Touring weekend

This summer I wanted to focus on visiting other “tourist” sites that I have either not visited myself or have not visited in awhile, so I took Friday off from work and headed to Bucksport, Maine. Earlier this week I was reading through a book Jack had gave me for Christmas, “Quiet Water Maine” and found several options for this weekend, after reading each of the lakes high-points I decided to visit Silver Lake, because of its size, layout and it’s located near the new Penobscot Narrows Bridge along with Fort Knox.

I arrived at Silver Lake and found that two other people were Bass fishing in various spots. I put in around 9am, the sun was roughly 3 hours above the horizon which gleamed across the western portion of the lake that created a nice are to sun bath along the muddy shoreline for a Muskrat; although I believe it was actually diving for soft-shell clams. I tried to get my camera out in time to photograph it but Muskrats are very quick in the water. I found a very shallow portion of the sore that had roughly 50 opened shells which obviously must of been a feeding ground for the Muskrat; it had quick access to the water, the shore and cover from small shrubs that had possibly flooded this spring. I followed the shoreline for awhile looking for turtles and after 30 minutes I found a young outstretched Painted turtle a foot down sunbathing on a clay mound.

I paddled by an island within the lake lined with jagged ledge that would rise high enough to climb and at times plunge beneath the surface only visible when the sun was piercing the shallow water. In the distance I noticed a large bird perched on stump in the marshy portion of the lake, once I got closer I could tell it was a Great Cormorant with its distinctive pose (partially outstretched wings shaped as an M). Near the end of my kayak trip I spotted two Loons diving for fish, I think they are very exquisite looking; their long sharp bills used for stabbing prey, black head / neck with maroon eyes, white belly with a black back and white speckles. They are very illusive, I followed them for roughly 30 minutes before giving up on them- I was able to snap one decent shot of them with my 28-135mm lens.

After spending another 30 minutes fighting the unforcasted strong wind I loaded up and headed towards down-town Bucksport where the Penobscot Narrows Bridge is located. I found a nice walkway that follows the shoreline of Penobscot River, it overlooks Fort Knox and the Narrows bridge. I crossed the bridge for the first time and it was much more narrow then it appears (Narrows does not come from that though rather from what the colonists 150 years ago named this passage). There’s an official rest-site to view the bridge from its best angle with a plaque explaining the history of the bridge and narrows, the road that this site lays was once beneath a few hundred feet of ledge that was blown out for new passage to and from the west side of the bridge. I signed in to the visiting area for Fort Knox and the Narrows bridge and parked directly below and in-between the new Penobscot Narrows Bridge and the old Waldo-Hancock Bridge, which provided an interesting perspective of the two. From the 440 foot observatory pylon, you can see 60 miles as the crow flies on a clear day; I could just make out the outline of Mt. Katahdin. The view from the top was incredible, from the vantage point I can see why the colonists chose the location for Fort Knox as it provides excellent coverage of the Penobscot and Orland river that converge from the invading British.

I drove to Kokadjo Saturday afternoon to visit with Dad and Karen, they were not around so I walked next-door (or should I say camper) to my Aunt and Uncle’s to grill a few burgers and visit. Once Dad arrived we drove around on the logging roads looking for Black bear and Moose; while driving down the road we heard an alarmingly loud crashing in the woods, we looked over and to our shock a bull Moose jumped out of the woods and ran parallel with the truck, if Dad would have stuck his arm out the window he could have pet the Moose. We stopped a few miles and jumped over a fence the logging company had installed and walked down a trail that lead us to log cabin encompassed by pine trees. There’s a patch of woods that stretches for 1/8th of a mile until it meets the shoreline of a pond, the bedding of the forest was lined with orange pine needles giving off the sweet aroma of pine and pitch. As we walked back towards the truck a young Bull Moose walked out in front of us and observed a creature that it probably as never smelt before. On our way back to the camp we crossed over Lazy Tom Stream, the sun was just about to meet the horizon behind Big Spencer Mountain; which illuminated the cloudy sky which reflected beautifully off the calm water, the only disturbance you could see came from a Moose in search of a meal.