Day 56 – Rain and a thunderstorm came through last night. Muddy out, 66 degrees & humid at 8:30 a.m. We packed up & got ready to leave. Maybe at our next campground we’ll have an internet connection and can post the Blog, and a cell phone signal so we won’t have to drive somewhere to make a call & check for messages? Just as Rob went outside to take down the tent, when I was inside packing up the kitchen, the skies opened up & it poured down rain. Of course, it stopped raining exactly when Rob finished taking down the tent. Rob was soaking wet, as was the tent, when it rains, it pours.
65 miles (1:55), 30770-30835
We departed at 11:15 a.m. after dumping tanks, very humid out, cloudy, 72 degrees. We drove east on Route 26 to Errol, got gas in town (there aren’t many gas stations way up north), then headed north on Route 16, driving along the scenic Androscoggin & Magalloway Rivers; we were looking for Moose along our route. Soon we entered Maine, and as soon as we did the narrow, winding road became rough & bumpy. The kitties were thrilled, ha ha. Yelling ensued from the bedroom.
Click on any picture below to see a slideshow.
The scenery was beautiful, but alas, no Moose. There were signs saying to watch for them. We did. We knew, however, that Maine’s northern woods would give us plenty of opportunities to see them. LOTS of large lakes, very few towns, just gorgeous, dense woods & the occasional cabin. BIG lumber trucks. A few cars or campers. That’s about it.
As we got closer to Rangeley Lake, we started to see more driveways twisting off from the road into the woods, down to the shore of whatever lake we were currently passing. Then at the intersection of Routes 17 & Route 16, we headed south along the west side of Rangeley Lake through the very busy, touristy town, Oquossoc. Civilization! Restaurants! Inns! Boat Tours! Adventure outfitters! Boats! And lots of people! We wondered just how busy our destination, Rangeley Lake State Park, would be.
We turned left on South Shore Drive below the Lake, then towards Rangeley Lake on State Park Road. The Park is large, the campground itself has about 50 campsites on both sides of one loop. The Park Ranger gave us a map with the vacant sites annotated & we drove through. Most sites were either already occupied or reserved in the near future. Our best bet was to choose a non-reservable campsite; then we could stay without having to move when someone else came in who had already reserved the site. There were only three to choose from. We picked site #33M (“M” for Medium – supposedly for 25-foot or less campers), but the site fit us just fine. All campsites, except for maybe 4, were surrounded by trees, offering each some privacy. Several were near the Lake but were occupied & being near the Lake wasn’t a big deal because of the trees between the campsites & the Lake. We had camping neighbors on both sides of us, across from us the site was not occupied, yet.
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We arrived at 1:10 p.m., it was 79 degrees, cloudy & very humid. By the time we’d decided on a campsite, checked in, filled the fresh water tank, had lunch & set up, it was close to 3 p.m. We decided not to put up the screened tent. Thunderstorms & heavy rain were forecasted, and we’d only paid for two nights since we didn’t know yet how long we’d be staying until we had a chance to look around the area & scope things out. We had no electrical & water hook-ups; there was a dump station & water spigots throughout the campground. There were a few bugs, but still less than we’d expected to find. This Park was definitely more crowded than our last State Park, Coleman. Because the lakes around here are very large, motor boating was big in the area. This weekend we bet the campground will be completely full. We do – drum roll, please – have a cell phone signal & an internet connection here. The Blog posts we’ve been unable to send will be going out soon.
We have no electricity so no air condition. It is incredibly humid. We’ve got battery-operated fans on to move the air around. It is SO sticky. The cats are lying around like beached whales. At around 7 p.m. the thunder started & we had a fairly long, heavy rainstorm. That helped a little with the humidity. Ick. Later, off to bed with our sticky selves, hoping for some relief.