Sunday, August 18, 2013

More Moosehead Lake fun....

Where does the time go?  We had a great week at Moosehead Lake and we enjoyed exploring the area....

There was a memorial for a B-52 crash site near Elephant Mountain that we went to....

Remnants of the plane crash

Parts were in trees

US flags were plentiful

Memorial listing the servicemen
The plane had nine servicemen on board and was performing low altitude maneuvers.  It lost it's rear stabilizer and crashed in a very remote part of the mountains.   Two of the nine survived. Of these two, only one parachute opened; the other did not.  They both survived the night in very, very high snow and with temperatures 30 degrees below zero.  Wikipedia has a very good overview of the details of the crash and crew.

We also visited Breakneck Farm nearby.  They had these big guys roaming their fields....
Buffalo!  Mama and 3 day old baby
Although the farm no longer offers tour, the farmer's wife led us to the field where the buffalo were grazing and told us about the buffalo.  It was very fascinating.  We then went to their farm store where they sold various cuts of buffalo and their own maple syrup.  We ended up buying buffalo jerky, ground buffalo meat and a quart of their maple syrup.  The jerky was very good but we have not yet tried the ground buffalo meat or maple syrup.

We also set out to see Moxie Falls one day.  The drive was very, very long down dirt roads that, at times, were better suited for 4-wheelers!  :-) When we saw tons of raspberries on the side of the road, we knew we had to stop to pick!
Picking on the side of the road

Tammy filling the bag with Dan
I ended up making a raspberry crisp one night and we all enjoyed the "fruits" of our labor!!

Moxie Falls was beautiful...even though it rained on our hike to the falls!

Moxie Falls

I love waterfalls about as much as I love rainbows and fireworks!
Syl, Dan, and I decided we wanted to hike Mount Kineo one day.  I was intrigued by this little knob of a mountain and wanted to see what the views were like at the top.  You have to take a ferry over to the mountain (or park your car at the end of a snowmobile trail and add another mile to your hike) and the ride over was nice.

Mt Kineo
We followed the path along the shore taking in the sights...

Damage from beavers was prevalent....
Wonder what made them stop before the job was done?!
There are three different trails that you can take to reach the summit.  The one with the most views is also the most strenuous and comes with that warning I don't like "people with a fear of heights may want to chose another trail".   Ugh!  Well - sometimes you just gotta go for it so that's what I did.  Up we go!  We start out on the trail and we start to get sprinkled on.  No worries- just hunker down for a bit, enjoy the views and start again when it clears.
Standard picture of Dan on cliff's edge; Tricia away from the edge!

Syl enjoying the views
We stopped for a little "fuel" along the way and Dan took these pictures over the cliff's edge. Our friend Bill would have definitely had to look away (as I did!!).

The path down below is the one we took to the trailhead.

Looking straight down over the cliff.  

It gives me the willies just looking at these two pictures.

Off we go again....
Dan and Syl 

We were definitely rewarded with spectacular views along the way.
When we met people coming back down the trail, they all said that the fire tower on top of the summit was a MUST.  As much as I dislike heights, I was going to do that fire tower!  I am so glad that I did......



Now I can't take credit for these photos...Dan took the pictures.  I was not letting go of the railing on top of the fire tower. But, Dan and Syl persuaded me one time....
Look Bill!!  No hands!

One more picture proving we were there! 
Dan took several pictures capturing the depth of the height we were at (the mountain is over 1700 ft plus the fire tower).
Not sure who this guy is but he was taking Dan's picture too!

Going down was soooooooooooooo much harder than going up!
Looking up at Mt Kineo fire tower; built in 1918
We took a different trail back down and made it back to the ferry with just a little bit of rain (yep - don't let those blue skies in the pictures fool you!  Weather in Maine can turn on a dime....Dan says "When in Maine; plan on rain!)  It was another great day of hiking!

4 comments:

  1. Once again fabulous pictures! Bruce is always at the edge and I'm staying safe way far in. I always find that going down is much harder too! Looks like great hiking with beautiful views!

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  2. Looks like you had a fabulous week! Those pictures from the fire tower were awesome!

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  3. Another wonderful hike with you guys. Loved being above the trees in the fire tower, but it sure was nice to have a sturdy railing to hold on to.
    Syl

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  4. Proud of you going to the top! Maybe you'll get over your fear of heights yet :)

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