Category Archives: Maine places

A visit to Wood Island with Windows to the Wild

During August of 2021, I kayaked out to Kittery’s Wood Island Lifesaving Station with with Windows to the Wild host Willem Lange and producers Steve Giordani and Phil Vaughn, where we spent a lovely day with Sam Reid, president of the non-profit Wood Island … Continue reading

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Rangeley Days Redux: Moose, mountains, and memories

Rangeley, Maine – Our first day at the lake was windy and mostly gray, a good one for moose hunting.  We don’t always get our moose, but with the right timing and luck, we’d bagged moose last year and the year … Continue reading

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Walking with the mothers at Vaughan Woods, South Berwick

South Berwick, Maine — On Mother’s Day this year, I went for a walk with the mothers in Vaughan Woods State Park. Vaughan Woods is a popular local walking spot, as it includes, along with its three miles of trails, … Continue reading

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Monuments, politics, and the cycle of forgetting: Remembering Bashka Paeff’s “Horrors of War”

In Kittery, Maine, beneath the shade of an oak tree on a peaceful green common stands a monument that once stood in the cross-hairs of a politician who didn’t like its focus on the horrors of war. Today, many pass … Continue reading

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New Wilderness Voices: November 7 reading at RiverRun Books

On that morning after the ice storm, I left my chilly powerless house to warm up in the forests of Mount Agamenticus.  My goal: to hunt down a tiny aphid-like insect, the woolly adelgid, that kills hemlock trees. I had … Continue reading

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The Little Lodges that Could: Exploring Maine’s North Woods with AMC

I stepped outside the Library to watch the sunrise glow on snow-covered Long Pond. Not a soul or a sound deep in the North Woods of Maine. Instead of the buzz of the snowmobiles that flock to these parts come … Continue reading

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Celebrating the new year in hut heaven: Champagne toasts at Maine Huts & Trails

At Poplar Hut, nestled on a hill in Maine’s Carrabassett Valley, the staff sets out the champagne glasses at 9:30 p.m.  By 10 p.m., most guests will be fast asleep in their bunks, worn out by an afternoon of snowshoeing, … Continue reading

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Searching for the lost village of Punkintown

In the 1920s, unmarried sisters Mary and Almira Payne reportedly were the last residents of Eliot’s Punkintown, a small community of 10 or so families who once lived near the outlet of York Pond. One town history relates Mary had no legs … Continue reading

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Lives lived, and lost, at the Kittery Town Forest

Sometimes when I walk in Kittery’s 72-acre Town Forest, I wonder what became of Ella Hill and her girl Annie. From 1891 to about 1897, Ella and Annie lived here at the Town Farm, or Poor Farm. In 1891, the … Continue reading

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Hiking the Baldface Circle Trail, plus twenty

The guidebook describes the Baldface Circle Trail as “a strenuous trip not to be underestimated,” but I didn’t remember it as so. I first hiked this 9.8 mile loop with my husband back in 1997 in early November. Then, I … Continue reading

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