Cataract Falls. Calling it a Day.

Maine Week Travelog #30
Andover, ME - Sunday, 20 Jun 2021, 4pm.

We began the day today with a list of hikes we'd like to take. They were all short-ish, the longest being about 2 miles, and mostly in the same area, so maybe we could do them all. It would depend on how long a) the light lasts and b) our stamina lasts. Unfortunately the hike to Maybe-It's-Dunn Falls (previous blog) took more out of us than we anticipated. It was longer & involved more ascend than our guidebook indicated. We were starting to flag, but Cataract Falls was so nearby we decided to hike it and reevaluate after.



The trail to Cataract Falls was short, as promised, though it was up all the way (also as promised). The views from the top were... uninspiring. I mean, there's a waterfall there. You can see it in the pic I've shared here. But we were well above it, and trees in the narrow canyon partially obscured our views of it.

Is there such a thing as a bad waterfall? No, the waterfall itself is not bad; the issue is choosing where to spend our limited resources: time and, particularly today, energy. After this hike we realized our energy for the day was spent. In particular that meant we wouldn't get to Angel Falls today, the much more promising-looking falls we were rained out of yesterday afternoon. We figured maybe we could hike it today. The news is not all bad, though.... We've rechecked our maps and schedule (in the tiny town of Andover where we have signal) and can get to Angel Falls tomorrow, before we have to drive to the airport to fly home.

Back at the Hotel. Alfresco Dinner.

Maine Week Travelog #31
Bethel, ME - Sunday, 20 Jun 2021, 8pm.

We wrapped up the hiking portion of the day today after Cataract Falls. We thought about pushing on to hike Angel Falls an hour further away but decided that we were already spent. It had been a full day. We'd hiked 5 trails (I only blogged about 4 because one was spur-of-the-moment and turned out to be a bust) and seen at least 8 different waterfalls.

As we rolled back in to Bethel and started looking for dinner it because obvious that calling it a day was the right choice. We were so tired and stiff from all the hiking. BTW, here's the lodge we've been staying at for two days in Bethel, Maine:



We're on the second floor. The room is small and dimly lit so not a great place to do anything other than lie down in bed. As the weather's nice and days are so long now at nearly the summer solstice our natural inclination is to spend time outdoors anyway. I spent an hour or so yesterday evening on the shared porch (I dragged a chair out from the room so I'd have someplace to sit) and also ate my breakfast out there this morning. It's nice outside.

As the lodge is small and basic we were looking for a restaurant to sit down at. Unfortunately most restaurants in Bethel are offering take-out service only right now. It seems to be a combination of lingering concerns about Coronavirus (Maine has a lot of pandemic deniers and hence had a relatively high rate of infections until just recently) and trouble hiring enough staff. Sure, the restaurant we ate at last night was offering eat-in service, but we didn't want to go back to that racist clown show. So instead we got take-out food from an Italian restaurant where the staff is rude to all customers equally. Frankly, order food from a brusque woman at the counter is way less insulting than being stared at and pointed at by people who refuse to serve us.

Anyway, we had food in hand, but the question was where to eat it. The small Italian restaurant had a few picnic tables outside. "If we're going to eat outside anyway," I suggested, "How about we just go back to the hotel where we can also wash up and relax?"

That left the question of where to sit as the room was so small, but I already had a plan for that.



We dragged the room's small table and chairs out to the porch, setting up an impromptu bistro next to our room. The food was good, the drinks were cheap (tea and beer at supermarket prices, not restaurant prices), and the ambience was.... well, relaxing. Just a view across the lawn to mountains in the distance with not another person in sight.

Rained out of Hiking. Let's Go Shopping!

Maine Week Travelog #32
Freeport, ME - Monday, 21 Jun 2021, 1pm.

Once again our plans on this trip changed and we called an audible. Our plan for today had been to finish up the trip with a hike to Angel Falls— which we've postponed twice already— and then drive to the airport in Portland for our flights home. At least, that was the plan as of yesterday evening up through early this morning.

The weather was fine early this morning as I ate breakfast outside on the porch. But then as we started pulling our packs together it started looking a bit iffy. "Should we hike or not?" we wondered. We decided a few clouds wouldn't scare us off. But then, in the space of 10 minutes as we finished loading our packs, the sky opened up and poured rain. "That's it," we decided. We dumped our hiking packs, changed from hiking clothes into street clothes, and repacked our suitcases.

Our decision not to hike may seem abrupt, but that's because we already had a Plan B in mind. We'd go shopping. And sightseeing. And hiking, at least in spirit— by seeing the world's largest boot!



Down near Portland, in the town of Freeport, is the headquarters of L. L. Bean. While famous for their catalog store they also have this huge bricks-and-mortar store— fronted by a huge boot! I read about the boot over a year ago in some article about odd tourist attractions. Knowing we were headed out to Maine sooner or later, Hawk and I filed it away on our mental list of "Things to do, if we have time and we're in the area." Well, with hiking rained out we had time, and Freeport wasn't too far off from Portland.

In addition to having fun photographing and posing with the giant boot we also spent 45 minutes or so shopping inside the store. Huge outdoors-goods stores aren't exactly novel to us; we've been members of the REI co-op since practically just weeks after moving out to California.. whoa, almost 25 years ago! We wrapped up our trip without buying anything. Now we're headed to PWM airport and home.