Rangeley & Moosehead Lakes, Maine (Aug 22-30)

At one point Irene thought we should be in Acadia for Labor Day, but after listening to a wiser mind in the rig, we decided to slow down and go in the week after. So we headed to the northern part of Maine or North Woods, where there are still roads, and slowed down. Yep (as they say often up here) we slowed way down!

 

Suffice it to say, driving through the back roads of NH, VT and Maine was pretty, periodically along rivers and lakes, and heavily wooded. The Androscoggin River, scenic SR16 north of Gorham in NH, was particularly interesting with small man made "islands" called boom piers, in the middle of the river. 

They looked like big beaver dams, but were in fact man made out of what appeared to be rocks maybe held together with some wire and with time bushes growing out of them.  They were used (late 1800's-1963)  to secure a chain of boom logs during annual log drives from forests far upriver to the mills at Berlin. Nice looking lumber being the end product. 

Rangeley Lake State Park in the western portion of Maine was our 1^st stop once Etta, who worked at the entry gate, assured us she would have a spot for us. A percentage of camping sites are non-reservable, first come first served, which is nice for those of us passing through the state. 

This lake is known for its trout and landlocked salmon fishing, though we didn't see any catches. 

It cooled down one morning (low 50's), but Irene was prepared! 

Off to the town of Rangeley where we sampled a Longtrail on draft which went nicely with a burger and view of the lake. 

We had our first sighting of red leaves.

 

Spent 3 nights before we moved on to Moosehead Lake after Etta put us in touch with Liz to try once more for a site with sun for our solar since most of the state parks are dry camping. It's not like it gets real hot up here, but the campsites are all pretty shady. It took us awhile to get from here (Rangeley) to there (Moosehead).

When we arrived indeed there was a site that fit our needs at Lily Bay State Park so we stayed 5 nights. The park is about 8 miles from town so when the sun goes down the sky is inky black and the Milky Way was gorgeous.

Moosehead Lake is huge, and there are many islands. The town of Greenville at the south end supplied us with multiple feeding opportunities. Like all lakes, it's only if you can get to them or on them that you can appreciate them. You will see we found a way to the water, where we saw great sunsets over our stay. 

 

 We drove to Kokadjo where they say moose out number people. Our only "sighting" was a cow out in a bog a long way from the road.  It is also the end of the paved road which happens quite a bit up here.   

Our first meal was at the Stress Free Moose Pub Café which was just what we needed after the drive over. As you can tell we sample micro brews every where and this place did not disappoint (Dead Guy Ale and Allegash Black).

A very unusual day trip was to the site where a B52C Bomber went down on Jan. 24^th of 1963. The road to this site (Prong Pond Rd 7 miles of dirt)  is not one you want to take your RV on, and there are tours out of Greenville. You follow discreet signage to the site.

The plane had a wingspan of 185 ft. and was 168 ft. from head to tail. There were no weapons on board. A crew of six men and 3 observers were aboard the plane on a low-level radar mission (checking out equipment) when it went down due to a structural fault. It crashed 10 seconds after its vertical stabilizer broke off on the E. side of Elephant Mtn.This is where a picture is really worth a 1,000 words. It gave us both an eerie feeling to be walking amongst the ruins. 

Amazingly 2 men survived, Pilot Lt. Col. Bulli parachuted to the ground and sustained a broken foot. His navigator Gerald Adler is the only person known to survive an ejection from an aircraft without the parachute opening. He landed upright in the snow in his ejection seat and sustained some internal injuries. Both men survived a night of -30 degrees and 5 ft. of snow before being rescued. Adler retired from the Air Force. Bulli went on to fly again. The other 7 men on board perished in the crash.

After this hard day we stopped in Greenville, and had our best meal at Flatlander's known for its broasted chicken, real mashed potatoes and delicious Cole slaw plus Black Bear Red Ale. It was terrific. We have to find someone in Sacramento that does this! 

The sunset was great, but our time at Moosehead Lake is coming to an end.

The next morning before leaving Greenville we had breakfast at Auntie M's which included eggs, some of the best home fries and home made raisin bread thick and full of raisins and cinnamon! Well fortified we were ready to hit the road again as we headed out to Bangor.