On The Saco River,
Brownfield, Maine
Photo link:https://goo.gl/photos/1iLK2gBA52idiZ78A
For our next stop, we headed toward southwest
Maine in the Lakes Region. We found a beautiful RV park, On the Saco Family
Campground. It was literally on the Saco River which we were looking forward to
kayaking. We arrived there on Friday August 26th, setup camp and met our
wonderful RV neighbors. Again we found several of RV neighbors there were
actually from Maine not too far away, and were keeping their campers there on a
seasonal basis. The owners of the campground were also river outfitters; they
rented kayaks, canoes, tubes and offered shuttle service.
During our time there, I ran shuttle for Kurt and dropped him off
on the river 5 miles upstream. He enjoyed his day of kayaking and caught a 5
pound black smallmouth bass, which he later fried up for dinner. We also went kayaking another day with the
dogs to paddle a 3-mile trip down the Saco River. It was a nice day and all 4
of us really enjoyed it.
We found a local hiking trail called Burnt Meadow Trail. It
was supposedly a moderate hike but again we found it was more strenuous than
advertised. The five-mile trail was actually quite beautiful up to the 1575'
summit of the mountain. As we neared the top, I was faced with a six-foot-high
rock face that I would need to climb up and over. By that point I was pretty
exhausted and decided it was not a smart thing for me to take that risk. So
Kody and I decided to head back down the trail and would wait for the other
two at the truck. Kurt took some beautiful pictures at the summit of the surrounding
views and eventually finished the five-mile loop. When he got back to the truck
he even admitted that the trail was more strenuous than he had anticipated.
I had also found some highly rated mountain bike trails just
across the state line in New Hampshire in the town of North Conway. We drove
over there and rode several miles of the trails. They were fun trails, but not
so easy to follow as they weren't well marked. However, we still enjoyed the
ride and exercise.
We loved the Saco Campground so much that we extended our
five days to seven to make it a full week. It was so well worth it, a wonderful
campground with great people and great owners. We highly recommend this
campground to anyone wanting to travel through that part of Maine.
Gifford Woods State
Park, Rutland, Vermont
Our next stop on our way heading west was a return to our
favorite place in Vermont, Rutland. We again camped at Gifford Woods State Park
and even had the exact same camp site as we did in July. We really love the
campground and the whole area around Rutland that we just had to go back one
more time. One of my favorite things about Rutland was the wonderful mountain
bike trails in the city park of Pine Hill. We rode there for two days and truly
enjoyed these wonderfully engineered and maintained trails. During this visit,
I was able to accomplish more due to the riding that we have been doing on our
whole trip. Over the summer, my riding skills have improved greatly and I was also
extremely happy to have accomplished getting to the very top of this mountain
in Pine Hill Park. Of course, the ride down was even more fun. We both had two
wonderful days there and someday we hope to go back again.
Our last day in the area we drove over to the Killington ski
resort. During the summers they have downhill mountain biking on the ski
slopes. This is an extreme mountain biking experience and you have to have the
proper protective gear and even special mountain bikes to ride on the downhill
slopes. The riders take their bikes up to the top of the mountain on the
Gondola lift and then ride downhill. I
did drop off Kurt at the base of the gondolas, where he was able to ride some
other slopes downhill that were not as extreme as the upper ski slopes. We met
some really nice folks from Massachusetts that had been riding there for 3
days. They were well-equipped and explained to us all the hazards and safety
gear required to ride there.
Again we truly enjoyed our three days in the Rutland area.
There's just something about that part of Vermont that just feels like home to
me. Hopefully someday we'll go back to that area and spend much more time. Our
next adventure will be in the Adirondack Mountains of New York.
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