Sailing the Maine Coast

1 Camden
2 Me & Pirate of Appledor
3 Tom and Carl
4 Windjammer in full sail
5 Eileen and JC
6 Windjammer fleet in Camden Harbor
7 Belfast, Maine

"Irene" at Eileen's

In concluding our last Blog we mentioned that Eileen invited us to shelter in her home in Maine and that we did not hesitate to accept her invitation, so on the Friday we drove the 220 Miles to Winthrop and safety. “Irene” did, in fact pass right through the area of New Hampshire where we had been. We arrived in time to help Carl take his boat out of the water and transport Jeremy’s 3 snow mobiles to Eileen and Carl’s home. Parked in front of the house was an RV, a Jeep, an SUV, “Bluebug”, Carl's boat on a trailer, 3 snow skis on a trailer and our tow dolly.  Eileen said she was thinking of putting a "For Sale" sign on everything.

Saturday Eileen served up lobster rolls for lunch; they were yummy and the beginning of a daily dose of lobster for both of us while in Maine. That afternoon Carl drove the 4 of us to Boothbay. On the way we stopped at an RV garage to see if we could have our RV serviced; while Tom was checking on the service Eileen and I decided we would check out the RVs parked around the forecourt. Looking at one I leaned over on the top step of a 5^th wheeler to look in side window overbalanced and BANG…over I go, head-over-heels backwards. And…you guessed it – the door was unlocked! Embarrassed and annoyed I sat there in pain trying to assess the damage I had done to myself; I sprained my knee, hit my head on another RV and hurt the index finger on my right hand, all in all very little considering the height of the fall. As there was nothing broken we continued on to Boothbay, a beautiful small town on a hill overlooking the harbor on the coast of Maine, this part of New England reminded us of Cornwall in England. The day before Irene was due to arrive the weather was beautiful, the sky cloudless and blue and the shops were wonderful for us browsing tourists. After dinner my knee was quite swollen and sore so on the way home we bought an Ace knee support.

The rain associated with Irene started in the middle of Saturday night however the Roaring Lion of a hurricane we had anticipated ended up as a Kitty Cat around Winthrop. We had 24 hours of heavy rain, strong winds, with gusts that took down a few trees yet locally no great harm done, we lost electricity for 3 hours but others were not so fortunate. The worst of the storm was in upstate New York, the Adirondacks, Vermont and New Hampshire in particular. Irene ensured, however that I had a very restful day - much needed for my knee.

How many of you know that LA is in Maine? I’ve been there! It’s where we had the RV serviced.  LA for Lewiston/Auburn has a most magnificent river the Androscoggin running through it - at least it was truly awesome the day after the storm.  Auburn is on one side of the river and Lewiston is on the other. We had lunch (lobster rolls, of course) sitting on the balcony of a restaurant overlooking the river and waterfall on what was a hot summers day. Later that afternoon the noise of chain saws was in the air all around the lake near Eileen’s where the men were hard at work cleaning up after the hurricane, what a good excuse to use the chain saw. 

We stayed 4 nights with Carl and Eileen and then headed for the coast and Camden which Carl had discovered was holding its annual “Windjammer Festival” over the weekend. Windjammers are Schooner’s of anything from 46 to 132 feet in length, with 2 to 4 masts 65 to 80 feet tall; originally built as cargo carrying sailing ships, the Maine fleet has been lovingly refurbished by their owners and now offer passengers a great day or several days cruise under sail. Eileen and Carl joined us in Camden for 2 days and we were lucky enough to manage to secure reservation on the Schooner Appledore 11, a traditional 86-foot wooden windjammer (that has circumnavigated the world 4 times) and sailed into Camden port as part of the Windjammers parade. One unique feature of windjammers is that most of them do not have an engine; as you can imagine it’s fascinating to watch a tiny boat with an outboard engine push a 132 foot windjammer into dock.

Our next “port of call” is Bar Harbor on Mount Desert Island, Maine. 

Vermont and New Hampshire

Our journey from New York to Vermont will, in all probability, be the shortest drive we will have…it was a 10 mile drive from RV Park to RV Park. From Ausable Chasm to Port Eden was 4 miles; a Ferry transported us across Lake Champlain and it was 6 miles from Burlington to our RV Park just outside a little town called Shelburne. It was quite an adventure and a welcome one to be taking the ferry, the alternative would have involved driving around Lake Champlain which is long and narrow and would most likely have taken days. However, driving the big RV, tow dolly and car onto the ferry was nerve racking to say the least; and we were not the only RV on the ferry. Shelburne, noted for Shelburne Farms and Shelburne Museum is a suburb of Burlington. We opted for the Museum and were delighted as it is an all day and more kind of place with a wonderful eclectic collection that includes period houses from the 18^th and 19^th centuries, barns, farm outbuildings, blacksmiths forge, the National Historic Landmark steamboat Ticonderoga, a lighthouse, a Meeting House and the Electra Havemeyer Webb Memorial Building in which six interiors (rooms) from the Museum founder’s 1930s Park Avenue, New York City apartment are re-created including pieces by Degas and Monet and others from her unique art collection.

One of the buildings was in a horseshoe shape specifically to display a scaled (inch to a foot) circus parade of almost half a mile long depicting animals and people from all over the globe - on horseback, camels and floats, the detail on the carriages and costumes is spellbinding. The Circus Museum in Peru, Iowa has nothing to compare. Another exhibit was devoted to fashion from top Paris designers, some old and some modern, shoes by top Italian designers and a film of models strutting their stuff on the ramp at a Paris fashion show. It is a fascinating museum which stands as a testament to its creator and original funder Electra Havemeyer Webb. No visit to the Burlington area is complete without a day spent at the Shelburne Museum.

We played golf next day on a very nice nearby golf course called “Kwiniaska” about a mile from the RV Park, we could probably have seen the course but for the trees.  Later that day we drove into Burlington and walked down “Church Street” a four block pedestrianized and crowded tourist trap, with shops, cafes, restaurants and Ben and Gerry’s right there where it all started.

From there we drove to Newport, New Hampshire to visit with friends who had lived in Los Gatos in 1996-7. Having “hooked up” we drove around Lake Sunapee and caught glimpses of the lake through the trees and happened upon a restaurant called “Bubba” which was full of people so we stopped for dinner there and I had my first Lobster Roll of this trip. The following evening we had dinner with Caroline and Iain in “The Old Court House” in Newport; we had a lot of catching up to do and were talking so much we had a hard time ordering our food. Needless to say we closed the restaurant after a most enjoyable meal and visit.

Next day we went for a hike to see a waterfall Iain had recommended not too far from the RV Park and I decided that we should complete the loop by hiking up the river back to the RV. Of course, I fell in not once but twice, cagey Tom did not. The first - I was easing my way down the bank slipped and ended up on all fours in the water, no harm was done but the only place left dry was the back of my tee shirt, all I could do was laugh take my phone out of my pocket quickly and give it to Tom in case I fell in again. We crossed the river (the Sugar River is shallow and has lots of rocks and stones) as the far bank looked flatter and easier and ended up in a couple’s garden; they were busy tidying away their garden furniture in anticipation of Hurricane Irene. As we cross the river back to the RV Park SPLASH! Once again I am on all fours in the river, I really thought that I should go for a swim at this stage as I am now soaked.  

That night Eileen and Carl called from Maine to tell us that the path “Irene” was taking looked like it would pass right over VT and NH and encouraged us to take shelter from the storm at their home. We didn’t need to be asked a second time!

Ausable Chasm

1 Ausable Chasm river
2 Rafting down the river
3 Ready for tubing
4 Launching the tubes
5 White water rafting
6 Hiking Home

Adirondacks, Lake George

1 Furs for sale
2 Antique sale
3 Rainbows end on Lake George
4 Who wants to look for millionaires?
5 Sagamore hotel on Lake George
6 View of the shore at Lake George

Adirondack Mountains

The Adirondacks featured in our thinking from early on yet a big concern - whether or not we could take the RV, tow dolly and car on a ferry across Lake Champlain. In discussing it with our friends in Pittsford and after some www research by Terry we discovered that we could from Port Eden to Burlington in Vermont.  Driving along 1-90 from the Finger Lake region we passed over the Erie Canal several times, from our prospective it is enormous, we thought all canals were the same approximate width of 14 feet. However, the Erie Canal is 40 feet wide with bridges that are not little and humpbacked. Of further interest is that their lock gates are lowered and raised to let boat traffic navigate on them and that the lakes are incorporated into the waterway system. Needless to say the barges were big but in no way as picturesque as barges in Britain or other parts of Europe.

Arriving on the south-western side of the Adirondacks near Utica we passed through the towns/villages of Poland, Norway and Russia before reaching our RV Park in Cold Brook where we spent 3 nights. On our first day we took a scenic round trip of 160 miles, visiting the towns of Speculator, Indian Lake and Inlet in this part of the Adirondacks; a quaint and very rural part of New York State where it’s hard to believe that New York City is so near. There was an antique fair on in Inlet and we discovered what had happened to those two raccoons we mentioned  were shot back in Peru, IN…well they  were skinned, cured and on sale at the antique fair - photos to follow! When we got back I went to the onsite golf driving range and hit 2 buckets of balls. I need to improve my swing, what golfer doesn’t?

We headed for the Golf Course of Newport the next day; a busy course and as the day was not too hot or humid  we decided for the first time in two months  to walk, both of us enjoyed our round of golf. And yes the buckets of balls helped - I am trying to break 100 and shot a 101 while Tom shot in the low 80’s.  Our campsite really came alive at the weekend on Saturday there was a Mardi Gras Parade and   Sunday  an Easter Bonnet Parade, the pity was that I missed both due to golf and because  we were leaving on the Sunday. Amish people live around this area also, the first clue…horse droppings, the second clue yellow road signs of a horse and trap. Along the way we saw a few Amish men on farm carts and  buggies and little Amish  girls aged about 9 selling baskets, sitting very quietly and dressed like mini Amish adults at the side of the road in Poland,

Our second stop in the Adirondacks was Lake George, what a contrast. To get there we backtracked about 12 miles to I-90 and from there on to I-87 as we did not want to drive the RV on the roads from our circular tour. Lake George is 220 miles from New York and 160 miles from Montreal resulting in an almost even split of French and English speaking people in the area giving the sense of being in a busy European tourist town.  As soon as we had settled in we went downtown and booked on a 5 hour lake cruise for 2 days ahead. Later we had dinner at a lakeside pub and saw a spectacular rainbow form over the lake as we sat there (a sign of things to come); cameras were flashing at all the tables as the full curve of the rainbow was visible across the lake. That night it started to rain at 9pm and continued to rain for 36 hours. To occupy ourselves on Monday we went shopping at the local Outlets, of course so did everyone else. The rain also gave us the chance to write a few blogs. On Tuesday it was still raining when we set off on the cruise, but it stopped within the hour. We were lucky the sun broke through and we had a lovely day.

One of the lessons we’ve learned about “scenic lake drives” is that it usually means one can spot the lake between the trees and behind lake front properties - we have been disappointed many times. The cruise afforded us the opportunity to see all of Lake George, the beautiful  Sagamore Hotel (over 100 years old and on its own island) reminded us of the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island and we saw the lakeside properties from their front. The captain provided an interesting commentary on the history of Lake George, the French / Indian Wars, and the French / English wars.  There are many forts in this area - one in Lake George named Fort William Henry, another Fort George on the southern end of the lake and Fort Edward and Fort Ticonderoga although Fort Ticonderoga is actually on Lake Champlain. In the afternoon we took a “scenic trip” on the local tram to Bolton Landing a town 10 miles up the lake…you guessed it - once more the views were through the trees, the trip cost $3 for the two of us and proved our point for us, no more lakeside drives! The trams are for summer use only, are a copy of the SF trams, no heating or A/C so cheap to run and ride on.

Tuesday evening we carried our chairs and snacks downtown to “Music in the Park” where a Beetle’s Group from England entertained all; they were fantastic, had the crowd singing along and we enjoyed the 60’s songs and, knowing the words we sang our hearts out. A highlight was having all the children onstage for a rendition of Yellow Submarine. Lake George, a vacation destination is a busy place, with lots of visitors and plenty of things to do; the center of town has lots of little shops to browse at night. On the shoreline there’s a beach named Million Dollar Beach – beat us as to why it’s called that we didn’t see any millionaires hanging around.

Wednesday we travelled further up I 87 to Ausable Chasm a most peculiar name which flummoxed us until we discovered that it’s two French words Au Sable, Americanized to a meaningless and impossible Ausable. The RV Park was within the Ausable Chasm complex and within easy walking distance of the major chasm attraction. On our first day we walked down to see the many waterfalls some of which drop 150 feet, they are beautiful.  Next day was spent enjoying the Ausable River and Chasm.  We walked down, inside the chasm for a mile and then “white water” floated down the river in tubes. There were millions of flies on the surface of the water; I thought the fish around here never go hungry. I know the fish eat the flies but forgot that the flies would eat me. My lower legs hanging over the side of the tube got badly bitten and I spent two nights in agony and had to get up every few hours to put anti-itch cream on my legs. The tubing was great fun, afterwards we hiked back the two miles (there was a bus, but not for us). We enjoyed the tubing so much that we decided to return after lunch and take the raft which allowed us take photos.

No visit to the Adirondacks is complete without a visit to Lake Placid where the Winter Olympics were held in 1932 and again in 1980. This is a busy town as it is both a summer and winter vacation area. Lake Placid town is actually on Mirror Lake and the skiing area is 9 miles out of town on Whiteface Mountain.  We took the CloudSplitter Skyride Gondola to the top of Little Whiteface Mountain from where we could see Lakes Placid and Mirror way down below in the distance. Then, taking one of Tom’s short cuts back, after 30 miles of driving we were only 6 miles from the town of Lake Placid, effectively 3 miles from our starting point. 

Our next adventure to relate is the ferry trip across Lake Champlain. 

Finger Lakes & Cornell