The fourth March weekend in Maine is Maple Syrup Weekend, particularly Sunday.  Since it is supposed to snow five inches tonight, Debbi and I set out on Saturday to learn about maple syrup.  We first headed west to Dover-Foxcroft, to Bob’s Sugar Shack (https://mainemaplesyrup.com/).  Bob is 80 and has been making maple syrup for 70 years.  It’s a commercial operation and accessible to many areas, so there were a bunch of people. The retail shop offered lots of maple products—syrup in a variety of shapes and sizes of containers, maple sugar candy, maple-syrup glazed popcorn, maple flavored BBQ rub, and maple sugar cotton candy!  Helpers were serving small bites of maple cookies and even vanilla ice cream with maple syrup on top (Deb nommed that!)

Bob’s operation uses oil fired burners to boil off the water content of maple sap to reveal maple syrup.  We chatted with Bob and a couple of his folks about the very large boiler.  At full blast, the burners use 27 gallons of fuel oil an hour to reduce the maple sap by a 40:1 ratio down to syrup.  Bob buys sap from 6000 taps over six local areas, and there can be up to four taps per tree.  The sap is collected into very large tanks and gravity fed into the boiler.  The boiler uses heat recovery to warm the incoming sap to almost the boiling point.  It then follows a serpentine path in the boiler to get all the water out.  Think the waiting line for the E-ride at Disney, back and forth until you get to the prize.  The boiling area is very steamy, warm and humid.  Our skin rejoiced at humidity for the first time since early February!

We then headed northwest to Shirley to a smaller sugar shack.  Baker’s Maple Syrup (https://sites.google.com/site/bakersmaplesyrup) is in the Maine highlands (ears popped on the drive there) and taps about 1300 trees, with a gravity feed down to the shack.  They use a vacuum pump to suck the sap down from the trees, because the closest tree is about 1000 feet away from the shack.  Sap flow is at the mercy of temperature.  If the temp is freezing, then the sap freezes in the collection tubes.  Today, the temp topped out at 37°F, so the sap was not flowing real well.  Mr. Baker has been making syrup for 40 years.  Here we learned of the complexity attendant to syrup;  temperature and humidity affect everything; hygrometers and hydrometers are essential!  This boiler is fired with birch offcuts from a local sawmill, in a cast iron firebox from Quebec.  They monitor the flue temperature, wanting it to range between 600°-900°.  They do have a small (800 gallons) ready tank, but truly depend on sap flowing.  Again, warmth and humidity were wonderful!

Of course, we bought syrup and candy at both places. You can order maple-anything online!

Afterward, we were hungry, so found the Dockside Inn in Greenville.  The pub sits right on Moosehead Lake, and clearly will be touristy in summer.  We watched snowmobiles on the lake, and wondered that the ice was still strong enough to support them. The seafood chowder was muy delicioso and the Baxter IPA was also. Deb had a Swedish pear cider, Rekorderlig. Imagine cider imported to South Carolina from Sweden, then shipped to Maine. Couldn’t some wandering mariner have brought it directly?

On our way home, we bought takeaway IPA at Bissell Brothers in Three Rivers.  Suds for the snowy day tomorrow!

Looked out the back of the apartment this morning and saw a flock of about twenty wild turkeys making their way through the woods some distance off. Grabbed my camera, put on a 200mm zoom and shot a few pictures.

This is not the first time we’ve seen wild turkeys. Twice, we have seen a handful alongside I-95. We presume they are browsing the snow for the salt from road treatment.

Most folks know that I-95 is one of the most important north-south highways on the US east coast.  It stretches from Maine to Miami, a little over 1900 miles.  We’ve been to the southern end, and since we’re in Maine, decided to go to the northern end, which is a few miles east of Houlton, Maine, on the border with New Brunswick, Canada. 

We set off cross-country on Saturday, traveling through the small towns of Lee, Springfield, Danforth, Orient, Cary Township and Hodgdon.  Again, lots of snowy fields, pine and birch trees and rolling hills.  It felt like it did when we were bucketing across Scotland, as the roads are up and down and quite rough from frost heave.

We got to Houlton feeling hangry, so we found a lovely brew pub, the Shire Ale House.  It is inside an indoor arcade, in the old sense of arcade.  A family bought the arcade and are developing it.  There’s a kitchen gadgets store, a shop selling crystals and incense, the brew pub and a live gaming shop.  The gaming shop is board games, DnD, action figures and such, with maybe some computer games.  Lots of interesting folks. 

The brew pub seemed to be a combo of Irish and Hobbit, with neat names on the menu (see below).  Deb had the Gunslinger pork chop and I the Roast Beast, both of us the roasted root vegetables (lots of yummy beets!) and a glass of Mason porter.  You’ll remember from earlier post that we had lunch as the Mason Brewery in Bangor.  The food was great!

After lunch, we found a used book store and browsed for a while.  Deb found a great knitting book, but Jim was unable to find family histories, which he collects if they pertain to family lines.

We came back via I-95 for speed, also hoping for a different view of Mt. Katahdin than we saw on the way up.

We’ve been taking the advice of someone in Deb’s clinic who has recommended brew pubs and other places to visit.  One of the recommendations was to go to Herring Brothers butcher shop in Guilford and stock up.  Jim called before leaving and was assured they had lamb in the freezer, a major motivator since we cook all sorts of lamb-based (not lambaste) recipes.  So, we drove about an hour west through snowy fields and small towns to the shop.

The shop had some talkative folks who were happy to help the southerners.  We bought lamb stew meat, ground lamb, two Maine-raised NY strip steaks and three boxes of shop-made beef jerky.  We later sent two of the jerky boxes to our sons, who have reported great satisfaction.  Jerky is one of those things that you find in various places, and the commercial stuff is sometimes crap.  Last time good jerky was found was in Perryville MO at a bratwurst shop.  Hmm, great jerky from Maine and Missouri.  Maybe more in Maryland?  The strip steaks were perfectly wonderful that night; we fry them in butter because the apartment has no grill.

There were various sights along the snowy way, and here are some pictures, starting with buildings:

Roadside items of interest:

The Towns of Milo and Three Rivers, very close to each other:

Last time Debbi and I went to the LL Bean flagship store in Freeport, ME, was 1984. Deb had come to Boston from Panama and had no warm coat. Now we’re in Maine, and finding our time in NC has left us, well, cold! So we trekked south about two hours.

We found a brew pub for lunch (of course!). Gritty McDuff’s is a three-location Maine set of brew pubs, in place since 1988. Deb had a lobster roll (lobster salad on bread), I had a lamb gyro, and we both had chowder. Yummy stuff, washed down by local bitters and IPA.

Then to Mother of Purl, a yarn shop, where Deb bought gorgeous Peruvian wool for a vest she might make for Jim. Or, the yarn will go into the stash and never see the light of day! [Editor’s note 3/25/23: the vest is underway!]

Then to LL Bean, where we bought some lined jeans, bathrobes (we should have brought these from home), a wool hat to keep the snow off Deb and replacement chopper buckskin mittens for the ones Jim wore out a decade ago. The store is now part of a huge complex, having grown a whole lot since we were there last. It’s clear from the size of the parking lots that it is a major tourist attraction in the summer. I took only a couple of pictures, and here they are.

Back to Lincoln! Deb works tomorrow and Friday, so I’ll go to the gym and get laundry done. Maybe some genealogy, as RootsTech is on.

Snow is coming and Deb has Tuesdays off.  I had things to do in the early morning, so about 10am we left to find lunch near wilderness.  We drove through Medway and East Millinocket toward the Knife Edge Brew Pub on the edge of Baxter State Park, a true wilderness area.  Except for the small towns, our travel was among snow and trees.  Evidence of logging was everywhere, but softened by the coat of snow lying on everything.  The Penobscot River, which I-95 roughly parallels, was by turns frozen over and then had some open areas.  This area of Maine has a lake every fifteen feet, but the Mainiacs cleverly reduce the wetted surface area (a ship design term) by calling them “ponds.”  Sorry for my demographic slip; actually the locals are Mainers.  I still like Mainiacs better!

We stopped at the Katahdin General Store to compare its contents to the Mast General Store in Valle Crucis, NC.  KGS is smaller, without the breadth of REI-type products, but it does have:

• All the tourist stuff you’d want.  Anybody want a plaid mug that says “Momma Bear” on it?
• Snowmobile helmets, bib suits, snow goggles and really heavy gloves.
• Fishing lures and all the gear you’d need for ice fishing.
• Plastic sleds to carry all the stuff you need out on the ice.  One hitches the sled to a snowmobile.  Confusing, though, because the local term for snowmobile is “sled.”  A sled pulling a sled?  One of the towable sleds was eight feet long and six feet wide … I thought it was a skiff.
• A nice selection of local fudge, honey and jams, just like the Mast!

Had a bit of a double take as we were getting back into the car.  Four snowmobiles (I’ll now refer to them as sleds) pulled up to the gas pumps to refuel.  Weird seeing them on pavement.

We continued west toward the brew pub.  Got up a little bit in elevation on a snowy access road (cinder strewn, Debbi driving slow) and saw Mt. Katahdin.  Kind of low, trees in the way.  The mountain stands 5269 feet tall, lower than NC’s Mount Mitchell by 1400 feet.  Still, it’s the highest point in Maine.  The Appalachian Trail ends on Mt Katahdin, but is not accessible after October 15^th.   Camping is not allowed in Baxter State Park after October 22^nd.  Lot of bad weather.  The Knife Edge (for which the pub is named, of course) is a 1.1 mile trail up the mountain that’s about three feet wide with steep drop-offs on either side.  Not recommended for the casual hiker.

The brew pub has a huge pizza oven, of which I made a poor picture.  I had a local IPA and Deb drank coffee with our very good pizza.  Sleds were parked all over, as the pub is part of a wilderness rental service, plus is a great spot to stop after a wild run through the snowmobile trails.  After lunch, while we were leaving, the four sleds from the KGS gas pumps pulled into the parking lot.  Seems sled trails through the region are legion!

Guess what?  It’ll snow six inches tonight. 

Interesting first week we’ve had.  Cold temperatures, five inches of snow overnight Thursday, Deb worked Monday/ Thursday/ Friday, and some such.

Tuesday we drove to Bangor to buy metal shelves for the kitchen.  There isn’t much counter space, no cabinets and so on.  The Whitetail Inn caters to sports-oriented clients, here for the lakes, fishing, snowmobiling, hiking and hunting.  Correspondingly, it is furnished roughly and we are altering our apartment to suit a longer stay and our desire for comfort.  The apartment is in an old house, top floor.  Nothing is level.  The floors slope to the center and all the doors are wonky.  Reminds us of the three-decker Victorian where we lived in Boston.

We drove to Bangor on ME-2, winding through small towns and next to the Penobscot River.  Very pretty drive, very few vehicles on the road.

After finding the shelves at Home Depot (see the photos of the apartment), we drove to the Mason Brewing Company for very good calamari tacos, a burger and Banh Mi sub with pork belly.  When I get a Banh Mi in Pittsboro, the port is pulled and barbecued (of course!).  The brew was good, and the pub very nice.  Deb had cider and I had Ghost Reaper IPA (sorta spicy).  The pub is on the Penobscot River, which is iced over.  Someone had a brilliant idea to make bathroom urinals out of beer kegs!

We found a yarn shop in downtown Bangor, and Deb bought yarn for a cowl.  We looked for small appliances at Target and bought an electric kettle for tea.  Back home via I-95 with leftovers for dinner.

On Tuesday, we drove back to Bangor to buy a better desk chair for me.  The cheapo I first bought gave me back pain.  Found a decent one on sale at Staples.  Back home again.

Thursday, there was five inches of snow on both vehicles (Debbi has a rental and I have our truck).  I found that the locks on my truck cap were frozen, so I had no access to the snow tools in the bed.  After Deb went to work, I found some lock de-icer and got the cap open.  The foam snow pusher made short work of the accumulated snow.

This weekend, we’ve done some planning for the trip west we’ll make in June.  We’ll probably go to a yarn shop in Millinocket this coming week, and maybe down to Freeport to buy flannel-lined jeans at LL Bean.  What we’re experiencing reminds me very much of winter in Boston and the four months I worked in Ottawa.  We’re getting used to the outdoor temperatures, but nothing can make us like nighttime lows in minus degrees.  Eleven weeks to go!  We can do that standing on our heads (inside).