New England trip report - Fall 2015
My family has made many trips out West but our last long trip together was somewhere entirely different, New England. My husband and I met up with Dad in New Jersey where we visited with a relative t...
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Part 5
OCT 5
On this day Kohldad and his DW broke off from our group to wind their own way home. Dad, the DH, and I headed southwest on Hwy 2. Log trucks were a common sight as were small towns. At Skowhegan we turned north on US 201.
Passing through Solon ME on US 201 I snapped a picture of a somewhat decrepit old building with a sign proclaiming it to be the Solon Hotel. It looked kind of spooky to me! We turned onto US 201A here to loop south to catch CR 16 as we’d missed a turn that would have taken us to it earlier.
I noticed the barns in this far northern state were connected to the homes, I assume to facilitate access when the snow is deep. I had fun trying to catch a good picture of one as we rolled along and this is the best one I was able to get. I also noticed round school buildings weren’t built just in the south.
At North Anson ME we came to a river so craggy with rock that we stopped for a closer look. Upstream of the US 201A bridge, ridges of rock funneled the flow of the Carrabassett River into rushing torrents. Here we turned west on New Portland Rd (CR 16). This road paralleled the river and I could see it was just as rocky for about half a mile.
Another half-mile upstream I saw where a homeowner had constructed what appeared to be a lighthouse in their front yard. It was a nice piece of work but who ever heard of an inland lighthouse!
Coming into Kingfield on CR 16 we spotted an old mill dam and pulled into a parking lot alongside it. I climbed up on the top of my camper to take a picture of the dam then walked around to the other side for a few more pictures.
Back on the road, we picked up CR 142 out of Kingfield. At the small community of Phillips, we turned off CR 142 onto CR 4. More beautiful countryside. Even a little bit of fall color.
CR 4 took us to Rangely Lake where we stopped at an overlook for lunch. There are several large lakes in this area which have made it a popular summer destination. Rangely’s biggest claims to fame are its trout fishery, a boat built specifically for these lakes, and elaborate summer resorts popular in the late 1800s and early 1900s. I noticed the information plaques were in both English and French, the latter a nod to the fact this area is less than 100 miles from Quebec.
There’s a state park on the lake with a campground but it closed four days earlier on October 1 so we traveled on to the town of Rangely. Here we got the closest to a moose as we were going to get on this trip ;-) At Rangely we turned west on CR 16.
We crossed from Maine into New Hampshire. I saw a sign saying we were entering NH’s Great North Woods Region. This isn’t to be confused with the North Maine Woods, a huge swath of woods with multiple owners but centralized management, which we hadn’t visited on this trip. NH’s Great North Woods Region differs in that it has no centralized management. Either way, I bet the trees look the same!
Our stop for the night was Umbagog State Park. Due to the lateness of the season we were able to snag two of the few sites with a great view of Umbagog Lake. In fact, there was only one other camper there. The DH and I had a good view of Dad’s camper and the lake from our dinette. It was still early in the day so, since this is a small park with no trails, I walked around the campground a few times and out to the dock where I watched a fellow row around the lake. I stitched together a panorama of the view across the lake from three photos but the result doesn’t do justice to the beauty of the place.
It had been a sunny and relatively warm day so we dined outside that evening. Later I walked back to the dock and found the lake was as smooth as glass, perfectly reflecting the sky and eventually a splash of sunset color. A fine end to a fine day!
To be continued ...
OCT 5
On this day Kohldad and his DW broke off from our group to wind their own way home. Dad, the DH, and I headed southwest on Hwy 2. Log trucks were a common sight as were small towns. At Skowhegan we turned north on US 201.
Passing through Solon ME on US 201 I snapped a picture of a somewhat decrepit old building with a sign proclaiming it to be the Solon Hotel. It looked kind of spooky to me! We turned onto US 201A here to loop south to catch CR 16 as we’d missed a turn that would have taken us to it earlier.
I noticed the barns in this far northern state were connected to the homes, I assume to facilitate access when the snow is deep. I had fun trying to catch a good picture of one as we rolled along and this is the best one I was able to get. I also noticed round school buildings weren’t built just in the south.
At North Anson ME we came to a river so craggy with rock that we stopped for a closer look. Upstream of the US 201A bridge, ridges of rock funneled the flow of the Carrabassett River into rushing torrents. Here we turned west on New Portland Rd (CR 16). This road paralleled the river and I could see it was just as rocky for about half a mile.
Another half-mile upstream I saw where a homeowner had constructed what appeared to be a lighthouse in their front yard. It was a nice piece of work but who ever heard of an inland lighthouse!
Coming into Kingfield on CR 16 we spotted an old mill dam and pulled into a parking lot alongside it. I climbed up on the top of my camper to take a picture of the dam then walked around to the other side for a few more pictures.
Back on the road, we picked up CR 142 out of Kingfield. At the small community of Phillips, we turned off CR 142 onto CR 4. More beautiful countryside. Even a little bit of fall color.
CR 4 took us to Rangely Lake where we stopped at an overlook for lunch. There are several large lakes in this area which have made it a popular summer destination. Rangely’s biggest claims to fame are its trout fishery, a boat built specifically for these lakes, and elaborate summer resorts popular in the late 1800s and early 1900s. I noticed the information plaques were in both English and French, the latter a nod to the fact this area is less than 100 miles from Quebec.
There’s a state park on the lake with a campground but it closed four days earlier on October 1 so we traveled on to the town of Rangely. Here we got the closest to a moose as we were going to get on this trip ;-) At Rangely we turned west on CR 16.
We crossed from Maine into New Hampshire. I saw a sign saying we were entering NH’s Great North Woods Region. This isn’t to be confused with the North Maine Woods, a huge swath of woods with multiple owners but centralized management, which we hadn’t visited on this trip. NH’s Great North Woods Region differs in that it has no centralized management. Either way, I bet the trees look the same!
Our stop for the night was Umbagog State Park. Due to the lateness of the season we were able to snag two of the few sites with a great view of Umbagog Lake. In fact, there was only one other camper there. The DH and I had a good view of Dad’s camper and the lake from our dinette. It was still early in the day so, since this is a small park with no trails, I walked around the campground a few times and out to the dock where I watched a fellow row around the lake. I stitched together a panorama of the view across the lake from three photos but the result doesn’t do justice to the beauty of the place.
It had been a sunny and relatively warm day so we dined outside that evening. Later I walked back to the dock and found the lake was as smooth as glass, perfectly reflecting the sky and eventually a splash of sunset color. A fine end to a fine day!
To be continued ...
