Salem Bound Day 2: Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, censored: Wells, ME
Whew, do not say that name three times in a row. You have been warned!
Decent sleep last night. Rained heavily on and off. At one point I thought Mrs Milddogs was awake and scurrying about trying to do something. But, that was not the case. It was just the cyclical sound of water falling from the trees. The rain stopped by morning time.
After waking, I delayed my departure for my morning to 0800 in order to not awaken Mrs Milddogs. After a “quick” stop at the comfort station I was off to tackle the Stevenson Brook Trail. The trail follows a brook and has some decent altitude gain. I was a tad worried given the last time I was on a state park brook adjacent trail after a night of heavy rain it resulted in blood and mud. Trail was a bit slippery in places but not too bad. No slip and fall. Just slip. I did not do the whole 7.2 km loop as that requires traversing the brook a few times and I did not fancy wet shoes in the van. Including the walk to the trail head I did ~6km. Elevation gain was 141 meters. Total time (excluding stopping for photos) was 57 minutes.
Now here is the problem. I’m normally back before 0800. Mrs Milddogs awoke after I departed. I did not leave a forwarding address and did not have cell coverage whilst on the trail. Next time I shall do better and make her aware of my plans and when to call the authorities!
We departed at 1000 to head towards Wells, ME. As we exited the park (bypassing the gift shop) we saw 3 deer frolicking on the road.
Along the way, Mrs Milddogs suggested we detour to East Corinth, VT. That’s where they filmed a bunch of the movie Beetlejuice. Off we went. And we went, and we went and we went. We got there eventually after meandering through Vermont. Unfortunately we blinked and had to turn around and take another look. It was unspectacular but interesting. Note, we had no cell coverage and had not written anything down. So we wandered through the “town” and looked at familiar buildings. Like all tourists, we were discouraged to discover the real bridge is not a covered bridge. The upside there is that the van was able to cross the bridge.
Back on the highway we headed to Maine. We stopped in Manchester, NH to provision a bit. Technically I had a nap in the van. Then we stopped at a rest stop and had some fine sandwiches made from the last of the grocery store chicken.
When we got to the well researched lobster pound near our campground we were utterly dismayed to see it was spontaneously closed for the day. This was an unscheduled and unwelcome attack on our plans.
Fortunately a little bit of searching and we found an open lobster pound 8km west. Mrs Milddogs was very happy with her selection of lobster.
We checked into the Pinderosa Camping place and commenced food prep. Our site does not have power so we boiled 4 liners of salt water in our big pot on the new folding Coleman stove. It took 30 minutes to boil the water. While that was happening Mrs Milddogs prepped me a fine Philly style cheese steak! Not so much of a lobster fan, I am.
Our site is pretty secluded so we can enjoy the rain in the van with no neighbours not being able to see us. It is “waterfront” which means the little pond down the ravine is viewable.
No walking trails nearby so I may just venture around the back roads in the morning. I think I shall shower after that! Hoping for less rain in the morrow!
Keep it real!
