Cadillac Moutain, Acadia (pt.1)

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Now let me explain the Christmas lights..... Saturday Dad had to work so we got a late start to the weekend. Late afternoon we headed up the coast, WAY up. All the way to Acadia National park. On the way up we stopped into LLBeans in Freeport for a quick map of the park. Well, Beans has jumped the gun on the holidays. While our Thanksgiving turkey is still thawing at home, they are fully dressed for Christmas. Oh well still pretty.

We stayed outside the park in the van, and continued up the coast in the morning. We crossed the new bridge over the Pennobscott river, Really cool bridge but looks so out of place that far north.

Time being short, we drove up Cadillac mountain instead of hiking it. Ended up being a good decision. Not a soul anywhere...no traffic like summer. And it was frigid on top. Bone chilling and whipping wind. No wonder all the "sane" people are gone.

The view on top, down on Frenchman's bay was spectacular. We did the stone summit walk. And a BRISK walk it was, burrrrr. I had to make myself weigh 5 pounds just so I wouldn't blow away, ha! ha! I watched out the van window as we made our decent off the mountain. Views down on Jordon pond and other areas in the park were stunning.

We had a slow drive home, back over the bridge and meandered south, through a lot of the coastal towns. We stopped in Camden and saw the village ducks in the harbor, and Mom zoomed in and got a cool picture of the tower on Mt. Battie.

Happy Thanksgiving all. I'm so thankful to wake up every day MOXIE and have opportunity for so much adventure in my life!

Cadillac Moutain, Acadia (pt.2)

Mt. Grace (pt.1)

Well the weekend weather at home looked grim...much rain. So we took the long ride over to western Mass, and literally outran the rain, well most of it.

We landed in Warwick. Home of Mt. Grace. A fairly small mountain with a fairly large fire tower on it. We hiked in more of a "mist" than a "drizzle". And warm. Dad says "It's always a warm rain" Dad's usually right. Dad was also the one who chose to climb the fire tower for pictures. Pictures of the metal frame work that looked like the AT symbol, pictures of me and Mom down on the ground, pictures of fog to the west and more fog over to the communication towers east on the adjoining hill. Fog, fog, fog.

We made our way back down to the field where we parked. There was a model shelter there for picnicking. We got a chuckle out of the power meter on the side of it. Think it's the first shelter we've ever seen with power!

We slept in the van Saturday night and made the long mosey home Sunday. We stopped at another train museum in Sandown N.H. I, of course, posed on all the trains. Dad and I even "faked" riding on the "rail bike" (see bottom video) Looks like more nice weather for the week...good there are many more mountains to climb! Always an adventure.

Mt.Grace (pt.2)

(Pt.1) Pawtuckaway Moutain

We broke this weekend up into two day hikes. Saturday we headed east to Pawtuckaway State Park in New Hampshire. (pt 1 pics above and video) We hiked six miles through boulder fields on a very modest trail up old woods roads to the summit of Pawtuckaway Mt. There is a fire tower on top, always the bonus view from a fire tower. Cool fall winds blew as we ate our lunch on the rock top.

Sunday (pt.2, all pics below video) We stuck to the "rocky trail theme" for the weekend, but this time, up the very steep ledges of Mt.Cutler over in Hiram Maine. Dad took pictures as me and Mom picked our way up the rocky/leaf slippery trail.

The good thing about Cutler is, it's steep but quick up to a grand view down on the valley below and over to the White Mountains. And the weather was superb. 60 degree temps in November are always a bonus. Another fun fall weekend with "Team Moxie"

(Pt.2) Mt. Cutler

Rattlesnake mt./Squam lake (pt.1)

We were able to sneak in one last fair weather weekend this fall. We headed to NH to climb Rattlesnake Mt. which overlooks Squam Lake. Then we canoed Squam lake. A very fulfilling weekend.

We started with a little trail maintenance. Sign at trail head asked each hiker to carry a bucket of rocks from the bottom up the trail to where trail crews were working on fixin' up the trail. We love to help as no one uses the trail systems more than us.

We made our way to the summit where Mom surprised me and Dad with Halloween candy from my "auntie Sue" What a great treat. We took our time coming down the mountain with much chipmunk chasin'.

By late afternoon we had made our way to Dog cove on Squam lake (where the movie On Golden Pond was filmed) We had an exhilarating paddle down the lake then back into a strong cool fall headwind back to the van.

We slept in the van Saturday night. Quite warm for Halloween night. No gobbling came visiting and we all slept very well. Sunday was alot of back road exploring as we meandered back towards home. We stopped in Maddison NH at the post office/ train depot museum. I posed on lots of old train cars for some great pictures.

Fall is my favorite time of year and this weekend was a gift of warm fall weather....just right for adventuring.

Rattlesnake Mt/Squam Lake (pt.2)