Tag: maine

Posted on by — Leave a comment

OM&M is heading to Maine in Spring 2016

OM&M gear available in Maine

I am pleased to announce that Of Moose & Mountain gear will soon be available in retail stores in Maine for the first time in Spring 2016!

Shaker Hill Outdoors in Poland Spring will carry oval kayak decals. Shaker Hill Outdoors is a great source for supplies for a wide variety of outdoor interests from landscaping to power sports, paddle sports, and fishing tackle.

Shelter Institute in Woolwich will carry my Woodworker Wisdom t-shirts in the showroom. Shelter Institute is the place to go for quality and hard to find woodworking tools and for training on various woodworking topics from canoe paddle carving (I took this class) to building your own timber frame home.

OM&M gear is now available in select stores in Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont.

Posted on by

Adventure of the Week – Living History Days at Leonard’s Mills

It has been over 20 years since I visited Living History Days at Leonard’s Mills but I can still feel the cool autumn air, smell the campfires, and taste the fresh baked beans cooked in the ground overnight. Located about 10 miles outside of Bangor, Maine, Leonard’s Mills is the home of the Maine Forest and Logging museum. It’s smaller than some other living history but that just adds to its uniqueness. This year’s Living History Days are scheduled for October 4 & 5. Activities will include a 1790 encampment, 20th Maine Civil War encampment, 1900’s machinery and Lombard loghauler, wagon rides, cider pressing, beanhole beans (my favorite), water-powered sawmill, blacksmiths, weaving, spinning, and more. Writing this up made me wish I could fit it in this year. Maybe I’ll get back there next year.
For more information, check out the event on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/539102262857099/
Posted on by

Adventure of the Week – Free Entrance Days in the National Parks

However you like to enjoy the outdoors, the national parks system has something for you. And, this Saturday, September 27, you can get in free for National Public Lands Day. Whether you’d like to bike the carriage roads at Acadia National Park, stroll around the grounds at the Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site, or enjoy any other activity at any national park, get out there and enjoy!

What’s your favorite national park? It’s probably not a surprise to most of you that mine is Acadia.

http://www.nps.gov/findapark/feefreeparks.htm

Posted on by

Adventure of the Week – Paddling or Tubing the Saco River

A friend recently went tubing down the Saco River and reminded me of the time my wife and I joined my brother’s family on a canoe trip. We all tented out at Woodland Acres Campground in Brownfield, Maine, Friday night. The next morning, a shuttle van with trailer came through the campground picking up canoes while we ate breakfast. We then boarded the van for the drive about 10 miles up river where we all put in for the ride back downriver to the campground. It was mostly a pretty casual float down the river with one very short section of “white water”. You could portage around it but all you really had to do was just let the current take you through. We stopped a few times to stretch our legs and to eat our packed lunch. When we got back to the campground, we left our canoes on the shore and they were eventually delivered back to our campsites. There are several canoe, kayak, and tubing rental places along the Saco River in New Hampshire and Maine.
Posted on by

Adventure of the Week – Biking the Carriage Roads at Acadia National Park

Sarah and I try to visit Acadia National Park about once a year and always bring our bikes. There are 45 miles of carriage roads around the park thanks to John D. Rockefeller Jr. You may even see a Rockefeller driving his carriage along the roads today. Most of the carriage roads are open to horses, horse-drawn carriages, bikes, and pedestrians while a few of the roads exclude bike use. The carriage roads are wide, well maintained, and well marked. Because they were designed for horse-drawn carriages, they are not too steep (of course “too steep” is a relative term). I have been on all but a couple miles of the roads walking, biking, snowshoeing, and cross-country skiing.
One of my favorite bike rides is around Witch Hole Pond starting from signpost 5 on Duck Brook Road. This area tends to be quieter than other parts of the park.
For a big multi-hour adventure, you can take the route I did with my cousins 10 years ago. We started at the visitor center, past Witch Hole Pond, down to Eagle Lake, on to Aunt Betty Pond, then climbed much of the way up Sargent Mountain to the highest point on the carriage roads and back to the visitor center. I believe that route took three to four hours including a couple rest stops to take in the views. We saw a young fox on the path that day and I have seen deer along the carriage roads many times.
You can find a map of the carriage roads on the Acadia National Park website at http://www.nps.gov/acad/planyourvisit/upload/CRUMmap.pdf.