Weather: Very light showers on and off all day
Portage: 1
One mile, mostly uphill to Oquossoc along a paved road, but not nearly as bad or long as the Sheldon Springs portage, which I'm using as a benchmark of difficulty. All wheelable.
Wildlife: Mergansers, geese, loons, otter, beaver, herons, eagle
Dinner: Cheese and crackers, chili, brownie from the Gingerbread House
Woke up to fair skies and sunshine. Let Joyce sleep in while I downed two cups of coffee, solved one Sodoku puzzle and read the entire local tourist publication.
Paddled across Mooselookmeguntic back to Haines Landing and began the portage in light, refreshing rain. Stopped at the Gingerbread House for lunch. (Had been considering stopping there for dinner the night before before we decided to cook in camp.) Split crab cakes, Asian sesame chicken salad and a chicken with/green apple and brie sandwich. Started raining again just as we were ready to leave, so we got ice cream first.
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| Finishing our ice-cream in front of the Gingerbread House as the rain stops. |
Paddled across Rangeley Lake to the state park when the lake was relatively calm and arrived in heavy, rolling swells. We stopped at an occupied campsite to find out where the office was located and were directed to paddle on to the boat landing (probably faster than trying to walk through the sites to the campground office and back again), where we left the gear and walked up to the office. (It's left at the top of the hill when you come from the water.) Took site #28 which is adjacent to a trail that leads to the water for very easy access. (If you can't get a site right on the water, this was a good second option.) There is a grassy area where you can stash a canoe overnight. After dinner, we went moose "hunting" in South Bog, but only saw an outstanding sun setting behind Bald Mtn., otters, herons and a beaver.
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| Sun setting on Rangeley Lake |
