Day Two – Here Moosie, Moosie!

June 22, 2016 – Millinocket, ME

Our plan today is to “get the lay of the land” before diving into adventures.  Before we even leave home Marilyn checks on our moose-tour reservations and we find that we are all set for Friday at 5:00; if the moose are coming down to the lake we’ll be riding on a pontoon boat!  If they are staying in the woods, we’ll be in a fourteen-person van but there will be lots of chances to get out and hike in the woods to get better shots.  Yay!

There isn’t a coffee pot in our cabin so we refer to Google University and figure out how to make coffee in the microwave!  And it’s pretty good!  Marilyn is the barista and I’m in charge of the oatmeal and blueberries.

After breakfast we head first to the Baxter State Park Visitors Center, which is actually in town!  It’s behind the McD’s, kind of.  The directions are a little sparse but we find it and have a fabulous conversation with Mary Beth, who used to be a school librarian!  By the time we leave with our new waterproof map, we’ve got all of Thursday mapped out!  There are tons of places to see either by car or by short (ish) hikes.  Us flatlanders aren’t looking for a zillion-foot elevation change per mile!

Interesting Rule of Thumb!

With Thursday and most of Friday set, we set off to explore Millinocket.  It’s an absolutely adorable little town, with Fourth of July decorations everywhere. 

 Our first stop is the Moose-Drop In - by Two Broke Moms.  Everything there is handmade and most of it has been crafted by locals!  The biggest draw, though, are the two proprietors, Trish and Jen!  They are hysterical!  And they give us great advice!  They are going to a drag show on Friday night and invite us to go!  We would LOVE that!!  But we’ve got those pesky tour reservations.  Trish says she’ll tell us where to see moose and we can cancel the tour and go play with them!  Well, we probably won’t be canceling;  but we pay close attention to the directions to the moose!  She also tells us to check out the Katahdin General Store and a couple of other shops in town.

I guess when it's mostly winter you have to play mini golf indoors!

Trish and Jen

Check this ingenious mailbox!

 We wander down the main street and realize that breakfast has long since dissipated and we’re ready for lunch! The Appalachian Trail Café is advertising a yummy-sounding wrap and we’re drawn inside.  The theme is carried out throughout the café, with the ceiling tiles all being signed by hikers who have completed the entire Trail!  And there is a Sundae Summit Challenge. Anyone who can finish it gets to sign a pillar in the café and other goodies!  The record for finishing it goes to an Asian man who did it in EIGHT minutes! 

We opt for the salad version of the wrap, since I’m really trying to stay gluten free and the salad also sounds more virtuous.  That is until she says they have GF  corn bread!  And to make it even worse, Marilyn orders the GF flourless chocolate tort and MAKES me share it!

Oh poor me!

Check the Carrot Dog!

Now we’re off to the Katahdin General Store to see what they have to offer.  That turns out to be a little bit of everything and Marilyn finds the cutest stuffed animals for her granddaughters and a cap for her cap-obsessed grandson.

We have just enough time to swing by the cabin and pick up bug spray before we go looking for the moose!  The directions say to turn right at the building with the semi on top, then turn again right after the hospital, onto Golden Road. Then you go about eight miles and look for the spot with water on both sides of the road.  The critters come down to the lake to feed on the water plants around five or six o’clock.  We even had this confirmed by our hostess, Nicole.  She also agreed that our cabins used to be owned by the little airport down the street.  She and her husband, Nick (the baker of deliciousness) have owned them for about twelve years.

Look at the size of those snow chains!

We follow all the turns and go eight miles on a road that alternates between sand/gravel and really bad asphalt.  Then it’s nine miles;  ten miles;  twelve miles, fourteen miles….finally, at sixteen miles we’re in the right place and sure enough, one young male is meandering out of the forest and slowly eating his way down to the water!  After we stop, several other cars join us and one man appears with what must be the lens that ate New York!  Talk about lens envy!  And he’s using a monopod.  I’d never be able to pull that off!  He shoots a LOT of moose and I suspect that he works for or owns one of the galleries in town.

This one's my favorite!

 After two hundred moose shots we’ve had enough and decide to go the last little way to a bridge Trish told us about.  She says that from the middle of the bridge you can get great shots of Mt. Katahdin without going into the park.  Never one to pass up an opportunity like that, we go the extra three miles.  The weather isn’t cooperating.  It was drizzling for the moose shoot and now the sky and light are just plain unattractive;  but what the heck, we’re here and we shoot!  Good thing we brought the bug spray, though, ‘cause those monsters are evil! 

 Back down the, er, road for want of a better word, and we go once again to the KG, this time to buy lunch stuff for tomorrow.  We’ve been told by everybody, that the park has nothing to eat or drink.  In fact, there might not be bathrooms, so we’re going prepared! 

Home again, home again!  Wine, cheese, and GF crackers for dinner, and dessert comes to our door in the form of fresh-backed chocolate muffins like last night’s except that these are iced!  Even better!!

We do a little prep for the morning and Marilyn sacks out while I finish writing.  Great day!!