Of Lobsters and Lights - Belfast and Owl's Head

While staying in Camden we made a stop in Belfast to have a quick meal and a look around.  I was hoping to check out the summer sandals on sale at Colburn Shoes but we didn't make it there before they closed at 5:00.  When we met up with my second cousin Nancy a day later she told us how Belfast used to be a place no one wanted to go because it had chicken processing plants that dumped in the Bay, causing the water to be polluted with globs of chicken fat and the stench filled the air for miles.

Belfast from the bridge over the Passagassawakeag River, 2015

Incorporated in 1773 there is a lot of history in town and I look forward to stopping in again sometime for a good look around.  It wasn't our first time for a quick lunch stop in town, we also stopped there for lunch with Nancy's mom, Great Aunt Rita in 2001.

Cory and Katrina with Great Aunt Rita in Belfast, 2001

The controversy over the chicken guts polluting Penobscot Bay may be over, but the new controversy involves the proposed dredging project to the harbor in Searsport.  When we visited the region we kept seeing signs on lawns supporting opposing the plan due to concerns over how it would affect the lobster industry.  The sticking point seems to be not the harbor being dredged, but the US Army Corps proposed dumping site for the dredged material and its possible mercury contamination that could devastate habitat and marine life.  Of course investors don't want to spend the extra money to haul it elsewhere, which seems to be the logical compromise that the lobster fishermen are suggesting.  Last week there was some good news when the application was withdrawn, but opponents are still vigilant as it is likely only a temporary delay.

When visiting the area in 2001 we took Aunt Rita and the kids on a lobster boat tour where the friendly captain told us all about lobstering as he hauled in his traps.  The kids loved it, and the grown ups did too!

Cory's fascination with crustaceans begins, 2001

Captain Katrina, 2001

One of the things we learned was that when holding a lobster you have to support the lobster's claws because they are heavy when out of the water.

 
Cory and Wayne saw a live blue lobster at Shediac, New Brunswick at the beginning of the trip and a fake lobster there too.  My men love lobster, but can you imagine eating one this big?

You'd need a crane to hold this lobster's claw up! Cory in Shediac, 2015

Another thing we learned all those years ago is that lobsters under 5 inches lay 2,00-5,00 eggs at a time while larger lobsters can lay up to 60,000 eggs!   Maine is careful to encourage reproduction of their lobsters and not overfish to guarantee many more years of lobster dinners for Cory and Wayne.


 But on this trip we skipped the lobster tour and toured the towns instead.  Southeast of Belfast and Camden lies the busy town of Rockland and just past downtown you can head to Owls Head and escape the craziness.

With a population of only 1,580 people Owls Head is my kind of town. And you've got to love their U.S. Post Office.

Don't forget to stop at the Owls Head Transportation Museum which I already reviewed, but we enjoyed just driving around and had no trouble finding things to gawk at.

I loved the collections of buoys on display everywhere, and if you're looking for buoys or anything else nautical to decorate your yard or home there are places for that including Downeast Nautical Salvage.

The buoys are different colors so that each lobster boat knows which pots to pull.  Want to know more about lobstering?  The Maine Department of Marine Resources has a website for that.  You can learn everything from the history of lobstering to its current regulations and even how to sex a lobster, which are things the lobster boat captain shared with us those many years ago too.  Take a boat tour or tour the world wide web, it's up to you!

 It's not all buoys in Owls Head, they have a lighthouse too!  Built in 1852 to replace the old one, the lighthouse is only 30 feet tall but can be seen for 16 miles due to its elevated location on the south side of the entrance to Rockland Harbor.

The lighthouse is located in Owls Head Light State Park. There is a large parking area near the lighthouse, and the grounds are open to the public with a vault toilet available.  A separate path from the parking area leads to a picnic area.  From spring to fall, the lighthouse is open on selected days; check the Friends of Rockland Harbor Lights site for the schedule.

The keeper’s house at Maine’s Owls Head Light Station is supposed to be open to the public and serves as home to the American Lighthouse Federation but was closed at the time we visited.  I thought Wayne had read a sign saying it was still under the domain of the U.S. Coast Guard but maybe I heard him wrong.  Anyone who knows the real status of the keeper's house please chime in!

Owls Head Light at dusk

Our main bathroom will be finished being remodeled later today but work started on the half bath which includes lots of sawing noises so I think I might pack up my car and head north.  Not only to escape the construction noise, but we had up to 5 inches of rain here in southeast Wisconsin last night and more is on the way!

Bennington Moose - Chocolate and Painted

Walking around downtown Bennington we saw a few things, including a little bit of architecture.

A surprising flag on the street pole.

And you know, the ass end of a moose wearing a pair of rubber boots.  The standard stuff.

We had to keep our eyes open, because the moose were even up on the roofs.

Imagine looking up and catching sight of this guy unawares!

My favorite moose was the one in front of the Bennington Fire Department.  Though I don't know what the residents thought when I started kissing the moose.  I just couldn't help myself, he was so handsome in his hat and boots!

Even the Village Chocolate Shop got in on the act.  Benny's been hanging around since Moosefest in 2005.  He was lonely so they added Molly for Moosefest 2009. They weigh one hundred pounds each, can you believe that?

That's a lot of chocolate to eat, so they sell smaller ones that are easier to walk out the door with.

 The shop also sells t-shirts and other merchandise, and I agree with their green philosophy.

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Moosefest doesn't happen every year (darn it!), which is probably a good thing or I'd be burning up the miles every year to attend.  I do love public art festivals/auctions like this though, if you've seen one this year let me and maybe I'll drive out for a look.

Bennington - From the Farmer's Market to Little Pond

Driving around Vermont was lovely, I ain't gonna lie.

A quick trip in to Bennington on a Saturday morning afforded us the opportunity to check out downtown and their farmer's market which included a guy with his guitar.  And the requisite vegetable porn now follows.

Right?  I came home with two big bunches of carrots, some apples being sold by the local homeschool co-op, and some vanilla and cookies from Vermont Vanilla which I plan to use tomorrow to make some pumpkin whoopie pies and pumpkin oatmeal cookies.  Why all the pumpkin recipes?  I discovered 6 cans of pumpkin in the cupboard when I was digging around in it today, 2 of which are technically expired.  Apparently I buy a few cans every fall intending to do stuff with it and then don't.  If I fall in love with the vanilla I plan to order more from the lady's etsy site, she was very nice and has other extracts besides vanilla as well.

A lot of folks seemed to be there for the flowers, they were selling so many of them that they were soon going to be out!  But, you know me, I was there for the baked goods and the jam, including the brownies and whoopie pies from Nana Kay's Bakery below that had a maple fluff filling.  You should have heard the moaning when that hit my taste buds!  It's why I'm making my own whoopie pies tomorrow, complete with that maple fluff!  I got some great spiced pear jam from Vermont Tiny Kitchen too, everyone got a few dollars from me, I was throwing dollars like I was at a strip club!

Nana Kay's Bakery

I'd like to come back to the area again but would not stay at the state park in Woodford again.  Most reviewers seem to like Greenwood Lodge and Campground in Woodford, but there is a KOA near Brattleboro also which would give more access to Wilmington and Brattleboro exploration too.

Quite the hairdo - downtown Bennington

After leaving Bennington we drove past the campground and explored Wilmington a little also.  Not as much going on there, but Dot's Restaurant served up some delicious lunch including a spicy homemade black bean burger and downtown has a free wifi hotspot which we were happy to take advantage of.  In addition to a couple of other high quality restaurants for such a small town there are a number of hiking trails available that start here, but we just didn't have the time unfortunately.

Lovely bridges and trails in downtown Wilmington

After all that wandering we went back to the state park to run the generator for our allotted two hours, and while Wayne relaxed with a drink at the site I took the truck and drove a few miles down Hwy 9 to a trail in the Green Mountain National forest area.  The description for the USFS trail to Little Pond is a little misleading, so I'll tell you what I did.

The sign on Hwy 9 is easy to see and when I pulled in to the lot provided for parking there was a sign that said it was 3 miles to the Little Pond trail on a gravel road.  Well, that means I could drive in and so I did, passing a few driveways and a shark out of water.

From what I can tell the USFS is giving the trailhead as starting somewhere around the fork in the road that goes to the left where it immediately gets narrower and rougher.  This first section is actually the roughest and I had to go very slowly in four wheel drive, it reminded me of those roads in Utah.  It didn't last long though, but after a little while the ruts were so water filled that I was getting concerned and luckily there was a turnout where I decided it was time to park and walk.  This was smart as there were no other turnouts further in.

messy!

Walking on the road was nice, just enough obstacles and incline to get my heart rate up as I clipped along at a steady 3 miles per hour.  I kept an eye out for moose since they are in the area but didn't see any nor their tracks or scat.

Mostly I saw woods, but there was a couple of spots where some wildflowers were blooming.

When I got to an intersection I got a little concerned, but I kept going straight ahead, rightly deducing that the cross trail was a snowmobile trail and not to the pond.  There are rocks across the Little Pond trailhead to keep ATVs and snowmobiles out.

Somewhere between this spot and the pond there was apparently a separate footpath that will lead southwest to the AT after about 1/2 mile, but I didn't see that.  The last 1/4 mile of trail suddenly slopes down to the pond where a rustic campsite was located with a view of the pond.

The rain started right when I got there so I only used my zoom lens to see if any animals were around the lake edge but all I saw was a beaver dam on the other side.  I turned around and made my way back, getting back to the truck at just under 4 miles roundtrip and again timed it for when the rain started to really come down.  I'm guessing this area is gorgeous in another week or two when fall color hits...anyone want to check it out and send me the pics? I did see moose in Bennington, but they were of the painted variety!  You know I took pics, I'll share them tomorrow.

Travel Day Disasters

I don't know if I've mentioned it, but we've had some troubles on this trip.  First Wayne hit the side of the camper exiting the ferry at Argentia, then we noticed the heat wasn't coming up through the vents and he's been on the floor fiddling with that issue at least twice in the past few weeks.  Then the electric water heater switch malfunctioned and we got a new part in Gander.  When we got to New Brunswick we had to replace the vent in the bathroom because it cracked before the ceiling leaked.

Our site in Vermont

All minor things, (except the side of the camper being damaged) until the fuel injectors went on the truck.  The first dealer we paid $350 CAD and the problem didn't get fixed.  The second dealer in Maine we paid $3995.00 to get the six replaced that didn't get replaced last fall in Tennessee.

Woodford state park's dump station

When we arrived at Vermont we were surprised that a "prime" site didn't include water and had to back up down the road after we initially started to pull away.  Then I ran over to the check in desk (where I had asked if there was anything else I needed to know) and cheekily inquired whether I was going to be surprised to find no electric too.  Well, of course no electric!  None of Vermont's state parks have it!  The $22 we paid was for a site with a view of the water...which we did not have, and no wifi is available anywhere not even at the office.

Upon exiting the park to dump we had to turn in to the park office area and back down the road to fit in on the "wrong" side because a unit as long as ours wouldn't have made the turn in to the dump area like the one with the red truck did.  Our conclusion?  I guess no more Vermont state parks for us.  Twenty two dollars seems a lot to pay for a place to park when there are USFS spots nearby for free.  Generator hours were only 2 hours in the morning and 2 in the evening and the speed bumps were so high I thought we would surely bust an axle.  We only stayed 2 nights instead of 3, and counted ourselves thankful that we at least were able to get a refund for that 3rd night.  We did have a good time exploring Bennington, I will share that another time, today it's all about complaining because it's good for the mental health to get that stuff out, right?

Ohio!

It rained all night last night but we had checked the hourly and knew our window of opportunity to leave this morning and was thankful we only had to break camp in a drizzle.  We were making good time today, which was great since there had been some miscommunication between the hubby and I and he had to be back to work a day sooner than I had thought.  Just when we were 10 miles from our stopping point for the night....BLOWOUT!  I kid you not.  So we called AAA and I was kind of excited to use it for the first time since one of my followers had pointed out what a good idea it was for just this situation.  But my Wayne was too impatient and when we didn't get a call confirming someone was on their way within 20 minutes he was outside fixing it himself.  By the time they called back to say they had found someone (not that they were on their way, mind you) more than an hour had passed and Wayne was almost done putting the spare on.

So here we sit at an interstate plaza, where apparently they have RV parking with electric for $20 in Ohio.  And a plaza with a food court that includes wifi and a Starbucks.  And we made 550 miles today from southwestern Vermont through New York, Pennsylvania and more than halfway through Ohio.

So tomorrow morning we'll be in search of a new spare tire before hitting the road to put in another 390 miles to get home.  And when we get there we will still have to use the shower in the camper because our bathroom remodel isn't finished!  But, like I said to Wayne, it could be worse, no one is hurt and everything was fixable.

A Walk to Camden

When Wayne left to go retrieve our truck from Quirk Chevy I set off for a walk in to downtown Camden.  It was a little over a mile and a half each way from the campground and I got to get a closer look at some of the stone walls.

 


 My favorite was the one in front of Gray Rocks, which is for sale if you're interested.  Views of the harbor and unseen from the main road, the 21 acre estate can be yours for the bargain price of $2,450,000.

I was happy to enjoy their rock fence and the great lichen living on it for the cost of nothing.

Less grand, though still lovely, homes line Hwy 1, including this lovely Cape Cod with the turquoise door.

The flower beds seem more lively here in New England, and we were just in time for the hydrangeas.

Some gardens had a "cheeky" appearance.

Everywhere along the roadside I saw the invasive Ornamental Jewelweed whose flowers are shaped like the Jewelweed I'm used to seeing but at about 10 times the size.  It's an invasive, but it can invade all it wants to in my opinion because the large purple blossoms were fantastic.

Goldenrod season is in full swing and it gets a bad rap by some people, so I'm going to set the record straight. If you have allergies don't blame goldenrod, which is insect pollinated, not wind-borne.  It flowers at the same time as do several species that do bother allergy sufferers such as ragweed but is too heavy to be the culprit floating around causing misery.

The Norumbega Inn was built in 1886 and was converted in to a B&B.

The large property with ocean views includes a gazebo and some interesting garden accents.

I darted in and out of the shops down by the harbor, but all I bought was two barrettes to hold my hair back off my face and a t-shirt for Cory that I'm sure he'll appreciate.

I sat on the bench at the public library overlooking the harbor and talked to Katrina on the phone for half an hour before heading back.  I got to the campground just five minutes after Wayne did, and I was glad I'd taken the time to see Camden's main street from a slower point of view than the passenger seat of a car.