I had a lazy morning – didn’t get out of bed until 8:30! Then I had leisurely coffee and cereal with an episode of The Office. Finally about 9:30 I made my way over to the office/store to rent my kayak and head out.
I got to chatting with the lady who works there and this guy who was there. The guy said that there was a view point at the top of Moody Mt – darn! He also said that if you took the AT north from the road crossing it gets really steep really quick – they have ladders and ropes and stuff so you can climb up! Glad I didn’t go that way! The lady had the weather report she’d just printed – it didn’t look good! 60% chance of rain this afternoon – after 2, rain tomorrow, rain the rest of the week. Ugh. Glad I’m heading out! LL Bean in the rain will be just fine!
It was 10:00 before I got my kayak and headed out. It was cloudy, but very nice. I paddled around the point of the campground and into the cove behind my site and then up the eastern side of the lake – Sunday I had done the western side. The eastern side has houses and docks and stuff and the western side is all wild.
I’d been paddling about an hour and a half when I decided I needed a potty stop so I beached the canoe among some rocks! The potty stop quickly turned into a swimming stop! I swam around in the rocks for a few minutes – the water was very nice and the air outside was warm! I finally got back into the kayak and continued paddling.
I’d spotted an island that I thought I’d paddle to – it was pretty far out, but I was finding such interesting stuff in the coves and all that I didn’t notice! I finally reached the island at Noon – 2 hours to get there! I discovered that some people were camped on it! Turns out the island was part of South Arm – they have a whole bunch of remote sites that you have to boat to – and it was three miles from the campground! WOW! I paddled 6 miles!
I wanted to go back along the shore because it’s more interesting so I paddled across the lake – it was very wide here and the wind was kicking up a bit so it was choppy. I eventually made it to the other shore and was enjoying checking out all the waterfalls and such, when I thought I heard thunder. It came from the western side of the lake, where there are no people. Uh-oh. The last place I want to be during a thunder storm is the middle of a lake in a kayak. I started paddling faster to get back. I bypassed a few coves that I wanted to explore and skipped beaching that kayak at the swimming beach I’d found on Sunday. I thought my arms were going to fall off. I hadn’t heard any more thunder sounds and it didn’t look like it was going storm, but I wasn’t taking any chances. I finally made it back to the campground. My arms were so tired I knew I’d never be able to haul the kayak back to the rack so I decided to go swimming – the swimming beach at the campground is right by the boat launch. I wasn’t wearing my bathing suit, but I had on nylon shorts, a synthetic hiking shirt and synthetic underwear so it was as good as a bathing suit. The water was so nice I didn’t want to get out! Finally I did, and hauled my kayak back to the rack and took the paddle and life jacket back.
I decided that I wanted to go swimming for real so I went back to the RV and changed into my bathing suit and got a towel. I was the only one swimming for almost an hour when a man and his two kids came down. They’d been coming her for more than10 years! The water was great – clod in places, but mostly warm and the air outside was warm too. They have a dock out in the middle of the swimming area – it was perfect to jump off of! After about an hour I was getting pruny so I decided to get out. It had started raining a little while I was swimming – just some sprinkles.
Not sure if it’s the rain, or if I just hadn’t heard them before but the loons are very talkative today! While I was kayaking I heard the loons, I heard them again while I was swimming, and I’m hearing them now as I’m typing!
As I made my way back to the RV the sprinkles got a bit more aggressive. I gathered my shower stuff and headed over there.
One of the first things I did when I got here on Saturday was take a shower. I have a shower in the RV but it’s kind of a pain to use. It’s very small and you have to be very careful of how much water you use – I have a finite amount of water and if I use too much then I have to go dump the tanks and get more water! My plan had been to shower in the campground when possible, at Blackwoods though they didn’t have showers! So Saturday when I got here I was itching for a real shower. I had checked it out before I went down there and there were coin takers by both showers. So I gathered up my quarters and headed over. I put my quarter in and turned the knob, then turned the water on. It felt so good that I just stood there for a very long time – I was amazed at how long of a shower a quarter bought you! Every day since I have showered and put my quarter in the quarter taker. Last night I was there when another lady came in to shower, I heard her just turn on the water, I didn’t hear the quarter taker. Could it be that the showers aren’t coin operated? Hmmm…. Today I decided to try it, I just turned the water on without putting in a quarter and guess what? It worked! No quarter needed! HA! Wonder how many people they sucker with that?
After my shower I took a quick walk around the campground – very interesting to see everyone’s camping set up! Lots of pop-ups and pull behinds. Many folks are set up for a long stay it looks like! Most folks here have a big diesel pick-up or Suburban type car and almost every car has a boat (canoe or kayak) on top! What’s interesting though is that I don’t see people doing much – everyone has a kayak or canoe, yet I haven’t seen many folks out on the lake. Seems like the activity of choice is to sit at the campsite, and walk your dog, and take the trash to the dumpster! The kids all have bikes that they ride around, and around, and around. I have only seen three other folks swimming! A lot of folks have a dart board stuck to a tree. Most of the folks are friendly, but not too friendly, everyone here seems to be with a group and they aren’t too interested in anyone else! There are a lot of families with kids though and I think that’s great! I think it’s so great that they are bringing their kids here away from TV, x-box, wii, Facebook, etc… I know it’s hard – heck I’m here in my RV typing on my computer and in a minute I’m going to watch TV and I’m listening to music on my iPhone and I def miss checking in with my friends on Facebook, but I think part of that for me is because I’m by myself, if I was here with my parents or friends or whatever, I wouldn’t be holed up with my technology. I wish I could get the kids I teach out of their houses and into the woods for the summer!
After my shower and walk it began raining for real so I retreated to the RV to blog and read and watch TiVo, although so far all I have gotten done is the blogging. At 7:00 they have “Junk Food Bingo” where you bring some junk food as your “admission” – I’m assuming that who ever wins wins the food – I’m going to walk over – it sounds like a great way to get rid of my extra box of granola bars, but I’d better not win anything.
One of the interesting things here is the weather, or rather the temperature. This afternoon I was swimming and I was not cold. It was standing in the middle of the lake on the dock, with a breeze and I was not cold. A little while later I took a shower and put on fleece pants and a long sleeve t-shirt and I’m still comfortable! I’m not hot. It seems that no matter what one wears it’s always just right! Crazy! It was the same in Bar Harbor – if I wore shorts I was mostly comfortable (it did get a little chilly a few evenings), if I wore pants I was comfortable! When I walked over to Junk Food bingo I observed that I could see my breath, yet I’m not cold. Strange, yet pretty cool!
I just got back from Junk Food Bingo. Apparently you bring 1 or maybe 2 candy bars and then you get that many boards. They were a little shocked with my whole box of granola bars! They accepted them though and gave me as many boards as I wanted! I only took 4 because I really didn’t want to win, I just wanted to get out of my RV for a little while! It was mostly kids – a whole group of them that seemed to know each other, they might have been cousins. It appeared that they come here every year and stay a week or so because one of the girls was leaving tomorrow and they were getting on her about leaving “early”. There were a few adults but they were all there with their kids. I sat at a table with some teenage girls who all knew each other so I didn’t really socialize, although the kids were very nice!
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| Maine - Day 12 Kayaking at South Arm 2 |
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