Maine

@Noelie84 Thanks for the heads up and sweet pics! Changed the dates on the trip to this friday through monday. Weather looked too good to pass up. Going to check out the wire bridge in New portland, cutting over to Eustis and hopping on the Goldbrook road and making way to the rockwood area. Then to check out the trains and tramway, ice caves, b52, Ripogenus dam and find some wheeling! should be a fun trip, if anyone wants to tag along on any of the days let me know. Its me and two jeeps, wouldnt mind having another tacoma around so we can tow them out when they breakdown No real plan, just an idea where we want to go, the way it should be. Will take lots of pics, because it didnt happen if I dont have pictures.

 

Sounds like a good trip, but this weekend's spoken for on my end. Looking forward to the photos, though!

 

I hope your trip goes well @06toynado. Be interesting to see how much snow is left when you get up into the area around the trains. If I was I back in maine I'd go.

 

Wish I could join you on the trip, but last minute family visit isn't going to alow me to join.

 

Any suggestions for a good breakfast between Augusta and Wiscasset ?

I am going to be down there on the 30th..... But not in the truck. I will be chasing a bunch of Mini's. So far 15 of us are doing a "rally" from Wisscasset to Camden. I am told we will be exercising the turbo quite readily along some back roads. Should be good for a giggle.

 

The A1 Diner in Gardiner is the one I'd recommend. It's nationally recognized, but it can be a little pricey depending on what you're ordering. The food is awesome, though, and I definitely suggest trying the potato hash.

 

Great info....Thanks. I will write that one down.

 

No problem. Slate's in Hallowell also has a good reputation, but I've been unimpressed with them the last couple times I've been and probably won't be back. Long, long wait to be seated, lousy service once we were, and then a 45 minute wait for cold food.

 

What's up guys?! I'm in the Augusta area and wondering if there any trails or places to drive off road around without having to be part of a club. From what I hear there isn't much :/

 

Hello all
I'm staying in Newry Maine for the weekend and looking for a few basic trails or cool spots to check out. I'm on a stock dcsb off road edition.
Any suggestions are greatly appreciated!

 

You could take 26 up towards errol nh and check out the notch. Plenty of dirt roads in the area to explore. Grab yourself a maine gazetteer if you don't mind dropping twenty bucks on it and see what see.

 

Don't know much about the augusta area. Try to avoid it. If you don't mind spending twenty dollars grab yourself a maine gazetteer and find some back roads. You could even just look in one at the store just to get ideas.

 

I think I have one of those gazetteers kicking around somewhere.

Are you talking about Grafton Notch? Haven't been up that way in ages, but wouldn't mind making a day trip.

Don't blame you. I actually live in Gardiner which is marginally better, but still leaves much to be desired.

 

I think so. I always get it confused with evans notch.

 

Went up 26 past Grafton state Park and found a few trails. A good time for someone who is a beginner like me. Thanks for the heads up guys!

Ran into a random blue tundra parked in the middle on nowhere up there - must have been hiking but I was at least 10 miles off the main road.

 

Hmmm parked way out in middle of nowhere during planting season...odd

 

Got back from the trip, crazy time. 620 miles and saw a lot of sweet stuff. Did not go near as I had planned, but thats what makes it an adventure. Will post pics and the stories in a few days. Long story short, the ice caves were covered with snow, the road into the eagle lake tramway was not passible by vehicle because of snow (those were the things I really wanted to see)... (we hiked in and tried taking a shortcut through a swamp, ended up getting soaked from the waste down, walking in two feet of of snow was too exhausting and the setting sun forced us back to the vehicles. And we were short on fuel (roof rack flew off my truck and smashed a gas can and my roof), so we couldn't go back down the other side of Moosehead to see the b52. Every road we went on was thawing and hellaciously muddy or extremely dry and rutted to hell from the logging trucks, washouts were about every mile and if you thought the coast was clear to put the hammer down, you lost your teeth and some front end parts....... Due to working on a lobster boat this was my last free weekend for a while. BUT last weekend in September or first weekend in October, we are headed back. Starting in Greenville to the b52 and headed up to the caves with the tram on the way then out the oxbow way, mark you calendars if your interested, I can get a few people in for free, have some connections with the north Maine woods. Lesson learned, just wait till early fall to go on a cool trip.

 

My wife, 10 mo old and I went up to NH for some off road fun and some backwoods fishing over the very nice weekend. Turns out everything is gated till at least May 1st... So scrapped the idea of staying in the White Mountains for a long weekend and made a dawn drive across the Kangamangus which turned out to be very pretty. From Conway we headed across the back roads up to the NMW. Once we had cleared Milo and we're getting close to the Jo-Mary Rd you could feel the tension leaving everyone. Every brook was high and moving fast. No luck with the brookie fishing but we did scope out a few new streams and a new pond or two.
The roads were ok, if you have AT or MT tires, but you could see where others hadn't been careful and sank to the frame. Thank the lord for active logging road that rarely get gated! It was a great time!

Up at the top of the pass. Always a good time on the Kangamangus and plenty of great views.




There was a ton of snow on the ground in the North Maine Woods. Most was well packed but where it had started to melt traction got a little tricky.




After snacks we started to find some roads had warmed up and we're getting a touch soft.




More than once we found our way blocked by downed trees and other obstacles.




Our RTT makes family camping a breeze, and is warm enough that a 30* sleeping bag was sufficient for temps that fell into the high 20's on Saturday night.



We only saw two moose, a couple deer, and a grouse. But one of the moose sightings was quite the moment, we came around a corner and must has surprised the little guy who hopped around and took off down over a very steep cliff. Which was right about when Hunter (our 2 yo Lab) noticed the moose taking off. It took Hunter a good half hour to calm down. We think he has never seen anything quite like it before.

We did see many tracks from moose and must have been chasing them around a bit!

All in all a great weekend, and made me glad I called in sick on Monday

 

Hey if you are between Brunswick and Camden on Saturday and see 26 Coopers flying low, turbo whistlin', on the back roads ....wave.... I will be one of them.

 

Cold cloudy day for a drive but it's a beautiful piece of the state!