.July 21-22, 2006
It's time to take a break from hiking this weekend. Why? My sister Margie, her husband Chris, my nephew Matthew, and my three beautiful nieces Allison, Christine, and Elizabeth are coming for a visit. They arrived Friday evening. We decided to take the kayaks out. Christine in particular loves kayaking. We headed off to Lake Pennesseewassee. The name is too long, so with the lake being in Norway, everyone just calls it Norway Lake. Chris and Matt help unload the kayaks.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ We are starting from the southeast corner of the lake. Matt, Christine, and I will be kayaking across to the southwest corner of the lake where the beach is. Safety first, life jackets everyone.
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Starting off. Watch out for that wall, Matt.
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After going under a couple of bridges, we came to the main part of the lake.
"Where are we going?" asked Christine.
"See that house, way down there on the other side?" I asked.
"Yes."
"The beach is to the right of that."
"That's far."
"It looks far but it won't take that long."
I didn't time it, but the whole trip probably took about 45 minutes. While we were gone, Elizabeth was enjoying the new park with swings, slides etc.... Well, she was enjoying it, until she fell off this spinning ride.
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After reaching the beach, Christine wanted a turn in the single kayak so we switched and paddled around some more. She's a natural born kayaker.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Matt and I paddling into shore.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ After the kayaking, we went out for pizza followed by ice cream. With Elizabeth's shirt stretched around her knees, it makes it look like she has had way to much ice cream.
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The next day we headed off to Evans Notch in the White Mountains. First we stopped at Hungry Hollow Store. It has some great homemade muffins, pastries, and desserts. After getting our treats, we stopped just up the road at Snow Falls to enjoy them. Snow Falls is a very nice large rest stop. I consider almost big enough to be considered a park but not quite.
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The falls are not that big, but can be fairly impressive after a big storm. Today, they are nice, but usually they are much better.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ We hopped back in our vehicles and headed off to Evans Notch. Once there, we walked across this 180 foot suspension bridge. It was a lot sturdier than how I described it to the kids. I described it as an old rope bridge with a wooden walkway like in the movies and that the wood would break every few feet. They may fall through and would have to catch themselves and would be dangling above the rocks far below. Nice uncle, huh?
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Although the name of the river is Wild River, being late July, the river is low and calm.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ I know I said I wasn't hiking this weekend, but you can't go to the Whites and not do at least a little hiking. Margie and Lynn stayed with Elizabeth. The rest of us headed back across the bridge. Here's a look down from the bridge.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ We walked about a tenth of a mile up the road to the trail head for the Roost Trail. This was a new hike for me. It's short, only a half mile one way. Here's the trail head.
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The trail may have been short but it was pretty steep, especially if you are not used to hiking. We met this guy near the top.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ There is no view at the top, but we took the tenth of a mile side trail to a nice view. It was overcast, but still a nice view.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ After this we headed to "The Basin" for lunch. It's a small lake surrounded by mountains. It started to rain so we had to finish our lunch in our vehicles. I was going to take everyone on another short hike to the Emerald Pool but with the rain we decided to cut the day short. We made one more stop on the way home. We cut through the Whites on Deer Hill Road and stopped at Deer Meadow Bog. I found this spot a couple of months ago. There is a wildlife blind right on the bog and next to the road. A wildlife blind is like a small shelter but with small windows in it facing the bog, allowing you to watch the wildlife. I was hoping to show the kids a moose. We were in luck. I was about to give up, when Margie spotted a large bull moose about 30 or 40 feet away. What a treat. Even though I have lived in Maine for 6 years, I have only seen a bull moose a couple of times. Being so close to the wildlife blind he heard us and ran off. We walked out to the road and he was just up the road facing us. We watched him for a minute or two and then another vehicle came through scaring him off. It was a great day even though it rained. It rained last year when they came for a visit too. I tried to tell them, "It doesn't always rain in Maine, honest."
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