The Places Between 3
Sunday River, Newry
This post was originally published September 28, 2023.
My favorite places to drive in Maine are the roads heading out west towards the New Hampshire border. The large peaks of the White Mountains are beautiful any time of the year. I’ve driven out west many times for both work and pleasure, and every time there’s a moment where I smile excitedly and exclaim “The Mountains!” I don’t think I’ll ever stop being excited by their presence. At least, I hope I never do.
During one of my business trips out to Newry, Maine, it was raining. A soft drizzle fell over the sky threatening to beat down the vibrant red, yellow, and oranges of the tree leaves. As I drove a winding dirt roadway towards Sunday River Ski Resort for a multi-day conference, I pulled off to the side as the clouds began to part. I took a million pictures and tried my panorama shot for the first time on my new phone. There was so much to see, and I couldn’t imagine any part of the view being left out of a captured image.
Maine Mineral and Gem Museum
Another business trip led me next door to Bethel, where I was working with the Maine Mineral and Gem Museum on the same project I was working on when I visited the Damariscotta shell middens. Despite being an archaeologist, rocks never interested me much. However, the museum had a few rocks that caught even my attention. That’s because they were from space. Despite being a small museum out in the middle of rural Maine, they had quite the collection, and managed to snag the largest meteorite from Mars. That’s right! The planet Mars. They also had some very cool meteorites from the Moon. They let me hold a bigger one, which had nothing to distinguish it from an Earth rock, except the label on the cart and the growing feeling that I had something in common with an astronaut.
Androscoggin Riverland State Park
One Easter, the same day I visited Googin’s Island Public Boat Access, I hopped over the river and visited Androscoggin Riverland State Park. There were two other people there, and as our paths diverged, I found myself walking along a slow moving stream, surrounded by fresh spring growth. It was a nice, sunny day, and I enjoyed the stroll, keeping an eye out for any birds, but the woods remained quiet for all except the breeze.
Angel Falls
During the summer a year earlier, I visited another walking trail out west. I had heard about waterfalls in Maine, but only knew of the small ones, like the Mariaville Waterfalls, which stand at most three feet tall. I put my fingers to the keyboard in search of some taller ones and set my GPS to Angel Falls. The hike was short and filled with locals. I bounded from rock to rock, crossing streams and pursuing the path that eventually led to the 90 foot tall waterfall. It may not have been running at its greatest flow, but I still sat down and stared for a long time. I understand now why waterfalls are such big tourist attractions. 90 feet may not be tall for a building, but for a continuous stream of water, it's breathtaking. The natural world can create some amazing things, and sun-warmed stones at the foot of a waterfall are gorgeous, my mind, body, and soul falling in sync with the sound of the water filling the pools below.
White Mountains
COVID lockdown meant spending a lot of time indoors. As my chronic pain worsened, I sought out other hobbies to busy myself with and ended up joining an online group to play games. We played virtual card games, dice games, and tabletop role play games. One good thing about the lockdown was that it was less weird to make friends online. I write every week with one of the people I met, and when I heard that her family was making a trip to the White Mountains, I had to go out and visit her. After almost two years of weekly voice chats and video calls, we were meeting in person for the first time. It didn’t feel like I was meeting her though, and we quickly fell into our usual rhythm, playing games next to each other in a cabin overlooking the mountains instead of behind our computer screens a thousand miles apart.