mostly been ruled out with tests and blood work. In short, I have had a long bout of vertigo that will not go away...had an mri, found a spot where it shouldn't be, meds, doctors, blood work, etc, etc, etc.....more tests...have ruled out brain tumor for the most part but not totally, and are looking at things now like MS, Thyroid issues or crystals in my inner ear....
I am doing as well as can be expected...just really frustrated
G is in Maine and will be coming home this week end, I miss him tons and Ty has moved to...are ya ready......Anchorage, Alaska...he is going well there and does well with 20 hours of light a day at the present time...
I will keep you posted about everything..sorry to be a bummer...
trying to get back to Maine sometime this summer, really depends on what is wrong with me...who knows, I may end up moving back...we have to wait and see what this crap is first...not fair for me to expect G to take care of me if this is something major....boo....
Anyway......I miss you tons and tons and talk about you all of the time....you really are dear to me...
catch up with ya later friend...

Luv ya kiddo!!