Something not from across the pond or with a “made in China” sticker on the bottom. Low tech not high tech and made in Maine. When you think something unique to Maine, what comes to mind? Christmas tree or wreath to be part of your holiday tradition? Or presents with something from LL Bean? Maybe a wild Maine blueberry scented candle or pie or jar of jam?
Maine is famous for it’s lobsters, variety of fish from pulled in from deep in the sea.
The Only Fish Fresher Is Still Swimming In The Maine Sea!
With all this coastline, 228 miles but 3,478 miles of inlets, coves, harbors and other watery hide aways, Maine fresh shellfish is part of a lot of Christmas celebrations.
Growing up oyster stew, shrimp cocktail or crab melts all showed up on the Christmas Day or Eve tradition. If you were born and raised along the coast of Maine, seafood of all types could be a regular meal time staple. Digging for clams, shucking oysters, cracking lobster legs and filet of all kinds of native fish.
Chances are someone you are related to has a commercial fishing license or back in the family tree did.
Or you run a boat heading out to sea and are born for the salt air and sea swells as you head out of the harbor in search of a big catch.
Fish Fresh From The Maine Coastal Sea. Barnacle Billy’s Crew Ham It Up For Tourists. The Maine Coast Has Lots Of Seafood Eateries.
Further inland, up into the belly of Maine and away from Boston, traveling to interior Maine. The holiday meal time Christmas celebration is pulled from old tattered and fade recipe cars. Gooseberry and mince meat pies. After hearty farmstead country style servings of vegetables of all kinds.
Venison from hunting season and pulling from root cellars for bread and butter pickles.
Deviled eggs, sticky sweet cinnamon buns and trays of home made sweets. Thinking about losing weight? Not during the holiday season in Maine. The feast is part of the one size fits all Christmas present the entire family enjoys. The big fat evergreen fir or pine tree in the living room corner is loaded down too. With fragile, precious decorations from Christmas past.
Artistry Thanks To Mother Nature. What You See On A Walk In Maine Over The Holidays In A Maine Peaceful Winter.
Photos of your brother or sister glued behind colored construction paper hanging on the boughs with multi color twinkling lights.
The power of a Christmas tree ornament you inherited from the growing up collection is immense. Memories and reminders of family members are spiked from these tree decorations enjoyed as a child. Throwing money at new flashy decorations is not needed when you hang on to and cherish these Christmas family ornaments.
This year’s tree hunted down, cut fresh and straight from your own land out behind your house.
Maine Is Real, Peaceful, Not Crowded. Winter Is Peaceful, Time To Hunker Down.
Christmas of yesteryear in rural Maine was not determined by how far into debt you went to pull it off on December 25th.
Home made hand knit mittens, sweaters, scarves. Carefully stitched quilted blankets worked on earlier in the year completed just in time to wrap up and slide under the family Christmas tree.
Practical gifts purchased with lots of thought because you remember the family member saying they wished they had this or that item. Money manged better when less of it to spend. Because of how hard it was to earn and save.
Thought and time put into what paper to use wrapping the gift up not parked by the tree in a gift bag with only tissue paper concealing it.
And the stockings as big a deal as the presents carefully wrap, ribbon and bowed under the Maine Christmas tree. Did you start first with the Christmas stockings?
How do you start the opening up of the wrapped presents in your home growing up? Free for all every man for himself? Or oldest or youngest goes first and then rotate around the room? Waiting for the grandparents to arrive and quite a breakfast spread served up first? Growing up in Maine…
Did you leave cookies and milk, a carrot for Santa?
Elf on a shelf and family parties, watching the same old Christmas films? Was there a Christmas Eve service in your holiday celebration? When did you stop traveling and started having Christmas celebrations in your own home? It is all about having yourself a Merry little Christmas with the ones you love.
Enjoying the child made gifts from school. Remembering when who made them had that small of hands and was lower to the ground. Home made items, decorations hand strung, Christmas cards taped around a doorway, putting on a feast of sweets and no one possibly able to go hungry.
A lot of the Christmas celebration one of gratitude like the Merle Haggard song “If we make it through December”.
Knowing despite it all, you and I are luckier than most.
Reaching out to help ringing the Salvation Army kettle bell. Knowing what families or individuals are suffering this holiday season. Doing anything possible to make things brighter for them. No doubt you know of some family where Christmas is not going to be so easy this season because of a loss. The hole, the missing family member that won’t be part of the Christmas celebration.
Delivering a cut, split cord of wood to help with the heat.
The Amish in my area have every Thursday designated as community day. Taking turns delivering the labor, materials and services needed to keep every household a float. Not a check from Uncle Sam for relief. A helping hand and a strong back the Christmas gift given all year long. Not just at the tail end of days marked on the kitchen wall calendar.
Getting off the couch, replacing feeling sorry for yourself with fresh air, outdoor scenery going for a walk in the woods. You never know what you will find hidden in the back forty acres of a Maine farm property.
Treasure In The Woods Getting Your Firewood To Heat Your Home! Old Cars Past Their Prime. Hanging Around For Hunters, Hikers, Land Brokers To Visit.
Maine made gifts for Christmas.
What items did you shop for on your list this year? Books, magazine subscriptions, movie tickets, museum passes and donations to local libraries, the animal shelters, food pantries. Know anyone in your community that needs a warm winter coat? That has no winter boats, hat, scarf and mittens or gloves? There are so many private ways to brighten someone else’s Christmas to secondary gain your own.
Thank you for following our Me In Maine blog posts through out the year and Merry Christmas, Happy New Year!
What do those three little words conjure up in your mind? Family time out in nature? Romance gazing into another’s eyes, munching on grapes and admiring the view? Or just to get off the highway to recover from white line fever and the “10” and “2” on the wheel. There was a time in Maine when all kinds of secondary road rest area picnic stops were available to make travel easier, less expensive.
Picnic Rest Stops Along Maine Highways. Once Small Roadside Stops, Many Tables & Grills!
Maine picnics. Picturing a weaved basket with a lid to open? Kool-ade, twisting off the thermos top to pour hot coffee. Maybe a mason jar full of ice water to fill a paper or tin cup.
Feasting on home made egg salad or tuna or ham sandwiches, deviled eggs, pickle spears during a highway travel break from behind the wheel? (Pass me another drum stick, a little more potato salad would you please?)
Sampling something home made and not off a grocery store shelf. Tastes better, saves money and the roadside picnic stop made good use of your travel time.
Squeezing Apples, Making Cider For Family Enjoyment.
Rewind to say picnic areas stops in Maine and see many outdoor roadside dining options.
Picnics in Maine pretty common place.
Some close to home on a weekend to head to a hillside or park it by a lake, pond, the ocean to take in the view. To enjoy outdoor scenic dining where the fresh air improves the taste of whatever gets fished out of the picnic basket. Why waste all this Maine four season beauty right? You get the best seat in the house so to speak.
Maine Lighthouses, Collect Your Favorite! Revisit Every Season! Bring A Picnic Lunch!Picnic Lunch At Baxter State Park! Lots Of Outdoor Dining Options!
Maine picnic outings to save time and money along the highway traveling somewhere.
Instead of turnpike rest stops along the Interstate highway in Maine, it was canopied picnic tables along all the US highways and less traveled byway routes. Here is a list of Maine picnic area rest stops during the hay day.
The Unique State Of Maine Hand Drawn, Creatively Depicted. Like The People That Are The Fruit Of The Tree.
There is something special and memorable about open air Maine picnic dining.
Families all have a roll setting up and tearing down the impromptu roadside dining experience. Some Maine picnic areas feature fireplaces to grill up what you slide onto the paper plate.
Peaceful, Quiet, Magical Mist Enjoying Fresh Coffee Early Morning On A Maine Lake. Picnics Can Be Enjoyed Any Time, Year Round In Maine!
Wood or charcoal for the outdoor sizzle adds to the picnic experience. So does the kids checking out the babbling brook on the edge of the picnic area. Exercise, getting out of the station wagon to stretch your legs, explore, fill your lungs with fresh air.
The picnic stop really was win win to silence the meal time bell, to offer face to face conversation taking a travel stop break.
Then pack up, douse the camp fire, any garbage carried out or deposited in a secured barrel that was black bear proof.
Life Jumps Out At You Sometimes. Rural Maine Is Ready For Whatever Pops Up.
Do you picnic?
With tourist information centers dotting the state of Maine, there is still plenty of opportunity to outdoor picnic dine. Or have you fallen into the habit of looking for the knife and spoon I-95 or Maine turnpike symbol for food and fuel?
The I spy with my little eye the drive through window options and gas pit stop options.
All done NASCAR quick like a bunny in one major hurry racing from “A” to “B”?
Maine, The Way Life Should Be! Welcome To Vacationland! Common Sense Still Used In Our Daily Life. Not Outdated.
The local tourist information center had a small playground and several grills, canopied picnic tables.
Used to take the four kids and invite the grandparents to meet us for a picnic lunch or supper.
You did not have to be a road warrior only to picnic in Maine.
Picnicking was something different, a habit while the Maine weather cooperated to dine socially outdoors. Corn on the cob, baked beans, grilled hot dogs all courtesy of a Coleman gas stove set up to prepare sometimes a more elaborate meal.
Picnic spots in Maine abound.
You develop your own perfect outdoor venue for finger food, a trail side snack as you drink in the amazing views unspoiled four seasons Maine can provide if you take the time.
Outdoor Maine scenery improves the taste.
Take a break from trail or highway riding and open up the carefully prepared picnic snack or meal. Remember to not create debris or to litter. Carry in and carry out. Tread lightly.
Small Town Living In Maine. Means Trail Rides With Your Family And Friends. Picnic Lunches Along The Trail!
Picking potatoes or raking blueberries growing up taught us all how tasty fresh air dining bathed in sunshine can really be when mixed with manual labor.
Money From Working For Area Farmers. How To Make Your Own Money, Not Spend Mom And Dad’s Important Skill.
Vy Flewelling if memory serves correctly had over ten children in tow during potato harvest. Area potato farmers during the three week harvest break from the three R’s depended on area youth to pick ’em clean. The four baskets in the potato barrel needed to securely slide your numbered ticket into a tight crack on the stave’s groove.
Her lunch time break ritual was no brown bag with Vienna sausages lathered in mayonnaise, ring dings, chips and Mountain Dew.
No no, it was boiled New England dinners, like Thanksgiving holiday spreads served on the vehicle tailgate. Vy definitely knew the joy and economy of outdoor picnic style dining in the Maine potato fields and blueberry barrens.
Picking The Potatoes By Hanfuls Into A Basket To Fill The Empty Barrels. Full Potato Barrels Weight 165 Pounds Befofe Storage In Potato Bins Over The Winter.
Trail hiking, mountain climbing all offer a different form of Maine outdoor back pack picnicking.
Gorp and expanded trail side snacking is healthy and quick energy finger food.
Climbing Mt Katahdin, Baxter State Park Trails With Your Kids. Like You Did With Your Parents. Priceless.
Apples, bananas, grapes and oranges taste better outdoors in the middle of Maine’s majesty. Be considerate of the packaging and waste but there is nothing like munching on peanuts, raisins, oats, granola.
Maybe with some chocolate sneaked into the mix atop Mt Katahdin or your favorite hilltop or waterside perch.
Winter does not stop the Maine outdoor dining experience either.
Snow sledding stops at a simple woods camp where a 55 gallon drum is converted into a charcoal wood chip grilling machine is common place.
Dressed in snowsuits and removing the face shield helmet, take off the gloves. To hoist a barley pop and chit chat about the twisting woods trail ride behind and ahead of us today.
Visiting an Maine lighthouse in winter.
The photo and video array is so different yet the same from your last different calendar month visit.
Get outdoors and bring along a specially packed picnic lunch. Hike, bike, cross country or downhill ski. Take in the sights, fill up your lungs. Feel alive in Maine and figure out life’s mysteries. Those secrets are found outdoors in Maine.
What outdoor recreation event do you like to do in Maine?
Visit the woodlot, paddle across a Maine lake in a kayak? White water raft down a Maine winter? It all awaits and maybe a picnic lunch enhances and extends the fun outdoors in Maine. Picnic blog posts are nothing new on the Maine blog channel.
Fruit in season, an apple found and polished to crunch on along the Maine outdoor trail.
Wild blueberries, strawberries, raspberries. Nature has a way of providing finger food for all her creatures. I’ve seen and heard birds sampling the fermented berries and failing to miss a lake home picture window. They get stunned and then back in the air.
Note to self ” Get those bright colored plastic tape to string and protect the giddy birds around Maine lake home.
You got to eat and the time you provide to pack the picnic lunch, the folks you are with or if you just travel solo or a couple. Enjoy outdoor picnic lunch dining to stay outdoors and to enhance the experience. There is nothing like it and traditions are started.
How do you think the cowboys did it out west? Dining under the stars settled in around the camp fire leaning again horse saddles and a bed roll. Too much time inside dulls the experience. Dress accordingly but exercise and drink in all that the Maine outdoor four season lifestyle offers those wanting to partake!
Lucky to live in Maine and I bet you Me In Maine blog post readers feel exactly the same.
Off to finish banking the Maine farmhouse and wrap up the putting away outdoor items at the lake place today. But enthused today about memories of past picnic lunch travel stops and often Sunday afternoon rituals growing up in small town Maine.
What’s learned living in rural ME that helps later on ?
This blog post is about your approach to living day to day when lucky enough to call home small town “Maine”.
Growing up in rural ME you learn life is a short movie.
That it is not just about you. The natural beauty of the plenty of space around you causes a peace so you can “hear” yourself think. You have an awareness that opportunities come and go so don’t get stuck or bogged down. Resourceful, hardworking small town Mainers don’t give up or look around for someone to blame.
Dozing Off In The Maine Lakeside Hammock. Thinking You Have Next Year’s Firewood All In Place.
Too often today, many are lost and reading self help books, hiring life coaches and struggling to find out what they know is missing.
The Beatle song about look at all the lonely people, where do they all come from. In small town rural Maine you worry about shut ins, elderly, folks that lost a child, the homeless. It’s all about the people themselves. Not me me me or me myself and I.
Helping out, service providing, being a good steward of the environment.
Working hard to do your part to protect your community’s simple easy does it way of living in small Maine towns.
Like the Eagle’s song about locks and not knowing we all possess the key to them. That you and I create some of the locks. But many are just challenges everyone to juggle.
So often times it happens that we live our lives in chains, and we never even know we have the key. (Already Gone)
So lots of room around you helps to unlock the no where to run, no where to hide out until you process what is actually happening in your life at any moment.
And do you see a pattern? We all make mistakes but do we see them, learn from them or make changes. The way we view the events, people around us and interactions is key to not just living life. But squeezing more of the tasty natural juices out of it. In small rural ME towns, it easy to find others who want to make a difference and contribute to the experience living in one. Couple that experience with all the natural unspoiled beauty Maine offers and contentment happens.
In small Maine towns you see lots of prime examples to help you get over yourself.
So much is needed and everyone has talents. To use by pitching in and to doing more for the greater good. Collectively, the members of a small Maine town community can rise above and create success for all to enjoy. To soar like an eagle. Knowing you define yourself, not leaving it to others that might be a tad critical or over the top toxic.
Welcome To Maine, A Place With Many Facets To Visit And Experience To Enrich Your Life.
Taking on roles in small ME rural towns. It helps shift your mind off your problems and think of others. Being industrious together, the spin off is look what we did. And what else can we accomplish collectively? It helps you stay on a roll. To know the small problems are temporary and this too shall pass. That there are bigger, more important “fish to fry”. Get to work.
In small Maine rural towns it is all about “if it is to be, it is up to me” thinking.
Log Cabin, Cheap Maine Vacation. All You Need Is Your Own Place, A Camp.
Nothing is holding you back or maybe it’s easier for some to blame anything and everything for their discontent. In Maine, we have lots of happy places to enjoy peace and quiet. To be deep in nature. There is no shortage of local community volunteering options to accomplish service above self. Not just a Rotary slogan.
The smallest in a family has roles in the household, small business operations or on the farmstead living in rural ME.
You learn the simplest skills like pick up after yourself. Show up on time. What being courteous looks like and how it makes you feel good about yourself. Kindness, consideration for others when returned keeps your spirits up. Energizes and creates a healthy base to build your life on.
Small rural towns in Maine offer plenty of avenues of service and volunteerism is a given.
Maine. Happy Places. Lots Of Them, Way Way More Than A Few ! In Maine We Are Outdoors Everyday. Not Doing The Same Things, Dressed Differently.
No time to be lazy, no excuses used to maneuver around obligations in small rural ME towns.
Do you feel like life is full and rich where you live now? Hard work poured into something outside yourself is a beautiful thing. The earlier that industrious gene is developed growing up, the better life plays out along the way. Start with a small piece of Maine land to use for cheap vacations and then maybe more.
Like this Maine real estate land listings for little money, high return enjoyment.
So glad I live, grew up and continue to enjoy small rural ME community living.
All this drop dead gorgeous four season’s surrounds living in rural ME. Growing up here you learn plenty about happiness, keys to achieving and maintaining it. And vacations in Maine help change it up for you if where you are now is not so healthy. Come to Maine. Unplug and recharge in Maine with simple living easier to achieve.
He and his wife think parked next to a Maine lake and watching the seasons change is direction he wants for quality of life. And in the course of sharing information on where he would like to build a waterfront retirement home on a small Maine lake property acreage, we started childhood flashback experiences.
He had roots in Calais, Downeast Maine and his family rounded up the kids and relocated north.
Downeast Coastal Lobster Boats In Maine.
His Dad worked on the border at a custom’s brokerage house business.
His friends called him Ace. I remember his mom working at Day’s Jewelry Store where I bought black and white Poloroid film in expensive packages of only eight exposures each. Small town living in Maine is like that. You don’t just know the person but everything, anything about his or her family connections. In small Maine towns, you bump into each other often several times a day.
Attending St Mary’s catholic school in Houlton ME until high school and said he was a cold lunch bagger.
Some in his Water Street school enjoyed hot lunch. Delivered via bus, created each day at Lambert School, the old high school brick building next to Central.
One day snowballs pummeled at a school lunch bus seemed entertaining for he and a group of his friends.
All fun and games until a sister wearing a habit learned about the activity. Hauling in the crew, using a thick wooden paddle with individual helpings of discipline. Designed to make sure the activity did not occur again.
Early Maine Potato Farm Machinery At Local Littleton ME Museum
Hands extended to receive the one by one down the line punishment.
Remember the spare the rod, spoil the child adage. The punishment dished out down the line leaving no snow ball throwing hand left out from the cure. My friend’s mother reminded him at home he and his crew got just what they deserved. Kids had a lot more responsibilities at school, at home and working to earn their keep.
We moved on to Maine fall harvest picking potato experiences, making your own spending money.
Kenny’s first day was almost his last picking potatoes.
The field boss on the Maine farm had assigned him an end section in the potato field. All by himself at the end of the row.
If you have never picked barrels of newly dug potatoes laid out in two rows by a mechanical digger pulled by a Maine farm tractor, you wonder what’s the big whoop?
Early Maine Farm Life At The Homestead, Surrounded With All The Wooded And Pasture Field Land To Scratch Out A Living.
An end section extends and contracts with the surrounding tree line defining the Maine land potato field shape.
Not only do you get behind as your potato picking field section grows larger. But you get discouraged with fewer potatoes and wrestling to find them under large dirt clods where they are hidden.
It truly is one potato, two potato pick ’em up and put them in the woven basket and your barrel production suffers greatly with an end row section.
It takes four big heaping baskets made of brown ash and dumped in a plywood or cedar stave wooded potato barrel for the 25, 60 cents or whatever unit payment. Mark that barrel with your ticket number for the daily count back in the farmer’s house kitchen tally.
Agriculture, Farm Food Grown Close To Home, Locally Sourced Is The Best Tasting.
If your end section shrinks row by row of unearthed potatoes to pick, low barrel count for you that day in the hot harvest fall sun or rain, maybe spitting snow.
Kenny had enough and slipped away, hiding in the woods to avoid detection on this way walking home.
Potato picking was not for me he surmised. The was a potato field MIA loose, sound the air raid alarm. His Dad got wind of the news, found him, put him in a car, delivering him back to the field with a stern warning. Don’t do it again.
Small Town Public Suppers! Great Meal, Friendly Servers, Good Causes. Win, Win, Win!
The beauty of potato picking besides making your own money to manage as a kid, no one leaves the field until everyone is picked up is a valuable lesson.
We are all in this together to clean up before we can go home. The money you make in the potato field used to buy your fall school clothes. Kids helped shoulder some of the household expenses and learned to shop wisely, develop spending impulse control. To take care of whatever they “earned” with their own money a potato barrel at a time.
Meet Neighbors, New Friends, See Family Members. Local Public Suppers That Kind Of Experience.
No one is abandoned and left behind alone in the Maine potato field.
No rows and rows behind discouragement howling at the moon for anyone on the potato picking crew.
Pick ’em clean. Helping the local Maine potato farmer get the crop out experience was part of growing up in Aroostook County.
Hard Work With The Right Tools Is The Most Productive, Rewarding In Small Town Living In Maine.
I think small town living in Maine makes your connection with others in it much stronger for lots of reasons.
One, knowing a person in your class or neighborhood growing up provides a wealth of experiences. We are more connected, have spent more time together through out life so we know each other better.
Second, working on local community events whether coaching a youth hockey team or raising money for a Rotary project just helps strengthen the connection. When you have personal experiences with someone, you understand them better. They accept you too. Each know where the other is coming from, their strengths and weaknesses and why or how they react to anything.
The many Maine small town experiences through out life help the community.
Oh sure, there can be differences and personality clashes. But first hand personal knowledge of all the skills and talents in a small Maine town can be a beautiful thing. Like a team that pulls together and knows what has to happen for success before the buzzer sounds.
Makes for a better working relationship, the quality of life too because nothing is surface or unknown about the others in your small Maine town.
The small town community members understand each other deeply because there are not strangers. Accepting, needing, proud of where we live. Knowing we all have an important role in creating and sustaining the small Maine town living experience.
Simple Survival And Quality Of Living In A Small Maine Town.
My advice for folks relocating to Maine, is get involved.
From day one and never let off the throttle. Be productive rather than petty. No time for personality attacks and everything about pitching in and combining talents.
And for locals to realize all these new fresh ideas from folks who did live somewhere else can be weaved into what we could do to help the small Maine town prosper.
Realize there are community members who have full, rich experiences and will adopt you as one of their own. But not so much if you bitch and complain and find fault constantly. Easy does it as we all get to know each other and divvy up who does what and when.
Outdoors, Do It Yourself More Independent! That’s Living In Small Towns In Maine!
Brand new to the area transplants need to know the lay of the land and for locals to show them the ropes. To explain traditions and the history lessons they missed.
Volunteering is what small Maine town living is all about.. has to be.
No money to hire it done and what would be the fun in that?
Sure there is room for improvement and change is inevitable in a small Maine town. But easy does it on the “back home we always did it this way, that way”. It can get tedious and make locals wonder then why did you leave?
Hard Honest Work, No One Lazy! Expecting Setbacks In Rural Maine.
Something in the where you lived before location exchange before the move to Maine must have made it worth it.
But sharing and comparing what works and why or why not is important in brainstorming. Remind yourself of those reasons you moved to Maine. All this four season drop dead gorgeous beauty.
Maine is smaller sparse spread out populations, vast unspoiled terrain.
Working Outdoors In The Fields. Amish Farmers Produce Quality Local Food.
You daily travel much smaller local circles really getting to know others living in the village size population. Maine is over 450 small towns, plantations and only a handful of cities.
Maine’s highest mountain and the source of hiking, camping joy for many. Photographers, wildlife enthusiasts and anyone wanting to be smack dab in the middle of nature all return again and again to Mt Katahdin, Baxter State Park.
Climbing Mt Katahdin, Baxter State Park Trails With Your Kids. Like You Did With Your Parents. Priceless.
This Maine blog post is to highlight Mt Katahdin, the dream of Governor Percival Baxter ad the jewel for so many in love with her majesty.
First off the facts about Mt Katahdin, the corner stone of Baxter State Park.
Mt Katahdin is horse shoe shaped, with five separate granite peaks.
Howe Peak (North Howe is 4612′, South Howe is 4734′). Pamola Peak is 4912′. Hamlin Peak is 4751′. Baxter Peak is 5267′ and Mount Katahdin’s highest point.
I learned early in my childhood about the wonder of Mt Katahdin at Baxter State Park.
My parents bought a JC Higgin’s canvas tent and along with my three older brothers, the family would go on sleep overs at Baxter State Park.
We all had jobs from setting up the tent with the front screen “porch”, gathering fire wood, helping prepare or clean up camp fire meals. Mt Katahdin herself only represents about 16% of the hiking trails at Baxter State Park.
Like I did with my four kids, as a little shaver Horse Mountain was the first peak to conquer.
Slowly working the way up to the main attraction, Mt Katahdin which means “Greatest Mountain” named by the Penobscot Indian Nation.
You don’t just hop off a couch and decide to climb Mt Katahdin.
Starting off slowly on a smaller elevation before tackling Mt Katahdin is a safe idea. Plan on an 8 to 12 hour day of climbing, rest and snack stops.
Mt Katahdin is the first stop on Appalachian Trail heading north to south.
Ending up in Georgia, nearly 2200 miles away. Mt Katahdin is not a easy climb.
Nearly vertical and twisting with granite boulders. there are places on Abol Trail with metal bars to grab and maneuver around, over or under giant rocks that make up Mt Katahdin.
Before you plan you day of climbing Mt Katahdin or any of the trails, make sure these hiking considerations are covered in your group preparations.
Secure a parking reservation. Here’s how to get hold of the folks at Baxter State Park for any climb, your dream of tackling Mt Katahdin. Check your local weather forecast for the Baxter Park area. The park rules limit your party size to a dozen hikers.
Stay on the trails to avoid being mentioned in search and rescue headlines in the local newspapers.
If you are not at the peak of say Mt Katahdin by mid afternoon, plan to reverse your direction and begin the trail climb descent. Being caught up on a Maine mountain of any size in the dark is not the memorable adventure most are seeking. It’s all about safety first, middle and last on your climb up Mt Katahdin, Baxter State Park.
For every five children, there must be an adult connected to the buddy system of trail climb hiking in Baxter State Park.
Follow The Light Blue Dashes Marking The Baxter State Park / Mt Katahdin Trails.
Making it back to the base camp should always be your goal, not reaching the top of Mt Katahdin.
Register your climb at the base trail head. Stay on the trail. Remember before anything else, get your parking reservation. If you don’t have a place to park, you aren’t going hiking that day. If the weather is unsafe, the hiking climb is not going to happen either. There are 82 trails at Baxter State Park and over 220 miles of out of this World hiking adventures ahead.
Baxter State Park, A Big Horseshoe Of Granite With Five Main Peaks.
The incredible views that you slow by sure work for that take time and determination are part of the fun.
Seeing wildlife, experiences the smells of fresh fir and pine, feeling and hearing the breeze around you. Mt Katahdin, Baxter State Park is not a once and done check off of a bucket list item.
Mt Katahdin especially, South Branch Pond, Knife’s Edge… they all grab your heart strings and you can not shake loose. The toughest trail, Cathedral. The easiest hiking trail on Mt Katahdin? Saddle trail but the most roundabout to pick.
Feel The Breeze, See The Moisture Clouds Floating By? The Tableland Of Mt Katahdin, Baxter State Park.
Whatever the approach to climbing, plan and expect to at least chew up 10 hours or more in your hike of Mt Katahdin. Knife’s Edge with 2000′ vertical drops on a trail that narrows to only four feet wide is something you will never forget. But your hiking squad, the team. Anyone with fear of heights? Wobbly on bad knees or bad back?
The connection at the top of Mt Katahdin peering out in all directions after traversing the table land, above the tree line, is like no other natural setting.
Mt Katahdin and her distance north to travel makes the other hikers you meet more dedicated, more committed. Mt Washington is way way closer to attract the Boston area of population.
No matter how many times you have climbed Mt Katadhin, the feeling of accomplishment, the thrill of what sticking with something surrounded by jaw dropping views everywhere you look never dull. Preparing your year’s vacation in Maine and looking for ideas? Carry in, carry out. Tread lightly on your Mt Katahdin Mountain climb. Have the utmost respect for nature, the wildlife. your surroundings.
Maine Governor Baxter donated the park, here is his dream.
No People, No Man Made Structures Or Noises. Welcome To Baxter State Park’s Mt Katahdin.
The element of danger combined with winds, precipitation making rocks slippery are part of the emotional build up working your way to ply the trails of Mt Katahdin at Baxter State Park.
Seeing your kids continue the climb up Mt Katahdin and exploring sections of Baxter State Park for return trips. Watching the older ones helping the younger ones hike up the trails. Knowing this introduction to Baxter State Park is a big part of living here and enjoying Maine. It is hard to explain or put into words the admiration for what Governor Percival Baxter envisioned for the local and out of state people visiting Maine.
Hiking trails in Maine.
Which ones to pick and put into combination for your hike in Maine?
You Are In Their Home Now. Maine Moose Cool Off, Enjoy Vegetation Shoots.
Hunt, Dudley, Helon Taylor Trails, Chimney Pond, South Branch Pond too are all places you never forget once you experience them first hand. You don’t do the trails alone. Plenty of wildlife to meet along the trail hikes. From snowshoe rabbits to bigger size Maine moose and white tail deer.
Where you park and start your hike is not always the same place you will finish your day at Baxter State Park.
How you get from where you start the climb and end it is part of the planning too. My family has had a park ranger say hop in, climb on the back. To ferry the tired but excited bunch of hikers back to our vehicle. Where the talk is totally about the hike, what kind of day we all had and how it compared to past trail experiences.
Your Signs, The Hiking Trail Blue Dash Marking. You Are On A Baxter State Park, Mt Katahdin Trail!
Before long, the discussion all about when to return to Baxter State Park for a day trip visit. Or longer time cut out of the calendar for an overnight camping trip plans are formulated.
Plan you next trip to be a mile high in the sky or somewhere else along the trails surrounding your day or longer at Baxter State Park. Pick up the $20 trail Guide to Katahdin, Hiking Baxter State Park. Don’t waste the natural resource splendor of Mt Katahdin, Baxter State Park! Exercise, being unplugged and outdoors recharging your mental batteries is why we live or visit Maine.
How to make attendance higher at Maine high school reunions? This blog post about a recent high school reunion in Maine I attended and reasons why or why not classmates attend one.
For starters, COVID messed up the in person Maine high school class reunions for a few years.
High School Reunions In Maine, How To Make Attendance Increase?
Or you could argue more people could attend a cyber class reunion using ZOOM technology. But we all know online meet ups are just not the same. How do you mingle and move around the room in a ZOOM meeting?
You don’t get to make the rounds to personally see and talk with your high school class group sitting up straight peering into a video camera.
So high school class reunions in Maine. Here are tips to make the attendance the best it can be. What to do and what to avoid to cause great participation at a Maine class reunion.
First, in small Maine towns, lots of the high school classmates still live local for the reunion.
Some of them moved away, climbed up the ladder, joined the service or left for many reasons. Some away classmates relocated and then later in life returned to their small town Maine roots for a simpler lifestyle.
High School Class Reunions In Maine, How To Improve Attendance Numbers?
Cheaper Maine real estate and cashing in the chips with high priced urban properties.
Trading it all in for no crime, no traffic the push to return back to small Maine town living.
If you already live local and are in the biggest group, a high school class reunion should be a piece of cake to gain large attendance.
This is the biggest group yet often the hardest to get to attend your class reunion. Why?
Fear of I am not quite successful enough to attend my high school class reunion.
Not wanting to be judged or comfortable with your answers to “what have you been up to since we graduated from a Maine high school?”. Some classmates attended their fifth or tenth class reunion and got a dose of “why did you stay in your home town” questioning. I thought you were smarter than that is the inference from anyone in your class out to impress you with their Worldly success.
High School Class Reunion, Where To Have It In Maine?
Made to feel like a “loser local” or hearing continuously about me me my success in life by just a few not so warm and fuzzy classmates can be disastrous.
For some wanting to see old high school classmates but secretly hoping a few just don’t make it home to attend they view toxic.
Some argue the high school class reunions are not so needed due to social media keeping everyone up to date. Heck, you even get notifications when it is someone’s birthday. People already feel connected and can catch up or get updated online on a regular basis.
Were you active in your high school class or moved away before graduation?
Were there several clicks in your high school or one big happy family with lots of spirit? Let’s face it, some high school classes just were tighter knit and the chemistry more connected.
High School Reunions, What To Serve Up For Hungry Classmates?
Small high school class size in Maine towns has something to do with it too. When your graduating class was in the teens or under one hundred, you were closer. No one forgotten or lost in the shuffle. And smaller class size Maine high school graduates I think make a bigger effort to attend.
It is harder to miss who did not come in a small high school class then one from Maine’s handful of city larger class size reunions.
High school class reunions in Maine, it’s a lot like a family reunion too.
The bigger the family, the more like a reunion it feels when more make the effort to show up on the magic day. With all the generations in the family bringing their covered dish or whatever contribution to the family party celebration.
What To Serve up To Eat During The High School Meet And Greet?
Some families are closer than others just like Maine high school classes. With families, who married into it can be a blessing or cause division. At a class reunion, who they married does not impact the attendance as much. Unless at the last reunion someone drank too much or flirted or just did not like all the old high school information shared with their new spouse.
So, was the high school reunion experience a good one for the classmate?
If yes, why wouldn’t they want to attend each and every reunion? Unless sickness, distance away or timing was an obstacle, some classmates from far away always make the most effort to attend the reunion.
The high school classmates handy to the reunion who do not attend.
Have they forgotten the ones from out of state and feel they get to see everyone local already? Unless you pick up an old high school year book and thumb through the images once in a while, it is easy to lose touch. Until you see or hear about a classmate’s death, and feel we need to have a high school reunion. It’s later than you think and none of us is getting any younger by the day right?
High School Reunion On Drews Lake In New Limerick ME!
So more tips to improve attendance of your Maine high school class reunion.
Pick a good easy to access high school reunion venue, like Tall Timber Lodge in New Limerick on Drews Lake. There is a cost for the out of town or state classmate to attend. But regardless if local or not, a personal contact by email, snail mail, social media postings have to happen. Watch a video on Drews Lake island property sold a while back but that gives you a feeling of what the Northern Maine waterfront location is like.
If you want to improve attendance, effort to show each and every classmate no one is left behind has to be obvious. The classmates that were in the flock until eighth grade or moved away should be invited to the reunion too. Those that were in one high school but finished the education in another. It can be like a ball player traded mid season and like a man or woman without a country in not feeling like you belong. The class reunion attendance improving approach has to always be “not member left behind”.
Who’s Changed The Least, Most? Who Traveled The Most Miles To Get To The Class Reunion?
“Also, no one let me know until the last minute. “
That’s a huge excuse for why some classmates missed the Maine class reunion. But is it the truth? When high school reunion notices were mailed, emailed, with follow up texts and personal calls. Even getting your family to sound the bugle charge to retreat, return to your class reunion.
Or what if the high school experience was not so much fun or you were not so social, not a scholar or an athlete? For some they ran away from their home town high school or parents relocated, divorced and severed the connection.
Why would you want to go to the expense, take the time to hang out with a group of classmates and a high school you spent years trying to escape?
Is that how you feel about your high school class? Let’s face it, some of us are more social than others. Or high school was a struggle for lots of personal reasons.
Maybe a few in your class are the last people on Earth you would want to spend a few hours with after all these years. Or do you fall in this group “I attended the 10th high school reunion, found little in common with my fellow classmates who I shared those four years of high school. Went to the 20th reunion under pressure from my best friend and it was even worse.”
“Everyone Line Up, Tallest In Back, Shorter Ones In Front Class! “
So now there may be mini high school reunions where a few in your class stay in touch and it is pick and choose. If the “reunion” is a few classmates critique members in a not so favorable way when they do “meet up”, that could be a big reason why so low a turnout to milestone events.
The cost of the reunion, especially in the early class meet ups can be a factor.
Was the event lavish and expensive or simple and low cost to appeal to a larger audience? Did the high school reunion committee work long and hard or was their disention in the planning ranks? Too many, too little planners for the reunion?
The many little reasons that help or hurt attendance means awareness of how people decide should I go or not?
The more reunions you miss, the harder getting classmates to go becomes. Some don’t view high school graduation as that big a deal. Many argue I “peaked” outside of the halls and classrooms of their high school. Done, finished, not going back to their high school reunion.
Hopping Table To Table To Meet, Greet, Catch Up At A Maine High School Class Reunion.
Or what if your small Maine high school is no longer?
Lost are the game balls in a trophy case, class colors and the gym, classrooms, cafeteria because the school is no longer. Merged with a larger school administration district SAD or RSU.
I’ve been told “you feel out of the loop”. The feeling only intensifies the more reunions you don’t attend. So just go to the next one, l heard someone whisper in the blog post audience. Like a church invitation that is always open for you to attend.
The invite that says “you can always come home”.
All’s forgiven, here’s this week’s program and all the church bulletin happenings to get you up to speed and back in the flock. Many who do attend class reunions is because they sincerely want to reunite and see old friends, recall school stories. These folks wish there were more class reunions.
“I’m over weight, just went through a divorce, or oh, I wasn’t that close to anyone in my class.” Good excuses and how some decide I’m not going to this or any of my class reunions. For some, I could wait to get out of town and after the graduation, I high tailed to the big city lights. Rippe3d off the rear view mirrors and never looked back.
I didn’t graduate from this Maine high school.
Was that the reason not to go or were they even invited to the class reunion? Don’t overlook anyone in your class and make an effort to find their location. In this day and age of Internet connection, it is easier than ever to “Google” someone. To search Facebook, other social media platforms to find your classmate. Without the “return to sender” experience.
High School Class Reunions Deceased Members. Sad But Part Of The Reunion Head Count And Catching Up Process.
Calling other local classmate’s family to get them to help invite the MIA’s is good recruiting too.
You really ought to go to your class reunion Maine high school.
And put an extra emphasis on if you have not been to any class reunion, you especially are missed and classmates so happy to see you. Or your spouse helps push you to the event with or without them.
But what if that spouse views your class reunion as torture being in a room where probably half the attending have no connection to the class. Or maybe they do and married a classmate, someone a couple years older or younger who is anxious to attend.
Time of year, trying to schedule a class reunion for your Maine high school when out of towners are home anyway helps your attendance.
Cost, menu, venue, timing impacts attendance whether everyone has a good time or not.
Class Reunions For Your High School In Maine? Do You Go? Why Or Why Not?
The program for a Maine high school class reunion, how do you make sure everyone has a good time? The year you graduated music that is like a time machine transporting your class back to high school. Alcohol, can it help or hurt the class reunion. Everyone comes away glad they came and thinking about the next reunion because of the success.
And isn’t the entertainment beside music is good food, the classmates themselves?
Remembering the good times, paying respects for those you lost as the Maine high school class year size of the living shrinks?
Apathy, because of overbooked living or because high school classes differ? Some more rah rah rah school spirit and others “meh”? I know some high school classes that just were tighter, like one big Maine family that stays together closer during and after graduation.
Maine class reunions, the effort to attend important or thinking the high school event has gone the way of the hoola hoop, chia pets, cherry cokes, drive ins, mullets, bobby socks, penny loafers and cracker jacks? What’s your experience with high school class reunions and any tips on how to increase attendance?
