I'm just a moose, and I'm doin' moose stuff.... What?!
Tuesday 21 May
Gorham, NH
After all the warnings along the various roads we've travelled, we finally saw a real, live moose today! Just munching by the roadside, Maine state highway 16, west of Rangeley. I like to think that growing up in the Rockies, and making frequent trips to Yellowstone NP, heightened my awareness of potential roadkill - as in, "look for the animals, and don't hit them!" This guy was just hanging out.
So, today, we coped with rain and low ceilings (clouds, that is.) It prevented me from flying at Twichell's :-( but I did get to chat with Dale Twitchell, and his fabulous, genuine Maine accent :-) And, we got to go exploring the seaplane base side of 3B5, also known as Twitchell Airport. Lots of folks own airplanes in Central Maine, and during the liquid (i.e. not frozen) months, they like to put floats on those planes. We saw lots and lots of floats awaiting their summer installation. We also saw a Cessna 150 on floats! I would have thought such a thing wasn't possible, haha.
What these photos don't show is the 400-ft ceiling, and the 2 to 3 miles visibility. Not exactly conducive to lake hopping and sightseeing! So, I promised Dale I'd be back sometime. Flying's like that.
We took backroads all through today - from our hotel in Bangor to the Bangor airport itself, then winding through central Maine. Thanks to the relentless rain and the low clouds and mist, we didn't see sweeping vistas, but it was pretty nonetheless. It didn't stop our GPS from randomly announcing things like "Continue on Lovely Lane for ten miles" And here we thought we were on highway 133! (or whatever).
We also came upon a number of libraries and small airports, big surprise, I know. Here's one of the libraries, from Canton, Maine
After Twitchell's and Turner, ME, we decided to swing up to the north to the Rangeley Lakes area. This is a part of Maine I've always wanted to visit - numerous lakes, pretty mountains, you get the picture. Well, we enjoyed our visit, even though we didn't exactly "get the picture" thanks to the weather! We enjoyed a little picnic on Rangeley Lake, where we also saw another seaplane operator, Acadian Seaplanes. Nobody around, but at least the plane was on the water.
We were booked for tonight in a motel in Gorham, New Hampshire, so we left Rangeley and started west. That's when we saw our friend Bullwinkle! And more signs telling us to watch out for moose. One sign was pretty shot up in the hind legs - funny, in Montana, that same sign would have shots through the butt of the moose!
What, aiming at the right rear hoof or something?
Gorham is the jumping-off point for the White Mountains, and the whole drive from Rangeley to here was just stunning. It's a small town, but with plenty of amenities for travellers. Had a nice dinner, and now back to our room in a renovated old-style motor lodge. Hey, it's got free WiFi, right? (actually, it's quite nice.)
Tomorrow? Well, if the weather is cooperative, we plan on ascending Mt. Washington. (yes, by car!) The Wx, though, doesn't look terribly appealing, so we might give it a miss this visit. Given that Mt. Washington is famous for having "the world's worst weather," we'll just have to see. So, some or all of the day will be spent exploring some of New Hampshire, and/or maybe some of Vermont, too. It's all good.
cheers,
--Kit and Nancy
Moose!!! They're everywhere, and they really do just hang out and chew. When I was in high school, we had to pause a football game because a moose wandered onto the field and decided to have a lazy munch. They are charming and bewildering and awesome.
ReplyDeleteMarjo, fabulous! We have moose in MT, too, of course, but not always near the road. One time in Yellowstone, though, I saw a mama moose who'd just given birth to her calf, and they were right by the road, that was very cool.
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