Days 12 through 14 - Maine's North Woods

After we left Acadia we spent a few days in a land of no people. While Megan has still not tried backpacking, she was interested in seeing what camping in the middle of nowhere felt like. We found a place that offers car camping sites that are away from everyone and not part of a formal campground in Backpacker magazine's article about drive in sites that make you feel like you're backpacking. Mostly you drive up logging roads and there are a few spots along the way that have a fire ring and picnic table. The map of our drive is below. The directions were less than clear and Google Maps barfs when you try to get it to do the last little bit of the drive, but if you zoom in near the end point, you'll see Horseshoe Pond and Pearl Ponds - our campsite was just to the west of the westernmost Pearl Pond (the pond located under the label "Pearl Ponds" on the map).


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We stayed at one of the Pearl Ponds sites(to reserve one of these 4 sites, actually ask for a Horseshoe Pond site - site #1 is the most secluded and best of the 4 in our opinion) and after losing yet another day to rain, we got to enjoy hiking, canoeing, wildlife spotting and the solitude. What we didn't enjoy were the swarms of militant mosquitos.

The morning after we arrived, we went on a short hike to explore the nearby ponds, get water to purify for camp, as well as a quest for oars for the canoes that were supplied by the ponds. While on our way down to the Pearl Ponds, we came across a marten. It ran up into the tree and we tried to get a few shots of it, but it was quite a ways up. It was very cute though.

(Obviously we didn't take this, but we wanted people to see how cute they are.)

One of the hikes we went on was a 10 mile hike along Gulf Hagas. It's supposedly the "Grand Canyon of the East" but I assure you those people have never seen Breaks Interstate Park. While it's no massive canyon, it is a large ravine with a series of waterfalls. The hike in was very technical. The granite in Acadia was mostly grippy on our shoes, but it was just the opposite here. We're not sure what the difference was (maybe that these slabs were upended?) but in North Woods, it was slicker than frozen owl snot coated with a layer of teflon then sprayed down with Pam. The rain meant that the rocks were still wet in places, adding a feeling of that ice level in Super Mario Brothers. Megan took a spill but aside from a skinned elbow, banged up shoulder, and bruised hip, didn't do any major damage.

The route was so technical (and after a fall anyone will be more careful) that it took us 5 hours to do about 5 miles. And we did the first mile in about 20 minutes, so really it was 4 miles in 4:40. Even Perpendicular wasn't that slow!

We had packed a lunch to have along the way, but the mosquitos were absolutely unbearable. We had thought Acadia was pretty mosquito-y, but we were so wrong. Megan is a favorite tasty snack of mosquitos and other biting bugs. She had covered her clothes in pemetherin (a bug spray that gets into the fabric) before we left and wore picaridin spray on the hike. The mosquitos were so insane that they bit through clothing! Granted the clothing was light weight, but with the added infused bug spray it should have done something. While studies show that picaridin is comparable to DEET for short term use, this place is clearly a 100%-ruin-your-gear-DEET kind of place. (Note - Brett is apparently not very yummy to mosquitos and rarely gets bit, but even he got 10 - 15 bites during the hike.)

But the waterfalls were beautiful and on the hike back we took a much less technical trail and made excellent time doing the 5 miles in 2 hours back to the car.

It was our last day when we went on that hike and our plan had been to go canoeing around dusk to see if we could spot a moose as we had the day before. Megan hadn't seen one in the wild and it was a big part of her wanting to stay in North Woods. After that crazy hike, as we bumped down the logging road back to camp, we talked about how neither of us felt like going to a pond (1 mile hike through bog) and pulling out a canoe. Once those boots came off at camp, there was no way our feet were going back in them! Megan was bummed as that meant that she wasn't going to see a moose, but it had been a long day.

Then we drove around the corner and there was a moose hanging out in the middle of the road. Seriously.

It was a perfect end to our stay up there. We got to see an American marten (cuter cousin of the mink), eagles, loons, and moose. Brett even saw a lynx, but it moved too fast for Megan to see it. Megan had never really seen the Milky Way before and it was bright and clear. There were so many stars in the sky and the big white stripe down the sky made it finally clear to her why it was called "milky". The wolves howled in the distance at night. It was truly magical. We'd love to go back when it's colder and the fairy-vampire season is over.

The usual slideshow of our pictures is at the bottom and you can see the full album here.

As a post script, if anyone's interested in going to the area but not doing the filter-your-water-tent-camp-thing, we came across a lodge with cabins that seemed really nice. They do fly fishing classes and guided hiking (or just leave you alone if you'd rather). They even had solar, propane, and water! Little Lyford Pond Camp has been around since before the civil war. It would be a nice way to experience all of that beauty and have someone else worry about making sure you're fed and having a good time. It looked a lot like summer camp for adults.