Chain of Ponds, Labor Day Weekend, 2012

I realized I hadn't seen Grace or Cindy all summer so got up early Friday morning and headed to Stratton.  I arrived around 10 a.m. and visited with them at Grace's apartment for a bit and then we decided to take a drive down to The Narrows on Chain of Ponds.  With the help of Cindy's new boyfriend, Ron, we got Grace and her wheelchair into my Subaru and drove about a mile down a very rough dirt road.  I was shocked to see someone had hauled a little 15 foot camper trailer in there.  I really can't imagine how as there are some major rocks and washouts that you just can't avoid.

We parked at the shoreline and got Grace into her wheelchair and enjoyed a nice picnic in the sun.  Grace was using the Subaru as a shield from the wind but eventually made her way down next to the water.

Grace and Cindy

This Great Blue Heron watched us from the opposite shore

Ron and Cindy

I love this section of Maine - everywhere you look there are mountains and water.

We also drove down to the Natanis Campground to see if there were any sites to rent this weekend, thinking Rick and I might come up and spend a few days.  However, they were sold out of waterfront sites.  After a few other scenic stops we returned to Grace's and I headed home.  I decided to stop and visit Christopher in Farmington for a little bit and arrived home about 6ish.

Rick and I drove over to the Emporium in Readfield to see Rick Dosedlo and Logan play but the place was packed so we drove into Augusta and had dinner at The Gin Mill.  It was our first time there and we really enjoyed it.  Jim Carey and Sa Rah were playing music and the place was pretty quiet but we enjoyed the food and the music.  The next morning we slept in till 9ish and then decided we'd jump in the car and take the kayaks and head out.  We weren't sure exactly where we were going but were loosely thinking of checking out the scenery at Height of the Land and maybe ending up back at Chain of Ponds, which is just what we did.

Height of Land - Route 17 - this definitely doesn't do the view justice. 

We drove up to Weld and then took the dirt access road for Tumbledown Mountain over to Coos Canyon to get to Route 17.  We stopped briefly at Height of Land and then drove up to the overlook for Rangeley Lake and ate sandwiches.  We drove into Rangeley and walked around the waterfront, took a drive through town and then headed up towards Stratton.  We couldn't reach Cindy when we got to town so we went up to Natanis Campground and parked the car there and paddled the kayaks for a few hours on the ponds.

Me with the Bigelow Peaks behind me

Rick

Rick in the waning sun

We loaded the kayaks back up and made a pit stop at the Maine DOT lot on Route 27 in hopes of seeing a moose but no luck.  We also made a quick stop at the so-called moose quarry on Route 16 but again, no moose to be seen, though there was certainly a large audience waiting in hopes.  We then went over to the Stratton Plaza for beer and burgers and met up with Ron and Cindy, as well as my cousin Dennis and watched some fireworks the locals were shooting off.  There were rooms available at The Tranquillity Lodge in Stratton but given the weather prediction of cloudy and rain for Sunday we decided to go ahead and drive home and arrived just before midnight.  It was another very enjoyable spontaneous trip.