September 14, 2006 (Thu) Camden, ME to Casco, ME (120 miles today/1034 total) - Joy wanted to stop in Camden to pick up a few more Christmas gifts at one of the stores we were in yesterday so we took our time getting off. The showers in the rest rooms were terrific although the room was a bit small and the concrete floors gave the impression of not being as clean as tile. We drove up to the Summit of Mount Battie and spent some time enjoying the view of Camden and the harbor far below. After shopping and winding around some back "streets" in Camden, we picked up US1 and followed the coast south.
Outside of Rockport we saw a sign announcing The State of Maine Cheese Co. We thought that looked interesting so we stopped. It was and we ended up buying some cheese. Another stop in Wiscasset resulted in renewing our supply of clean clothes at a local laundramat and still another in Freeport's L.L. Bean augmented Joy's closet with a new sweater. And yet another in North Windham boosted our food supply. We pulled into Sebago Lake State Park at about 4:30. We are parked a couple of hundred feet from the lake shore. It should be a nice place to hole up for a day.
September 15, 2006 (Fri) Casco, ME - There is something about the call of a loon on a lake that brings real atmosphere to a camping experience. In a way it's a lonely sound but it's also the sound of wilderness and that is one of the nicer places to be when camping - for us anyway. There were several loons swimming and diving just off shore from where we were sitting on the beach. The sun came out this afternoon, after a night of drizzle and a morning of damp gloom, which made the 68° temperature seem quite warm. Sport fishermen were out on the lake most of the day but as the afternoon progressed the number of power boats increased - a sign of the approaching weekend.
The campground is almost empty. There are only a few units scattered here and there in the 250 or so sites - nice! We took a walk around the campground this morning (3 1/4 miles) and found the site we were in the last time we were here (#203) - we weren't recording site numbers back then.
Q032844 Sebago Lake State Park #5 dry $13.00 A (x2)
September 16, 2006 (Sat) Casco, ME to Campton, NH (115/1149) miles - Yesterday we watched the camping units on either side of us break camp and leave. It took them both - one a tent, the other a travel trailer - over 3 hours from the time they started till they drove away. This morning, it took us 5 minutes, but who's counting? At 8:45 (69° and sunny) we pulled away from our campsite. Hildene hadn't found a satellite by the time we reached the first critical turn. Rather than hold up traffic while we pulled out a map, we made a guess. Only then did she figure out where we were and let us know in no uncertain terms that we'd made a wrong turn. We ended up making a big circle and coming back to within a couple of miles from where we'd started.
Our stop in North Conway, NH, home of several discount malls, was a bust. We weren't able to find anything to buy - even at the L.L. Bean outlet! In Moultonborough, NH we hit bumper to bumper traffic. This seemed strange because there had been hardly any traffic on the road up till then. It turned out to be an accident a mile or so ahead. It took 45 minutes to get by it. It must have been worse than it looked because what we saw was little more than a severe fender bender.
In Center Harbor, Joy went off to Keepsake Quilting to do some shopping while Mark caught up on some internet related jobs needing high speed access - he picked up a WiFi connection in the parking lot.
We're back in the White Mountain National Forest - having passed Ta Da Dump Road on the way in and a pheasant on the campground road. The sites are small, the road very narrow and winding (not 40' class A with car in tow friendly), most of the sites are small and have a sheen of green from new grass or moss, and there is hardly anyone here. It doesn't seem to be a popular place - except for bears. There are warnings posted everywhere.
Q032959 Campton Campground, White Mountain NF #58 dry $9.00g B
September 17. 2006 (Sun) Campton, NH to Twin Mountain, NH (85/1234 miles) - We were up early this morning (53°) and took our time with breakfast and getting around to go. We only had a short distance to go so there was no need to hurry. At the campground entrance, Hildene said to turn right. We knew from consulting Henry and studying maps that turning left might be a more scenic route. So we turned left, accompanied by Hildene's objections. According to Henry and our maps SR49 loops back to the larger highway SR175 but we couldn't find our way through the Waterville resort complex and finally gave in to Hildene's constant demands to go back. We were headed for Russell Pond Campground in the White Mountain NF but our guide put us onto a dead-end road that should not have been. We turned around and headed for Franconia Notch State Park. The campground there was on the side of the mountain without any level sites. In fact the road getting to them was so steep, narrow and pitted with erosion that Q had a rough time making it around the loop to get out. (Your Tracker would have felt right at home E&K.)
Franconia Notch is where The Old Man of the Mountain (seen on all New Hampshire road signs) watched over the surrounding landscape. The distinctive rock formation at the top of one of the mountains collapsed a couple of years ago. We took the short hike out to where tourists used to be able to view it.
This area of the White Mountain National Forest has three small campgrounds within a mile of each other - Zealand, Sugarloaf 1, and Sugarloaf 2. We chose Sugarloaf 2. Most sites are flat and quite large. And the sun gets through to some in this one - the reason we chose it. All three have pit toilets and none have dump stations or facilities for taking on water. But all in all a more pleasant place to be than Campton CG (last night)
Q033044 Sugarloaf 2, White Mountain NF #22 dry $8.00 B-
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