Rangeley Lake

Rangeley Lake, Maine

A thought :    ” Despite the forecast, live like it’s spring.”  -Lilly Pulitzer

30 October 2016

Sunday morning at lakes edge.  Awoke to Susan not so stealthily shuffling about, making coffee and hoping to go out and awaken a few loons.  It would appear that the only loon awakened was me.

Exercise has not been an endeavor which has overshadowed our excursion to this point, so we faced the drizzle of the new day, laced up our running shoes and glided through a few miles, which is actually a nice way to explore a new place.  Also a good way to follow dead end roads you would not otherwise take, trespass,  peek in windows of vacant houses with For Sale signs in their yards, evaluate various restaurants and cafes for future reference, find a dime on the shoulder of the road, and along the way, burn off a few of the calories from the night before. With that behind us we had breakfast at the Inn and set out to conquer the day.  This is moose country, so high on our wish list was  spotting a moose.  This is actually a great time to visit Maine.  They tell us that on the 4th of July you can’t even cross the street because of the vacation crowds.  Currently, as far as we can tell  we’re the only ones here. It’s not a big place so we figure with the crowds gone the moose to human ratio has to be very high and our chances of a sighting should be exceptional.  Speaking of the size of this place, Susan was told that last year the high school had a graduating class of seven!  Of course there were 149 enrolled!  But of those seven, only four of the graduates were second year seniors!   Also, not surprisingly, we’re deep in Trump country – signs in every yard.  Pretty sure they like their guns up here and I suspect a strong genetic marker for ethnocentricity; but in their defense it doesn’t appear that the last eight years of national leadership have done anything to help them economically.  Back to the moose hunt.

THE DREAM

Susan has long wanted to hike the Appalachian trail.  And lo, what should be right down the road?  She researched a short hike from the trail head to a place called Piazza Rock where resides – an incredible rock. The round trip, estimated to be 3.6 miles.  Her dream of course was to hike the “whole” trail so this, I think, is a nice compromise.  Even Donald couldn’t negotiate a deal like that!  From the roadside pull off I follow my hiking companion into the woods and down the trail.  After only 150 yards of melting snow and mud we arrive at the edge of a raging torrent of ice water.  Crossing it would take us beyond the tolerance level on our saturation scale,  so slightly dejected we retraced our steps and consoled ourselves with the idea of hiking the trail in the opposite direction.  Upon crossing the road we encountered not a moose, but a sign indicating that now, going in the right direction, we can actually arrive at our desired destination!  Having discovered that my  trusty guide is North – South challenged, she has  been assigned the moniker of Sacajawea. I am very glad we reached the impassable stream as quickly as we did or she may by now have some other trail name. You have all seen the T-Shirt that says “All who wander are not lost” ….  well – some of us are!!

 

 

It was a beautiful hike.  The sun came out highlighting the snow between the evergreens and we had enough stream crossings and rock hopping to keep it interesting.  No moose! Piazza rock is incredible, but the thing that affected us most was realizing that we were walking in the footsteps of our niece, Ali, who hiked the entire trail just over a year ago – and who probably saw a moose. Personally, I’m still content with the 3.6 mile experience!  With my new vision I do most of my adventuring on the Kaleidoscopic setting, so get as much satisfaction from my journeys when I get home and look at the pictures.  Always a good reminder that I did not retire too soon.

 

PIAZZA ROCK

Having come up empty handed so far in the moose hunt, we took to the road to continue the mooscapade on a stretch of highway where a sighting was a “sure thing.”  Twenty miles out – twenty miles back……..no moose!  There is little question in my mind that the Moose is the Yeti of Maine!!!!  We still have miles of Maine wilderness to traverse in our journey to the coast so…..who knows?

But hey – we did find the rock!

The rest of the day was an adventure of another sort.

OK . If you insist.

Why was the math book sad?……………………………Because it had too many problems!