A Bonus Day in November

 Amidst days with temperatures in the 40's, we find ourselves blessed with a day where temperatures reached above 60.  No way we could stay home, so off we went.

Months ago, Bill had saved a FB post about the Fisherman's Walk in York, so we headed south.

Parking in York is not very user friendly, signs for "permit parking only" were everywhere, although we found a 2 hour parking space along Rt 1A, near the Hartley Mason Reserve.  

This is a nice 4 acre park overlooking York Harbor Beach.

"Pleasure Ground" a sculpture by Sumner Winebaum, sits in the grass and shows little bronze people enjoying the day.  

Photo Credit: Drew Gall

The sculpture is built on a rock nearly 8' long, 4' wide and  weighs 3 tons.  The figures range in height from 10 - 12 inches.

Bill thought we were headed in the wrong direction as we walked down the path toward the beach, so we stopped to ask a woman sitting in the park with her dog, who we absolutely needed to pet.  She gave us directions along the beach, to the steps at the end and across the grass to the walk. 

York Harbor Beach

This is the beach we could see from the park above.  We even got to pet another dog ;o)

Without her directions, which we didn't follow quite correctly, we never would have found this path.  We entered it from a small area between someone's fence and some trees.

The path followed the river behind some, most likely, very historic and expensive homes, which enjoy a lovely view of the river.

It continues under Rt 103 and along a boardwalk toward the Wiggly Bridge.

The York River, which is brackish water, is on the left and Barrel Mill Pond, which is a centuries old tidal pond, is on the right.  The pond was formed when early colonists built a dam to power a sawmill and gristmill.

This path also provides access to Steedman Woods, a forested peninsula that was given to Old York by C. Richard Steedman in 1978 to be kept "forever wild".  We walked along the loop path, maybe half a mile, returning to the bridge.

The only thing missing was a bench to sit and enjoy the river view.

View of Rt 103 from Steedman Woods.  

The Wiggly Bridge...might possibly be the world's smallest suspension bridge.  It was built in 1930 and spans a mere 75' between two petite green towers.

It is indeed wiggly and fun to walk across.  There is quite a current running underneath, which used to push kids jumping from the bridge, one way or the other, depending on the tide.  That is no longer encouraged.

The pattern in the water reminds me of Titan's back end and tail.

It's so weird how something completely unrelated to him, reminds me of him.

We walked back along the path to the car, had lunch at Flo's hotdogs, yummy! and headed home.  It was another perfect day.

Thanks for stopping by...

;o)

Remembering Titan

October 17, 2020...a day that came too soon, a day that I wasn't prepared for, the day we said goodbye to our boy.

 We decided to start a new tradition on October 17, a way to celebrate and remember Titan.  My idea was to hike Mt. Battie in Camden Hills State Park.  We had driven up there earlier this summer and really liked it and it seemed like a nice way to enjoy the day, while paying tribute to a special dog.  Well...all dogs are special, but he was OUR special.  The Camden Hills are reported to be very pretty in the fall, but we were a little late to see peak foliage.  That was okay since our purpose wasn't to leaf peep.

Although we drove to the summit last time, there are several trails to the top.  We decided upon one of the easier ones to start, the Nature Trail, to the Tablelands Trail, a total of about 1.6 miles.

Unfortunately, it rained overnight and this morning, so the trail was VERY WET and VERY MUDDY and quite SLIPPERY.  The sun was supposed to come out, which it did at home, but not while we were hiking.  It was 57* and breezy, although not bad in the woods.

We left home around 9:30, stopped at McDonalds for breakfast and arrived about 12:30, picked up a map, found a parking space and were headed up the trail at 12:50ish.  

As I said, lots of water...

Steps...yay!

The first mile was indeed "easy", until we crossed the road and continued up the Tableblands Trail.  It was steeper and more rocky and the wet rocks were more difficult to maneuver.  We reached the summit at 2:18, one hour and twenty-five minutes after beginning. 

Somewhere along the trail I found this heart rock.

I love the way these ferns practically grow out of the rocks.

We found ourselves a nice rock to sit on, had some cheese and crackers and toasted Titan with our alcohol free adult beverages.

Cheers Handsome

Titan's ashes are in the little key chain that I carry in my pocket and also in the paperweight that Bill carries in his pocket.  He is always with us.

The view of Camden Harbor is really nice, even on a cloudy day.

We stayed for maybe thirty minutes before heading back down.  Since the top .6 mile was slippery and we worry now about falling and cracking our head open or breaking a hip ;o) we chose to walk down the road until we intersected the Nature Trail.  We did get a nice view of the Camden Hills in the distance.

We picked up the trail at 3:02 and were back at the truck at 3:48.  

These leaves are huge!  This was identified on iNaturalist as a Striped Maple by bjprowse24.  

Who, exactly, does this old hand belong to...

We drove into Camden and had dinner at Cuzzy's Restaurant. We both ordered a cup of chili and shared an order of fried mushrooms.

Although it was mostly cloudy all day, we were treated to a lovely sunset on the ride home.

God willing, we'll do it again next year.

Thanks for stopping by...

;o)

Wolfe's Neck Woods State Park

Taking advantage of another picture perfect day, we drove to this state park near Freeport.  There are several short walks/hikes through this 245 acre park, which opened in 1972.  It bears the name (minus an O) of Henry and Rachel Woolfe, who originally settled here in 1733, the first Europeans to do so permanently.  You can read more specifics about the park here.  

We chose to take the longest trail, Harraseeket Trail, reported to be 1.8 miles, although it turned out to be a little over 2. 

It started out close to the waters of Casco Bay, with views in between the trees and a set of stairs down to the water.

Looking due South

We sat on the rocks and enjoyed the quiet, except for the lapping of the water.  Although it was only 66*, the sun was nice and warm.

There was a nice area at the top of the stairs with a map of the islands in the bay and a little log chair.

I always enjoy a trail with pavers and steps...  I feel like someone made it just for me. ;o)

However, I don't enjoy a path with wasps. 

Un, noooo, this is not okay

Thankfully, it was a short section of the path and neither of us was bothered.

The entire trail did not have pavers, much of it was wide and flat, other sections were covered with tree roots, while some had an elevated wooden path above wet areas.

You leave behind views of Casco Bay and travel across the peninsula to views of the Harraseeket River.

I actually really like this picture ;o)

There are some cute flowers blooming this time of the year.  I think this is Touch-me-not.

There were lovely views of the river and a couple of small harbors, although no stairs to the water.  We stopped at a large rock and had a snack.

The View at Lunch

Looks like maybe lightening might have struck this tree in years past, or maybe it just got old and died.

Peek-a-boo, anybody in there?

We made our way back to the truck, dropped off our backpacks and walked back to the water's edge, where we sat and enjoyed the afternoon sun.

This is a nice, quiet area only a few minutes from downtown Freeport.  We headed there for a quick lunch and some discount shopping, before returning home after a delightful day.

Thanks for stopping by...

;o)

Langlais Sculpture Preserve

Sometimes FB promotes something actually worthwhile.  Such was the case when this location popped up in Bill's feed.  It's a 90 acre preserve located in Cushing, ME, not too far from Rockland.  The property was the "homestead of renowned Maine Artist, Bernard "Blackie" Langlais and his wife Helen."   Blackie created more than 3500 indoor and outdoor works of art, some of them are located here while many more are located throughout Maine.

What a beautiful day to take a ride.  When we arrived, there were only a couple of cars in the parking lot.

The first sculpture we found, which wasn't really hiding, was what I call "Four Bears".  I couldn't find anything on the web that indicated what the sculptures were called, so I named them myself.  

It's difficult to tell from the pictures but this sculpture is very tall!

Next up was one of two elephants.  At one time, it was possible to climb up inside this sculpture and stand on the top but it's been closed off.

There were several sculptures in this area, right off the parking lot.  This is the "Hand".  It looks simple but I bet it wasn't.  I wish I had taken a picture with Bill standing next to it so you could tell how large it really is!

The thumb side

Four tall fingers and a thumb

This hand could almost reach out and slap the elephant's rear end

If you look again at the first picture of the bears, this woman is in the background looking off into the distance.  I recognized her immediately as the woman in Andrew Wyeth's painting..."Christina's World".  What I didn't know is that this painting was "set in the stark landscape of coastal Maine."

I wonder who Langlais used as a model for the face, because she was only seen from the back.  It does appear that she has spent too much time in the sun.

There is a 1/4 mile crushed gravel path that winds among the 12 sculptures on the property.  We came upon this cow next, rather abstract, but clearly a cow.

The cow was sharing the landscape with elephant No. 2.

The best thing about this elephant was walking into it and seeing that the artist had painted food that it might have eaten.  It was like being in it's belly, peanuts and bananas and some other unknown foods. ;o). Someone had a good sense of humor.

Somewhat hidden behind the cow was an undetermined animal.  Alligator?  Dog, perhaps?  

We honestly have no idea what it is.  It doesn't have an alligator's tail nor does have dog's ears.  I'm leaning towards alligator.

This one is just weird.  I call it "Geese, Seagulls and Birds".

Coming around the bend we spotted this seagull on top of a tall black pillar.

It doesn't look like much up close; it's much nicer from over by the cow.

Admittedly, this next one was my favorite!

It's the one and only...Tricky Dicky (Richard) Nixon.

He's appropriately located in the swampy area!  Brilliant.

Located downhill from the farmhouse, where Bernard Langlais lived and worked from 1966 to 1977, there is a representation of the animal kingdom.

Here are a couple of closeups...

Giraffes and leopard, maybe

Rhinocerous and porcupine

Wading bird?  Stork?  

Standing here, you can turn around, look up the hill and see the farmhouse.

Nice place, huh?  The artist even placed art on the house itself.

This 30' tall horse is the sculpture that started it all, located on a small hill overlooking the road.

Along with the sculptures, the land is covered in wild flowers, including new gardens planted specifically to host birds and butterflies.

Devil's Bite Liatris

I tried for nearly half an hour to identify all the above flowers but only had luck with one.

We spent nearly two hours here before we headed to Rockland, which was only a few miles away.  It was already two o'clock and we were hungry, so our first stop was a late lunch at Clan MacLaren, right on Main Street.  I grabbed the remaining outside table, while Bill picked out sandwiches for both of us.  This is my turkey, avacado panini and it was delicious.

On one of our harbor visits earlier in the summer, we came to Rockland and walked along the boardwalk, which we enjoyed so we decided to do that again today, before leaving.  

Lots of dingys at the dock in Rockland Harbor...

And lots of boats were visible in the harbor from Sandy Beach.

Not much makes me happier than blue sky and blue water and nice, warm temperatures.

Being September, the birds are gathering for their trip south, much like we do, only earlier.

Or, maybe not as these are pigeons.

From there, we got iced coffees at McDonalds, said goodbye to Rockland and headed home.

Thanks for stopping by...

;o)