Vaction in Maine

[Gavin W. Hooks]

Hey Maple Community, my wife and I are going to spend a week in Maine in June. We will be visiting the Arcadia National Park for most of that week but would love to hear from others what would be a must see in the area within driving distance. We have never been to Maine and would love to see everything we can within reason. Will be staying in Bar Harbor and Clark Point. Flying in to Bangor.

ALSO... I got my wonderful wife to agree to letting me see a maple operation with tubing set up, if possible, on one day of the visit. :) Does anyone know any possibilities in that area???? It would be much better to see when running but hey, I'm from Missouri and have never seen a bush set up with tubing properly.

Thanks for any suggestions.

Gavin

[Rangdale]

Depending on how far you want to drive, I highly recommend Katahdin Iron Works. It's absolutely gorgeous and is about a 2.5 hour drive (about 100 miles) from Acadia.

[Atgreene]

Heck, if you're going to drive to KI, might as well keep going to Millinocket, hop on the golden road, from there its only 100 miles to the biggest maple county in the country, Somerset County. From roughly mile 90 to the Quebec border there are 30+ (maybe more?) huge maple operations. I talked to Fabienne Larivierre the other day, his family has 85,000 taps, just swapped to an electric evaporator, and they aren't the largest.

Then again, you can probably find a few up in central maine, but don't ever give up the chance to see the operations on the golden road. ;). Check out the maine maple producers web site for a list.

[Rangdale]

Agreed, drive the extra distance to the Golden Road, you won't be disappointed. And you can stop by Elephant Mountain and see the crashed B-52 in the woods. Not much left now but still pretty cool.

[Atgreene]

If you want to impress your wife, book a room at The Lodge at Moosehead Lake in Greenville. The only 5 star hotel not on the coast. Went there for our honeymoon. Or, Pittston Farm is good. Tell Jen I said hi. If you can get up to the golden road, backer camp, Jackman, you'll see more maple than anywhere else. Other than beautiful scenery, logging trucks and moose, however, there isn't much there.

[Gavin W. Hooks]

The Moose Head Lodge looks awesome. Looking into that and a drive on the Golden road. Thanks so much.

[maplestudent]

I don't live in Maine however it is my preferred vacation spot.

For a different kind of experience, you might want to visit the Wreaths Across America Museum in Columbia Falls. http://www.wreathsacrossamerica.org/ It is probably a 1 to 1.5 hour drive or so from Bar Harbor. It is a small museum, however I don't see how anyone that visits it could not be moved in some way.

When me and my group went, we were the only ones there and pretty much got a private tour. There is no fee, though I dropped a few bucks, that I had in my pocket, in the donation bin as we went in. Upon leaving, I went out to my car to get my wallet, went back in and made a larger donation. I was that touched by the visit.

[Gavin W. Hooks]

Just wanted to thank you guys for the tips about visiting Maine. We just got back and had an awesome trip. Got to see some tubing in the woods briefly and drive on the Golden Road. One night at The Lodge at Moosehead Lake was tremendous. Thanks Atgreen. Loved the Acadia NP. Nothing about Maine we did not love (in the summer) :). Was struck by the way the population is concentrated on the coast. Great trip. Thanks again.

[Atgreene]

Glad you got to see some of the real Maine. A lot of visitors assume there is nothing but coast.