Family Road Trip to Maine to New York to PA... Cabin to Tenting...

Chillin' at LL Bean

We normally do not do a week straight vacation, mostly because we like to take a lot of longer weekend trips and space out our vacation time.  But this year, we started out that way, only doing four days in New York's Adirondack's then it turned into my wife wanting to go to Maine again and we filled out the first part of the week enjoying some unplugged time in Maine.  Going through Canada was just an interesting experience in itself.

We left for Maine Sunday night, arriving at the LL Bean mother ship around 10:00 am.  We got out stretched, returned my wife's boots and checked out some things.  Many people aren't LL Bean fans, but I do love some of their stuff and that there's just so much outdoors stuff to be seen.  We spent some time there, my wife picked out new boots (they didn't have them in stock) and had a so-so Lobsta roll and made our way to our destination, a remote Sporting Camp near Jackman, ME, known as Bulldog Camps.

Weather for the trip up was perfect, blue skies and nice temps.  Traffic was light and we made pretty good time getting there.  There's something about driving down roads where there's almost no buildings and when you see a for sale sign, that call out 70 acres, it makes me feel good.

We arrived down a long forest road, first impression was the view was outstanding.  A large. beautiful lake and mountains were laid out before us.  Quiet as can be.  Weather wasn't staying super nice but it was certainly plenty nice.  My son couldn't wait to get into the cabin, he asked us almost immediately, "where's the TV?"  I took him on the front porch, nature splayed out before him for miles, and I said, "here is your TV".  Tacky, maybe, but he got the point.  Never asked once.  We spent out time there paddling the lake for hours, checking out the remote cabin, the massive rock slides, the crystal clear lake and searching for Moose and Loon.  We swam, enjoyed delicious dinners and happily stayed unplugged occupying ourselves with time spent together.  There were times when we'd irritate each other, but they were over quickly.  The kids explored, we included, a hike to hidden falls over a magically bridge was taken.  My son and daughter practiced fishing with their first fishing rods.  He was getting very good and very proud of himself.  My 2-year old daughter did very well also, but will be better next year.  This is the first time we ever took the dogs, mostly because they weren't allowed and it's hard to travel with them and the kids.  They had a blast and were very good.  They're both great camp dogs and my kids bonded more with them more than they ever have.

Our First Humble Abode

The "Remote" Camp...

View From the Dock

The dog is excited...

 As you can see, Maine is amazing.  There were only three Loon's that blessed us with their calls in the evenings but it was still nice.  Some camps I've been to the Loon's keep you awake at night, but it's a nice kind of awake.

Off to Canada, car problems, and eventually New York.

First time for Wife and Kids

America is Popular

Her sleeping routine

 

 

 

 

Me being the Semi Kayak hauling System

After driving with car problems, through Canada (beautiful BTW), we made it to Forked Lake in New York's Adirondack's.  It's a beautiful place, if you get the chance, go.  It's a boat-in/hike-in place, with most sites only boat in access. It's beautiful wilderness and people love and respect the area.  The site we reserved, was a mess, no water access and I'm sure the bugs were going to be horrible because of the marsh/bog like area in front of the site.  I paddled back, asked the caretaker for another site with a beachy area, for the kids, and he obliged with a nice site across from our reserved site.  Had a nice dock and small beach access.

When nature calls...

Room with a view...

More to come...