Maine Yesteryear Locomotives In The Allagash Wilderness Waterway Area.
Maine is a state loaded with chances to get outdoors, your limbs exercised and your heart, head, lungs renewed with fresh air, natural beauty.
And when you are lucky enough to live in Maine full time or as a snowbird here for spring, summer, fall, options are numerous to consider for outdoor recreation.
Don’t get me wrong about winter either.
One of my favorite seasons and Maine winters are not spent on a couch with the channel clicker held high surfing. No one shivering, hibernation winters in Maine. Love to Maine down hill snow ski. One suggestion for winter is to tour the Allagash Wildernerss Waterway and the old dinosaur steam locomotives used in lumbering Piscataquis County wilderness. Snow sledding in to explore this by gone lumbering era west of RT 11 is one adventure not soon to be forgotten. And returned to again and again. More images of the middle of no where Maine iron horses.
Or lombard steam log haulers used to yard out the timber from Northern Maine wood basket of fuel are worthy of study, your attention. The Patten Maine Lumberman’s Museum has exhibits to showcase early lumbering history in the state.
For twenty two years, winter snow sledding trips were annual events to Bowlin Pond, the Mattagamon area around Hay Lake, the north entrance to Baxter State Park.
Get In The Water, Make Traditions, Do It Again And Again In Maine Video.
White Water Rafting The Dead River Video
Plan to white water raft the Kennebec, Penobscot, Dead Rivers in Maine.
Find a partner who loves adventure. It is a blast, something the boat load of family and friends will never forget. Make it a tradition. Have a son in Maine leading boats for Northern Outdoors this summer, another one in Colorado doing the same on the Arkansas, Colorado Rivers. Get off that couch, don’t waste daylight, life.
Maine, she is some kind of natural beautiful, unspoiled. A tad unpredictable. Anything but, never ho hum. Get places where few do and hear yourself think. Spend some time in ME. The way life should be.
Simple, single minded, affectionate and teachable … you and I were all kids once and hopefully still are inMaine Is The Place To Raise Kids, A Family Because We Keep It Real, Simple. some ways in your heart.
A child’s imagination has no limits, no concerns about mortgage payments, whether the car’s oil is overdue for a change. The little details that can clutter and detract from a person’s quality of life is not a concern to a young child.
Have fun, be kind and considerate and sensitive to others are qualities most young kids have unless spoiled, taught otherwise. As a parent, backing off and watching kids work out a problem on their own is a powerful experience. They have much more natural goodness inherit in them than we often realize until put to the test. Kids are very resilient and ones raised in Maine deserve more credit because not just the parents are involved in shaping them for the real world.
Picked up the youngest child Elliot at the Portland Maine jet port last night and back home to help pack the Honda to get him to his summer job today.
Leading groups rafting the Dead River and living at the Sterling Inn is his employment experience until heading back to Colorado Springs for his final year of college next fall. His older brother Alex is off on his own after college graduation. Also rafting for a job on the Arkansas and Colorado Rivers until Arapahoe A Basin ski area opens up again this winter.
The youngest daughter Amanda lives in Boston. The oldest sister Elizabeth in New York City and off to Costa Rica for a few months to immerse in Spanish to become more fluent to tie in with her job, continuing education pursuits. I’m proud of graduated step daughters Keegan and Lindsay’s accomplishments who live in Maine too. That all six grew up in Maine. Learning from picking potatoes, having lots of folks in the village besides just family help shape them. To pitch in, aid to define their purpose, talents, skills for life survival. They are all good kids that are grown up but hopefully keep that youthful, child like spirit needed to have quality of life, joy, happiness, contentment.
Elliot is a thinker, philosopher and tender hearted. Conversations with just he and I are always spirited, engaging, flushing out lots of wisdom to chew on. His grandparents helped all the kids see the bigger picture in life. To enjoy, glean and enjoy the ride of life’s short journey. They helped add so much to all the kid’s childhoods to prepare them for their lives. And I have no doubt all the kids will be good parents someday and help shape their young minds in the same manner.
Elliot said you could tell on the flight back from Colorado when you were getting closer to Maine.
The last “puddle jumper” smaller plane from Philadelphia to Portland had more animated people on board. Friendlier, chatting it up. He said he always feels the cabin of passengers on that last smaller plane is more at ease. Opening up and not so too into themselves self contained or rushed. Like the larger airport ticket holders become that are used to a fast pace, crime, being rushed to and fro with such a sense of urgency or impersonal disregard to others around them.
I told him that is why I wanted the kids to be raised in Maine. People wave, hold doors open, make eye contact, pitch in volunteering in their local small town proud communities. They care about others and are not so self contained. Not just out to take care of number one. No matter what the expense. Mainers are God fearing, respectful, hard working and aware how important keeping it simple is. That outdoor natural living is part of the spiritual experience of worship. Where you get answers to twists and turns, rises and dips in the road of life along the way.
Money in Maine is not used to impress.
Maine is not a state flush with cash anyway. Swanky, costly purchases or extravagant maneuvers to call attention to yourself is not the insecure game of keeping up with the Jones. Or trying to set the pace, to be the Jones in Maine. If a person needs to be center spotlight important and noticed, they quickly move away to the bright lights, big city. C.S. Lewis was right. Too much pride in life is a bad thing. Because a real Mainer is less showy, more behind the scenes doing the right thing for others. Without need to have anyone know the act of kindness. The concern for others less fortunate or just needing a friend. Someone to listen. To be there when they are struggling, confused, sick, or just lonesome.
A real Mainer is more aware and strives to keep their life simple. The ornaments that some collect to define themselves materially are stripped away. Replaced with natural gems of our many lakes, rivers, miles of rugged rock bound sea coast line where the real value of life is found. Maine is outdoors all four seasons.
I am proud of all the kids I was lucky to be able to help guide, educate, enjoy for the brief stint they are small, growing up, under the same roof. You have to let them go and start their lives. And at the same time, have lots of freed up opportunities alone to add to my own new life adventures. With all that Maine and her outdoor drop dead natural beauty provides. I am so lucky to live in Maine full time. And not have to settle for one or maybe two weeks a year like out of staters have to get by with on just vacation visits. Maine, don’t stay away too long.
Your Past Gets Colored, Filtered And Look For The Good, See The Entire Event, Situation, Relationship.
How you see your past, the experiences with events, situations, people in it reveals a lot of about the real you.
The way you were raised, the filtering process that happens from your inner most workings deep down inside. What you learned growing up or habits you picked up along the way.
Like the rear view mirror warning, disclaimer “Warning: Objects In The Mirror Are Closer Than They Appear.” Means be careful. Distortion, good and bad coloring happens that obscurs the truth or reality of the past life film frames. The ones already played out on the silver screen where they splash on the back of the inside of your head.
My youngest son Elliot texted me yesterday morning that he had had a dream about Nana the night before.
Followed by a two thumb tapped out telegraph that “I miss her”. We all do son and maybe because she was such a big part of our daily lives. She lived local and was such a loving, warm, make you feel good cheerful person.
I texted back “Today is Thursday. Tonight is Pizza Hut night.” We hit the hut, it was not a rut. And Nana would always order spaghetti with those spicy meatballs. While the table full of kids would chat it up. Debate how many and what kind of pizza pies would fit the hole in the end of the gullet.
Habits done like clockwork.
Ray Crone and his wife now deceased recently would always “hit the hut” the same night. Christine Nickerson and her long table of family too. It was a ritual, tradition and seemingly no big deal to anyone outside the routine. But part of sharing, caring and learning from grandparents. With three generations feasting, enjoying the time together and sustenance.
But kids grow up as they should. Elliot being picked up May 16th at the Portland Maine Jetport, home from his completed junior year at Colorado College. The next day packed up in black hand me down Honda Del Sol of his brother’s we just put some money in to thanks to Mitch Holmes. Master with a power wrench and screw driver.
And Bob Aucoin gifted with corrosion removal, the spray bomb and tail light housing replacement. Elliot pilots the black two door gas miser to The Forks. For his summer job leading a boat on white water rafting for Northern Outdoors expeditions on the Dead River. Hang on Elliot, folks grab the short rope and whisper some rafting safety prayers.
His brother Alex just got done working at A Basin ski area in Colorado. And begins his summer job before strapping on the boards again next winter for another Colorado winter ski season. Alex too has a summer job rafting the Colorado River a few states away from his little brother. Empty nest syndrome recovery has begun for Dad as a new life stage is entered.
The past starts and stops as folks get older.
The one constant I am jealous of is the sixty year life event polished marriages like my parents had. Til death do us part raising the four kids they had together, not a blend of two families which is a delicate procedure.
When two brand new people have the double whammy of working out the knot tying after saying “I do”. And keeping the troops happy who may or may not have seen the need for the matrimony. And struggle with the divorce that led up to it that they were not so wild about either.
It is easy to take for granted that sixty year marriage is just because both were ideally suited.
Neither partner was or ever is perfect. But start out or with time, lots of work and patience become perfect for each other. And each finally end up thinking the other is the best thing to happen in their life.
Those marriages of sixty years are like the rear view mirror warning. They don’t start out the way they appear now. Talk to someone that has logged that many miles. I do. And over and over here the secret is three little words. You are thinking “I love you”? All older folks will say yes, love is definitely a component.
But liking the person, seeing his or her strengths, not a long list of things you don’t like about them.
And wishing they would change to make them easier for you, me to take. That we don’t react so lovingly to when frustration sets in.
The three little words as one secret axiom to keep in mind always for marriage unity, onesness? When feathers get ruffled, as storms brew inside a household, surrender. “Dear probably right.”
I texted Elliot back later yesterday to let him know Nana’s farm flowers are popping, poking through the ground and doing nicely. Planted with love, kindness on her knees where she spent everyday to begin it with gratitude. She worked hard praying, studying, asking God for guidance every morning. I get up before five am every day to walk, study, pray and do the same sharing with my creator. Because I can not do it alone. There is much room for improvement as the previous blog posts spell out, making me an open book as I get it. But I am told in emails, there are a few others out there with room for improvement too.
Mom, Nana, Mary Lou to many lives on in our hearts and I meet people almost daily who also miss her here on Earth. Still alive in the beauty of God’s flowers. Her Christmas cactus that still blooms at my brother Stephen and Jenny’s home in Bangor Maine on Thatcher Street. Or when I see flocks, African violets she reminded me need to be lovingly dusted, watered, fed, talked to to survive.
I have no doubt whatsoever Nana is in a better place called Heaven. Because of her life dedication to God and with his help to be the way she treated people, looked at life and raised us all. And due to her accepting without batting an eye and smiling for all in the room when it was announced stage four cancer. Need to start chemo today. And she said I am trusting in the Lord if it is my time to go. To be with my Dad who had died a few years earlier.
Look for the good in others, yourself. Always.
And in past relationships, instead of seeing the bad, instead one by one see the good never fade moments that were enjoyed. Not cauterizing lingering feelings of love that you might try to smother with a soldering iron of bitterness or regret. Because you can never, should not try to “unlove” someone to make room for another. Because you can not.
Maine, outdoor places to be alone, to see and process events, relationships, other people in your life with 20 – 20 vision. Push in the clutch, just coast and let go, learn much in pauses you build in to your life in Maine, the way life should be.
Maine is not just lobster, lighthouses, islands, cruise ships and downeast humor.
Last time I checked, Maine is one big state..so far north it could be in Canada. Protected from the crowds. Preserved by four season natural beauty insulated in the right hand corner of the nation.
If you have never white water rafted in Maine, you need to make plans with loved ones, friends to do so. The rush, excitement of shooting down a rock gorge, river cut out with the volume of rushing water pushing you through chutes, slides is something you will not forget. The intial water CFM volume propels, hurls and shoots you quickly down the Kennebec, Dead, Penobscot Rivers in Maine. Then, change the outdoor HBO channel to a casual, lazy glide down the same river as it tames. Makes you aware of the surroundings Maine is famous for.
Eddying out for a cooked river side meal of BBQ something, home made potato salad, Spanish rice. Water fights with multiple boating parties, with buckets before landing to dine riverside. Later, smiling. Studying your river image brought home, framed in the living room.
The one with your look of terror, on a Maine river.
Hollering, hanging on. Up front, drenched by a wave in the raft just before Widow Maker, Black Hole or whatever name they give that dip. Turned sideways, a wall of water crashing down after you disappear for moments on a Maine river. Causing one memorable, exciting spot on the river that you made it through.
Maine is 6000 lakes, thousands of islands and lots of water to enjoy. Maine rivers one more opportunity to spend the day in Vacationland far from an office setting. Away from that big desk cutting off your air. Pinning you to the wall, suffocating you in the concrete jungle you call home. Maine, try a river ride and you’ll never be the same. One more way to experience life the way it should be, in Maine.
I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers
Find Yourself, Get Your Bearings In Maine, Life Is More Fun, Healthier Here.
In Maine, our fun usually means some activity outdoors from hiking, camping to down hill, cross country skiing, white water rafting or slew of activties guaranteering physical activity for better health.
In Maine you don’t have to worry about crowds, too much traffic or crime. Here is a Maine site that is a one stop shop for lots of Maine outdoor recreation, especially covering hiking one of my favorite activities. The state of Maine has many parks, here is one area to consider, the Allagash Wilderness Water Way.
Over 200,000 acres of land surrounds Baxter State Park and Mt Katahdin is not the only mountain to hike but Maine’s tallest mountain hogs most of the spotlight. The snowcap peaks of Katahdin are pretty surprising, stunning, memorable. My four kids and I have climbed many parts of the Baxter Park collection of mountains. Starting with Horse Mountain which is about 1400 feet high, easy for the smaller kids to tackle, conquer as they work their way up. In Northern Maine also suggest Echo Mountain at Aroostook State Park in Presque Isle. Or Haystack Mountain in the Mapleton, Castlehill area of Aroostook County.
Had a fraternity brother room mate in college at the University of Maine at Orono who was from Longmeadow Massachusetts. He was in to techincal climbing. The ropes, pitons, sneakers with the extra rubber surface to help in the climbing up and over, out from rocks spider like. I think I will still be hiking with maybe a walking stick someday when I get old and need one to help steady myself, but not push the rope technical climbing hobby. Little Chick and Big Chick in Clifton Maine near Old Town was where Chris and I tried my first foray in college in to the technical climbing with ropes.
There is something unnerving about crawling vertical, straight up using just your fingers to pull along small rock out croppings. Cracks to fit your finger tips in to and hope just your fingers can hold, lift the entire weight of your body while forgetting the distance to fall to earth below that is underneath all you do. To actually defy gravity by climbing up, out and around stone formations. Pushing with your toes, swinging out on a rope you hope is anchored properly but knowing you’ll be the first to know if it was not.
Needless to say, never put technical climbing apparatus, stocking stuffers on my list to Santa over the years. Not scared of heights, just want more than my finger tips, toes to work my way up the side of a sheer rock surface. Funny that way. Call it a quirk but used to a trail, trees along the side of it when I climb, hike.
Or maybe you need some salt water, sea air in your outdoor fix of Maine. With many islands dotting the ragged, jagged, jutting in and out coast line, sea kayaking to explore these little “countries” off Maine has a serious attraction. With over 3000 Maine islands, it may take more than one or two summers to hit most of them, to float and paddle around a few.
For more surf and turf adventures, Maine white water rafting is a fun trip down the Kennebec, Dead, Penobscot Rivers. I have gone on trips with Unicorn Expeditions out of The West Forks area and also on Northern white water rafting on the Penobscot River. You can have a party of eight to ten people and when they remind you to keep your legs up if you get sucked out of the raft, hit by a wave so those legs don’t get broken. You eddy out along the river after the major rush of water, dodging river centered rocks for a meal prepared on open fires. For the fall trips, wet suits are available to take the chill out of the Maine air when you get wet from either the river ride or the water fight with buckets with another rafting group in your party.
