Lobster-Tales (Maine, US)

glitch

Mapping the next ride...
Staff member
Edit:
Since the topic has been split into various threads, here are the links to all the parts, in their chronological order.

Checking on Uncle Sam....travel notes, beer and aspen-gold


Peaks + Perks....New England (US) picture book


A Touch Of Quebec (Canada)


Lobster-Tales (Maine, US)


A World Of Its Own...Colorado + The Rockies



Enjoy! :scull:

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Maine, "The Northern Woods", the Golden Road, the Maine coast, lobster-rolls, Mt. Cadillac and the Atlantic Coast back into Boston.
Along the way, the "Krauts" found some "kraut", too... and some red sails in the sunset....oh yeah, babe!!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgetd17XTOY



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glitch

Mapping the next ride...
Staff member
The Golden Road....tripped over it while doing my "homework" and turned "fanatic" after reading some of the Google stuff...this sounded like right-up-my-alley...100 miles of private logging road through the northern Maine Wilderness.... rivers, lakes and potholes leading past Mt. Katahdin, the northern terminal of the 3500+km Appalachian Walking Trail.... yeah, this was just the ticket. :drool::drool::clap:


https://goo.gl/maps/zvbLew8eEF42


http://maineanencyclopedia.com/golden-road/


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Road_(Maine)



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We didn't get far, though :doh::doh:
Last night's rain had turned the border crossing access road into a quagmire....no probs for the endless string of 60tonne timber-trucks...but one hell of a skidpan for the little Toyota Prius. :eek::eek:
The US border guard was dead-set adamant: "I'M NOT LETTING YOU THROUGH!! YOU'RE EFFING NUTZZZ even making it up to here, turn around NOW!!"

Pushing away the 2 Aussie passports, there wasn't much else to do than bailing out via the south-western sealed roads and cutting east into Rockwood to pick-up the gravel there for a half-loop onto the Southern Golden Road and a stab into Millinocket, base-town of the timber+ pulp industries of Northern Maine.

Near Rockwood, Northern Maine Woods....brings tears to your eyes!! Just...PUURRRRRFECT!!
Little skiresort with 5 lifts just up the road....


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There she is....finally hit the Golden Road!! And the little rental-bomb is totally out of its depth!!


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We're struggling big time, there's a major duststorm INSIDE the cabin and the boingers should've long popped through the bodywork.
Oh, what a feeling!!! :doh::doh:


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Alternative route https://goo.gl/maps/t5ANxfbPM472
 

glitch

Mapping the next ride...
Staff member
Acadia National Park...well known, well loved by the locals.
(as not to say, it's the full tourist circus!!)
Without doubt though, the peninsula is a pure GEM! :slobb:slobb

https://goo.gl/maps/5m5xtdtfXtP2


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Coming along for a look-see?



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BYO-scoot... :eek: W-)


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Cadillac Mountain, center of the National Park Loop.


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More Acadia National Park




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Nice when all the essentials are at hand... :thumbs:



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Bar Harbour's Finest...the "Thunder Hole Ale" sure thunders down the hole...
noice drop!:bow:


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The cray-pots are bubbling at the Trenton Lobster Pound and there's no bailing out on a pair of those red, bug-eyed nippers:

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Straight out of the pot...on some rickety timber benches and tables at the side of the road....boiling, piping hot, whistling... as the nutcrackers bite into the rock-hard shells.
At $18 a pop (yo, that's a medium sized whole lobster each) , it would also pop the ooglers of the local Aussie cray-peddlers. :bs :clap:

I'm starting to wonder how the hell they get that many crays onto the menus around here, despite the busy local fishing industry.
We're talking 1000's of crays every day up+down the coast and up to 1000km inland + overseas, the numbers are simply baffling.:???::???::bang:
 

glitch

Mapping the next ride...
Staff member
A ripper of a morning at Acadia National Park...its easy to see why it's become the "Seaboard-Yellowstone". :glu:glu


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Bums up !!


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Life's good....2 old mates out for breakfast at the water's edge.


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Nature..."leaving its hat on!"


"You can leave your hat on..."


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Yo..... Acadia NP and Bar Harbour sure are something!! :drool::drool:


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glitch

Mapping the next ride...
Staff member
Our tootle along the Maine Coast turns out a little short...there are endless peninsulas, bays and coves, small islands just off the coast...it's easy to see why the Maine Coast has been a playground for the East-Coast-Money for centuries.
The amount of tucked-away mansions and private estates is simply staggering!!
Then there are the "lower tiers" (for the "commons" and "plebs", only 5 bedrooms, 1 tennis court and a dire lack of stables for the Arabians W-))...all of which amount to nearly no public access to the coastal delights like rocks, caves, beaches etc.... which is a hell of a shame. :doh::doh:

The only way those places can be seen or enjoyed are from the water, which accounts for all those jet-skies, small sailing boats and dinghies around everywhere.
We've only got a few hours while trying to stay off the main roads...so it doesn't matter much. As a local....I'd have moved somewhere else long ago!


Bar Harbour -> Boothbay Harbour (map)


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Penobscot River bridge at Bucksport


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In the middle of no-where....and with 60-90mins of waiting time on a midweek-table without a booking, arrghh! Looks like Morse's Sauerkraut is doing just fine. Then again...if they do it properly, it's no surprise.W-)


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So it's into Boothbay Harbour, one of the coastal "Cool-Spots" for an overnight stay at the water's edge....


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"Lucky Pick" indeed!!! Sip on that kick-arse Pinot Noir...and watch the sun go down.... :glu:glu :slobb :clap:


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One hell of a spectacle....the 40 minute sunset turns into one of the highlights of the trip....:chug:
 

glitch

Mapping the next ride...
Staff member
The next morning paints a different picture:


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Btw....a recommendable stay!!:
Book it through one of the usual booking sites @ a discount rate.

Tootling down the coast towards Boston is a bit of a disappointing affair...this is generic BrisVegas-plastic as found anywhere around the globe where a seaside-$$ can be coaxed from the dumb tourist herd. W-)



A slow morning tootle along the East Boothbay Peninsula...



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....before a tack south along the coast towards Portsmouth via the coastal roads of Portland, Cape Elizabeth
(for a final try at some lobster-rolls...bombed again, place too busy), Biddeford, Kennebunkport etc etc



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Lenny....worth a pretty penny in cacao alone!!
1700 pounds of chocolate in one lump ...now, THAT.... IS BIG!!


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glitch

Mapping the next ride...
Staff member
...and that was a 2 week dash across the far north-eastern bits of the US.
September has , once again, proven the choice-month for travel in the Northern Hemisphere. Superb weather, comfortable temps, the odd chilly morning...and plenty of sunshine and sparkling skies.

Would love to go back to New Hampshire and Vermont!!
Bike, car or camper, doesn't matter
Maine?....naw, not really. Only Acadia National Park...in winter!??
It'd be bitterly cold for sure, but spectacular... and maybe, tourist-free, sort of?
There's nothing much inland in Maine and the coast is totally commercialized/ overrun and_or privatized....but mostly all of it at once.

Quebec? Oh yeah! Stay north of the St. Lawrence and tack towards Gaspe Peninsula via another ferry crossing...and New Brunswick, Nova Scotia...
Then again, there are calls from New York State, the Parks north of Ottawa and Montreal, the Great Lakes and, and....W-)

Into Colorado next... and maybe a bit of peace and quiet to calm the nerves after a couple of hours of Mediterranean-style traffic chaos to find the one-and-only slip-road onto the peninsula that the Boston Airport resides on...a screaming and yelling session to make it through a jam-packed 4-lane roundabout in one of the suburbs while fearing for the little Prius' hastily restored shininess after a car-wash.... as time was ticking down fast to catch the flights!

Once more SouthWest Air winged us the 4.5hrs. to the west, gaining 2 hrs time-difference in the process.
On 2. thoughts...it rather turned into 5.5hrs in the end as some burly-whirly caused some major weather-havoc over the Great Lakes....a wide loop into Canada
it was.


Colorado, the Broncos, Mile High, lots of orange, the Rockies, a tiny Rio Grande.....and a bucketload of Aspen-Gold.
See you in Denver :so







Edit:
Since the topic has been split into various threads, here are the links to all the parts, in their chronological order.

Checking on Uncle Sam....travel notes, beer and aspen-gold


Peaks + Perks....New England (US) picture book


A Touch Of Quebec (Canada)


Lobster-Tales (Maine, US)


A World Of Its Own...Colorado + The Rockies



Enjoy! :scull:

__________________________________________________________
 
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