Wow!  What a summer.  It started in July and just got busier and busier as it went along.  I had to turn down a few jobs because I was just too busy!  I created a slide show for you to see some of the adventures.

Here are the things I got to do:

• Visit to Vermont to see my 96 year old mother and do some sight seeing in my old neighborhood.  Visited the birthplace of Bill Wilson, one of the founders of Alcoholics Anonymous.
  
• Motorcycle ride over Evans Notch in New Hampshire with my motobuddies Dennis and Doug. 
  
• Kayak to Birch Island for lunch in Muscle Ridge, and numerous kayak trips around Camden Harbor for Maine Sport.
  
• Hike Bald Mountain in preparation for Acadia and Katandin.
• Hike Sargent Mountain and Penobscot Mountain in Acadia National Park with a group of four.
• Hike the back side of Ragged Mountain with my daughter.  What started out as a half an hour leg stretching turned into a beautiful four hour hike.
• Bass fishing with my friend Jeff in Lincolnville and catching a big one!.
  
• Anniversary trip with my wife to Stonington with a visit to Sand Beach and the Shore Acres preserve in Deer Isle.  Strong wind and rain kept our kayaks on the roof of the car, but what a lovely place it is to visit and celebrate thirty-three years of marrage!
  
• Summit Katahdin via the Hunt Trail (AT) with a group of three in strong winds and cool weather.
  
• Finally, a camping trip to Warren Island with a group of nine who had been isolating together since March.  They were a terrific team!

Thanks to everyone who made this summer such an enjoyable one.  My creative juices are flowing for next year.  Planning to add a sea plane trip to the North Woods for fishing or recreation, electric bike tours of Vinalhaven, and kayak tours of Rockport Harbor to the list of adventures for next year.  Hope to see you out there!

Enjoy the slide show!

August has been HOT and Steamy!  For the first time in thirty years in Maine I bought an air conditioner.  There has always been hot spells in Maine, but they were usually kept at bay by swims in lake Megunticook, or cool high pressure systems from Canada.  Not so this year.

I took some time off with my wife. We went from Northern Maine, to Southern Maine, to Southwestern New Hampshire, and Vermont.  We started off with a couple days visit to Mt. Chase Lodge on Upper Shin Pond. The weather and accommodations were beautiful.  I got out the fly rod, but was ultimately unsuccessful.  We drove up to Fort Kent, via Rockabema and St. Agatha which was mentioned in Paul Doiron's latest book.  There is a lot of Maine!

We then headed south to Higgins Beach where the weather and the beach cooperated nicely.  Spent some time observing tern families teaching their young'uns how to skim food off the surface of the ocean.  We kayaked in Scarbroough Marsh (picture above). Then off to New Hampshire and Vermont taking  a trip to E. Dorset, VT, and then traveling back through Brattleboro, stopping by one of the best food co-ops in New England, the Brattleboro food Coop.  We took our annual swim in Thorndike Pond in Jaffrey, NH, and visited with my mother who is being very well taken care of in Peterbrough.

It was a nice break from much sea kayaking around Camden Harbor.  It was nice to get away, and it was nice to come home.  We feel so lucky that we have so much to see and do in Maine, and New England.  I hope you and your family get to enjoy some time off. 

I have a couple of trips in the works to Katahdin, and the Maine islands.  More on that later.