Hiking & Walking

We’ve got a lot of streams around our state. It seems like you can’t walk more than a mile or so without bumping into one very cool stream or another. Our very own property borders two different streams and there’s another up the road. They’re actually all over the place. I like them because so […]

Last week, a friend sent me a video of his autumn camping trip on the shores of Wyman Lake in Bingham, Maine. I watched the video and thought the area in which he and another friend camped was interesting. As I watched the video, I simultaneously began hunting around on Google Earth in an effort […]

I’ve been having an extraordinary time with my short story book. So many of the stories are excellent. Actually, all of them are. I’ve made it half way through the Character section and have so far read The Jilting of Granny Weatherall by Katherine Anne Porter and The Five-Forty Eight by John Cheever. What I […]

I’ve had this hike on my list for some time now. Every time Laura and I drive through the Belgrade Lakes region, we get excited and want to spend more time there. It’s such a cute little area and it appears to offer a lot in the way of outdoor activities. The last time we […]

I have lived in Maine for just over five years now and I’ve been to some very good trails that are in the proximity of the town I live. My favorite trails so far were created by and are maintained by Maine Huts & Trails in Carrabassett Valley. The specific trails lead from the Carrabassett […]

I really had only one goal in mind. That was to get out there to see what my wide angle lens could do. I’ve had this lens for quite a while, but haven’t used it in some time. I’ve been so busy with the Canon 18-135mm that I recently purchased that I sort of put […]

In my opinion, winter truly is the best season. Hands down. Fall is a close second, but winter really has so much to offer. During my years growing up, I never saw it that way, but I sure do now. The reason I wasn’t very fond of winter while I was young is because it […]

So far, this autumn has been very nice. It’s been dry and just the right temperature. There were a few hot and humid days thrown in there about a week ago, but they passed quickly and we returned to our regular temperatures. Around 40 degrees at night and 55 during the day, although last night […]

Yesterday was a great day. Laura and I went back up to the snow trails that lead to Poplar Hut in Carrabassett, Maine. We’ve had some snow over the past week and I wanted to see how the trails looked. The Maine Huts & Trails group grooms the trails for hiking and cross-country skiing, so […]

These spikes are the real deal. I’m so used to looking at those other rubberized, little nub things, that when I saw these on Amazon, I had to get them. I’ve almost slipped over and fallen about ten times so far this season, so I had to do something. I just tested these bad boys […]

Over the past four years, I’ve been casually browsing through many store shelves for the perfect pair of hiking boots. I haven’t purchased this type of shoe in a very long time and I guess I was behind the times because when I looked at the prices of some of these things, I was rather […]

What a perfect day. We just got back from exploring the wilderness and I have to tell you that this winter hiking really is a thing. There were people all over the place in the woods. I was so surprised. I even snapped some photos of them to prove it. I used to think that […]

Boy, this fall season has really been humming right along. We’ve gone out more than I’ve expected. Yesterday was the last for a while because it’s supposed to be cloudy for the next few days. Actually, I think we’re supposed to get two full days of rain coming up. That would be nice, since we […]

Today was a very adventurous day for us. After a bit of work this morning, I suggested that we get out there to enjoy this wonderful fall weather we’ve been having. Apparently, there’s a gigantic state we’re living in that has yet to be explored. We’ve seen, I don’t know, maybe half of a half […]

Something fun needed to happen today. It’s been a while since I’ve been up and at ’em, so I was ready to get out there and make it happen. Last night’s temperatures dropped into the 40s and today’s didn’t make it out of the 60s. The sky was clear and I thought it was high […]

The leaves are really changing color now. I think they’re a bit late this year. I can never remember if a dry autumn makes them hold on longer or a wet one does. If memory serves, I think we’re about as far along now as we were in late September last year. Either way, it […]

For almost three years, Laura and I have been walking on the same roads. I’d say that about 95% of the time, the road we live on has been the favorite. After that, we switched back and forth between another two that are each about a half mile from our house. All three roads are […]

Earlier this week, Laura’s parents came to visit. We did a bunch of fun stuff, such as visiting Bar Harbor, driving my truck up in the hills north of us and making our way toward the back of our property to visit the brook. I have posts on the stuff we did together and what […]

What we have here is the first of a long line of soon-to-be posts about Steve’s cabin project. If you look to right (right hand column), you’ll even see a very special link to a page holding all the links to the posts I write on the subject. It’s bound to be fascinatingly wonderful, so […]

It’s been a long Winter. If you’re from Maine, you know exactly what I’m talking about. From what I hear around town and from a few friends, Maine hasn’t seen a Winter like this in a few decades. Honestly, the cold doesn’t bother me. I’ll write more about this when I get our “About” page […]

We were fortunate enough to enjoy the company of Laura’s brother this past weekend. He came all the way from New York up to Maine to do a little hiking and to visit a sugar house with us for Maine Maple Sunday. I’ll talk about the sugar house in my next post. Right now, I’d […]

I really should be more accurate here. What we walked today was Steve’s “almost” land. He’ll have it by next week and when he does, let the games begin. I have a funny feeling there’s going to be a lot of activity up there. That’s the way Steve rolls. Today was a twofold day. The […]

Since we arrived in Maine, we’ve had a sort of obsession with sighting a moose. We don’t want to necessarily bump into one while walking on a trail, but we sure would like to see one. As we are well aware, moose can be aggressive and unpredictable, so seeing one from afar would be fine […]

Today, Laura and I accomplished a task that has been on our agenda for some time. We’ve been meaning to get up to the end of the road and hang a left instead of a right. As you already know, taking a right down into the woods brings us to the river and the bridge. […]

We ventured back out to the trail on Tuesday. It was very cold, but we really didn’t feel it through our jackets, hats, gloves and boots. And Laura wore her Baffins with the studs. She had to pull me up the hill at the end of the hike. I was slipping all over the place. […]

Laura and I went for a walk up the road today. We usually get to the end, turn around and come back. Today though, our intention wasn’t to turn around, but to head down one of the snowmobile trails to see exactly what was going on. A buddy of mine, who lives at the top […]

Since yesterday was sunny and warm, we decided that it would be wise to get out of the house for a while. Ever since the arrival of this ice, we’ve been kind of trapped. You can’t really walk on the stuff. It’s just too slippery. Even after the application of sand. We made it almost […]

I was talking to my mother last night after my Jiu-Jitsu class, trying to explain to her how cool the woods were in the rear of the property. I said, “Yeah, there are tons of pines and maples and the water is so clear in the river.” It’s difficult to imagine, I’m sure, because you […]

We had some rain a few nights ago. Actually, it was our first rain since we arrived in Maine. The weather’s been remarkably good here so far. After the rain, the skies cleared and I thought I should bring my camera along for my morning walk. Usually, it’s just my coffee as a camera kind […]

Laura and I have been burning up the streets lately with our walking. I’m not sure what happened, but it seems that we’ve put the nighttime humidity out of our minds and have gotten back into our exercise regimen. So far, in the past few nights, I’d say we’ve walked about twenty miles. Give or […]

I know this post is a bit late. I haven’t written much of anything lately. These photos have been sitting in a folder on my Desktop for months. Yesterday, I came up with the bright idea that I might write a post. I have some nice flowers in full bloom and wanted to grab a […]

This past Sunday, we decided it was a good idea to visit our favorite place in Connecticut. We’ve been there quite a few times over the years and since the day of voyage is right around the corner, I wanted to take pictures for memory’s sake. I’m under no illusion that in a few months […]

Yesterday was, well, yesterday. It snowed and it was pretty common for this time of year. Along with the typical March day came clouds and chilly temperatures. It wasn’t good. Today, on the other hand, was simply fabulous. We knew it would be because we checked the weather about ten times yesterday. After the ninth […]

I was standing outside yesterday morning looking into the woods when I came up with a brilliant idea. I thought that since I enjoy walking the property each day while drinking my morning coffee, why don’t I make a trail around the perimeter and put down some wood chips or something so I have some […]

Since the snow is about 97% gone, I decided to peel off my Winter clothing and go for a nice late Winter walk in the woods. I guess this is a follow up picture post to these posts: – A Cold Walk in the Woods – A Winter Walk In The Woods …and probably a […]

All we needed to do was to walk a few more steps. It was beyond the damaged trees we had originally discovered. There are actually two beaver huts, or even perhaps three. We were looking on Google Earth this morning and we found the two huts plus one maybe hut. We’ll have to check it […]

We decided to go for a walk in the woods this afternoon. It was a good thing to do to get out of the house. The development we live in is basically a road in the middle of nowhere. It’s one road with a cul-de-sac at the end. Behind all the houses on one side […]

I can officially call it winter now that it’s the 22nd. It feels like just a few weeks ago that I had sweat dripping off my face from working outside. Now, sweat is just a distant memory. When I woke up this morning, I noticed a blue sky peeking through the little half circle window […]

Today was absolutely gorgeous. It was the perfect day for a hike, so that’s exactly what we did. We jumped in the car and took a trip over to Gay City State Park. We have been to this park before, but missed one trail. Today was the day we were going to complete the entire […]

Today, we went back to Devil’s Hopyard State Park in East Haddam for what turned out to be a grueling two mile hike. It felt good, but there was a lot of sweat involved. We went uphill and downhill and everywhere in between. You should’ve seen me huffing and puffing like a fat guy at […]

As I have mentioned before, Connecticut is the place to be if you like parks, hiking, mountain biking and recreation in general. We are learning that people around here take this stuff very seriously. When driving around, it’s hard not to see people jogging, riding bikes, playing golf…whatever. Last week, we decided to drive down […]

We had to wake up extra early today because of a few chores that needed doing. The first thing was to drive Holly to the vet. She has been there a few times since we arrived in this part of the world. Apparently, she got some wound on her tail that needed tending to. She […]

This was a long one. At least the air was nice and hot for us during the entire hike…oh man… We knew which trail we wanted to hike when we arrived at Gay City State Park yesterday. We have been looking at the trail map and we (I) thought we knew exactly where to go. […]

I am starting to notice that ths area is pretty energetic. We see more people on bicycles and walking than we know what to do with. It kind of reminds me of when I lived in Atlanta…people were always out after work doing something. Since I am energetic too, I fit right in. I actually […]

We were going to go for a hike this afternoon, but I feared the ground would be swampy when we got to our destination. I wanted to hike down to a pond a few acres away. I think we’ll get to that another day, but for today, we stuck with our usual walk down the […]

If you are reading this post, you have probably seen Mount Beacon (Beacon Mountain). Maybe you didn’t even know you were looking at it. Just doing a Google Search surprised me…there are so many people interested in this mountain. Here are some interesting links… – Beauty atop Mount Beacon – Gateway to Mount Beacon Park […]

Well, it’s another year for the Bear Mountain Dogs Walk for Cancer. I think it might be the “Dogswalk” for Cancer though. I did a post on this last year, so you already may have an idea of what goes on with the walk, but I may have better photos this time. Of course, I […]