Venturing Out on Vacation, Part Ten: Scenic Driving in the Rain

Okay, so where was I? ... Oh yes, The Chapman Inn in Bethel, Maine where Jamie, my mom, and myself had just finished up a hearty breakfast (I had what was "possibly the world's best French toast" which quite possibly was!) after which Fred, our innkeeper, had promised that the rain had stopped and it was going to be beautiful.  Unfortunately, Fred was a bit wrong in his assessment but as we filled the gas tank and headed out for a scenic drive, the skies didn't look too threatening.

Our first stop was the Sunday River Covered Bridge aka The Artist's Bridge in Newry - just outside of Bethel a bit - and easy enough to find if you just follow the signs!

This 1872 wooden bridge was built in the Paddleford truss design which is found only in New England ... you folks remember New Hampshire's Peter Paddleford that I mentioned way back in an earlier post who modified the Long truss to create a durable system of interlocking counterbraces, right? 

The 87-foot bridge was closed to traffic in 1958 when a new bridge was built downstream and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on February 16th, 1970.  It's more widely known as the Artist's Bridge because of its reputation as being the most photographed and painted historic covered bridge in Maine.  I guess whoever is keeping track of that can add me to the list!

Not only was the bridge itself quite photogenic, but the surrounding area and the Sunday River were rather nice, too!

Back when we were over in North Conway, Jamie had gotten a small stuffed skunk in the gift shop that she decided she would pose with whenever I insisted she stand still and smile so her she is with her skunk - I guess this is sort of a smile!

Speaking of smiles, someone before us was having some fun with acorns!

By the by, I just have to share a link to a website that I found yesterday with pictures from a wedding that was held on the bridge in 2009 because the pictures are just so well done and the ceremony looks like it was wonderful! My best wishes to Amy & Chad - the happy bride and groom - I hope their love lasts as long as the Artist's Bridge has stood and longer!

Leaving the Artist's Bridge behind to the other folks who were starting to show up to capture its beauty themselves, we headed north out of Newry and up Route 26 towards Grafton Notch State Park. Our first stop there was the beautiful Screw Auger Falls - one of Maine's most heavily visited waterfalls. 

Screw Auger Falls (and no, I don't know how it got its name!) is a 30-foot plunge over the lip of a broad granite ledge into a gorge. Below the main plunge, the Bear River travels through a curvaceous gorge while it drops an additional thirty feet in a series of cascades past giant potholes, shallow pools and grottos.

As glaciers began to melt thousands of years ago, excessive amounts of water flowed into the Bear River carrying rocks and sand along with the current which provided consistent abrasion that smoothed away the gorge walls to create “potholes” that are still visible today from the gorge above the falls.

Unfortunately, it was at this point that the rain that Fred had declared to be gone decided to make a return appearance so I wasn't able to get as many pictures as I'd have liked of the area.  I'd learned my lesson back down in Jackson that slippery rocks and myself were not a good combination so I grabbed a few more quick shots before we got back into the car to continue our drive! 

Even the skunk had stayed in the car while we were at the falls as Jamie didn't want to get it wet! 

There was another set of falls in Grafton Notch State Park called Mother Walker Falls that I would have liked to have seen but they were a bit further of a hike from the road than Screw Auger Falls and the rain was starting to come down way too hard for us to make the trek out there and back.  We did get out of the car long enough for me to shoot this picture in the area of Mother Walker Falls, though!

When you add on the fact that it had gotten a bit cold in addition to the rain there was no way that my thin-skinned-former-Florida daughter was going to tromp through the woods to go see some falling water!  We didn't get to see Moose Cave for the same reason but it's up there, too. Maybe I'll get back that way someday when the weather is a bit more pleasant ... maybe!

Leaving Grafton Notch State Park behind, we continued our drive up to the northwestern part of Maine in the direction of the Rangeley Lake region - another spot that Yankee Magazine had declared to be more than worth going to for foliage.  Along the way, though, I came across another one of Maine's nine historic covered bridges which spans the Magalloway River near Lincoln Plantation - i.e., the middle of nowhere!

In order to get to this bridge, you have to drive through the Aziscoos Valley Campground which is next to the river. It was a nice looking little place and obviously empty on a dreary Thursday though I suspect the upcoming Columbus Day weekend may have brought a few people out - provided the weather got better!



Built in 1901 using the the Paddleford truss design, the bridge is 90 feet in length and cost approximately $1,000 to build. Closed to traffic in 1985, the bridge underwent a $581,000+ restoration in 2005. Ouch! Like Maine's other historic covered bridges, the Bennett-Bean bridge was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on February 16th, 1970.



Something that I hadn't noticed until I was editing pictures last night is that in the picture above, there are quite a few orbs that I really have no idea how they got there.  Obviously there was no sun flare as the day was really overcast, the rain had stopped for the moment while we were there so there were no water droplets on the lens, and I highly doubt that we had kicked up any dust either!  If you biggify the picture, you can see a series of orbs leading into the bridge itself.



In this picture above, you can see a well-formed orb to the left of the shot and yet in the picture below, which was taken immediately after the first one as I tend to shoot in continuous mode most times, there is no orb at all.



Things that make you go hmmm ... Anyhow, as you can see, Jamie brought out her skunk for our walk around the bridge but she's still not exactly smiling!  Of course, how many teenagers would be smiling while their mom drags them around in cold rainy weather in Maine to take pictures of old bridges?  Probably not a lot but all things considered, Jamie did very well on this trip!

Getting back into the car where my Mom had been reading a book while Jamie and I explored the bridge, we continued on our 75-mile scenic route from Bethel to Rangeley driving past a whole lot of nothing except for the occasional sign for a campground or logging road until we reached the Rangeley Lake Scenic Overlook on Route 17 where someone had gifted a nice rock to the State of Maine!



Unfortunately, it was at this point that the rain really started up again along with a wind that was whipping along at a pretty good clip so I was the only one stupid brave enough to get out of the car to try to take a view pictures of the view I'd driven all this way to see!



Just so's you know - Rangeley Lake is 6,000 acres in size and has a maximum depth of 145 feet.  I bet it's real pretty when you can actually see it, too!



Oh well ... you can't argue with Mother Nature and win, can you?
Next stop was another spot that was reported to be absolutely beautiful - Height of Land ...



According to everything I had read prior to going on our trip, Height of Land "is one of the most stunning and unsurpassed outlooks in the state of Maine and offers the traveler beautiful panoramic westerly views of hundreds of square miles of pristine lakes, majestic mountains and lush forests that dazzle viewers in the autumn with rich shades of red, orange, and yellow. Enjoy the beautiful views of the clear blue Mooselookmeguntic Lake, as well as the spectacular White Mountain chain in neighboring New Hampshire."



Uhm, yeah ... about that ...



That's Mooselookmeguntic Lake –at 16,300 acres the 4th largest lake in Maine with a maximum depth of 139 feet.  The name comes from the Abnaki Indian word for “moose feeding place” but there's a humorous legend that states that a brave was out hunting moose in the area and saw one but he had forgotten to load his rifle,  Taking the shot anyway he afterwards yelled about his misfortune to the moose, which wisely ran off before the rifle could be loaded.  No doubt everyone had a good chuckle about the incident around the campfire later that night - where they probably weren't dining on moose!



Even though we were there a little before peak for the foliage, I bet had the skies been clear rather than covered with low-lying clouds that it would have been a very spectacular view but alas, that wasn't to be the case on this trip.



I turned back out onto the road which was doing its best impression of a washboard (just FYI, the Appalachian Trail crosses Route 17 immediately adjacent to this turnout) and continued south in the hopes that maybe we'd leave the bad weather in the upper elevations and I'd find those blue skies that Fred had promised us!   Along the way, I caught sight of another spot to stop and pulled over next to Coos Canyon where I managed to get Jamie and her skunk out of the car with me - woohoo!



According to the Maine Department of Conservation Geological website, "On a stretch of road designated as a National Scenic Byway, the formidable Coos Canyon was formed by the violent action of the Swift River as it pours from the Western Mountains across the metamorphic units that underlie this area. The waters of the Swift also carry with it flakes of precious metal from a "mother lode" somewhere out in the hills, making this a popular stop with gold panners."



I didn't see anyone there panning for gold but we did see some pretty interesting rock formations like the one above which covered a huge area next to the canyon and felt more like walking on wood then it did rock. According to the Maine Geological folks, the rocks in the Coos Canyon area are a variety of metamorphic rock units which range in age from around 490 to 400 million years old which are punctured by several bodies of granite and related igneous rocks that are as young as 370 million years old. Oh mai!



As you can see, the Swift River has done one heck of a job in carving this area out even though it may look like it's not that powerful of a river.  Believe it or not, the water depth can get to be up to 20 feet in this gorge!



There's a rather small bridge that Jamie and I walked out on that crosses over the top of the 32-foot deep canyon and trust me, it's a lot higher than it looks - so sayeth she who is not all that fond of heights!



There's that kid not smiling again but in this case maybe it's because those thin guide-wires are all that was between herself and the river below!



Folks in Maine like to put plaques on rocks!



Coos Canyon is located in Byron, Maine which had a population of 121 back during the 2000 U.S. Census, it may have grown some since then but probably not by much as it seemed pretty durned small - but quaint!  The town was incorporated back in January of 1833 and is named for the English poet, Lord Byron.



Even though the population of the town is quite small, the town itself has a total area of about 52 miles and at one time it had six school districts and there were three schoolhouses.  The one above is located directly across from the canyon next to the town's post office.  I'm not exactly sure how old it is as when I took this picture it was starting to rain rather steadily again and I wanted to get back in the car so we could continue our journey south to hopefully a dryer locale!



Next post I'll continue our trip back down to Bethel where I found another covered bridge and something I wasn't exactly expecting to see in Maine!

Five on Friday - The Bluegrass Version

This week's Five on Friday is dedicated to the concert that I attended this past Wednesday night with my cousin in Lexington, Massachusetts by a bluegrass group called "Hot Rize".  I saw this group years ago with the same cousin a long, long, long time ago in Nashua, New Hampshire as well as at the first and only bluegrass festival that I ever attended in New York State back in 1990 - I think it was - called the Winterhawk Bluegrass Festival.  If I remember correctly it rained most of the weekend and there was a lot of picking and strumming and echoing of that high lonesome sound that makes up 98% of all bluegrass music into the early morning hours but I'm pretty sure that I had a good time and I know that I enjoyed whatever time "Hot Rize" was on the stage.  I don't listen to much bluegrass, to be perfectly honest, but these guys I like!

I'm sure I'll be doing a post on the actual concert somewhere down the line here but in the meantime, I ventured over to YouTube in an attempt to at least find five halfway decent videos that didn't have audio problems!  As you can guess, bluegrass bands generally don't make music videos so you have to rely on fan-based clips and unfortunately, quality can be an issue.  And, of course, Playlist.com was pretty much useless this week.

Anyhow, enjoy - hopefully! - and don't forget to pop by Trav's Thoughts and check out the rest of the links for the folks who participate in Five on Friday!

Dona Nobis Pacem - Blog Blast for Peace 2010

Across the Blogosphere today, hundreds of bloggers are united in asking for the world to just give peace a chance. 

 We've tried everything else it seems so what would it hurt?

The Peace Globe Gallery

Venturing Out on Vacation, Part Nine: The Chapman Inn

After planning our trip and deciding that I wanted to try to spend a night or two in Bethel, Maine so that we could explore the area that Yankee Magazine had rated as the #2 spot for leaf-peeping in New England as well as the Rangeley Lakes region which was ranked #9, I then had to see if I could locate a nice place for us to stay that wasn't going to cost me several appendages in the process. Thank goodness for the internet as I was able to find a place that most definitely caught my eye and attention not only because the cost was quite reasonable but because it was historic and it was haunted.

The Chapman Inn, located directly on the Bethel Common, is one of the oldest structures in Bethel having been built in 1865 by a retired sea captain but what makes its history so interesting is that it was owned by one of Bethel's most famous citizens - Dr. William Rogers Chapman.   Named for his father, the Reverend William Rogers Chapman who was a native son of Bethel, Dr. Chapman was a renowned 19th-century organist, composer, and conductor who founded the Rubenstein Club and Metropolitan Musical Society in New York City.

Born shortly before his father's death in 1855, William's mother Emily Irene Bishop (who used to sing duets with the famed Swedish opera singer Jenny Lind) was raising him to follow in his father's footsteps as a clergyman when William experienced an unexplained eyesight failure at the age of 14.  Two rather imminent physicians declared that there was no remedy but in an effort to regain his eyesight, William's eyes were wrapped with bandages and he stayed in a darkened room never seeing a single ray of light for 15 months.  During that time the love of music that he inherited from his mother grew in leaps and bounds and when he emerged from the room with his eyesight miraculously restored, his life had taken on a new direction as a musician rather than a minister.

A lover of Maine as well as music, William Chapman founded the Maine Music Festival which was a series of grand concerts that were held throughout the state starting in 1898. As written in the liner notes of The R.B. Hall Superior Band Book published by the John Church Co. in 1908:

"The Maine Music Festival, under the direction of William Rogers Chapman, became and continued to be for more than a quarter of a century one of the institutions of Maine, and it was recognized throughout the country as one of the foremost annual musical events in America. A chorus was organized in every county of the State, and during the thirty years of its life more than five thousand singers became its members. All the great oratorios were sung and during the last five years of its existence, operas were rendered in costume and with action, among which were Faust, Carmen, Aida, Il Trovatore, and Martha, while others were given in concert form. The Maine Symphony Orchestra which was also organized by Mr. Chapman, was composed of some of the best professional instrumentalists to be found in the state."

Though he lived mainly in New York City, Dr. Chapman would spend his summers in Bethel and invited some of the nation's greatest musicians and performers to stay with him at his residences - one in the Mayville section of town that is currently known as The Norseman Inn and another house on the Common that he named Bethel Hill - the current Chapman Inn.

It is because of Mr. Chapman that Bethel could build its very own opera house, which to this day still stands facing the Bethel Common, and in June 1926 he was honored by the University of Maine with the honorary degree of Doctor of Music - the first time the degree had ever been given by the University to any musician.

Needless to say, Dr. William Rogers Chapman was a pretty big deal in Bethel and though he died in 1935, the house on Bethel Common remained more or less in the family until 1957. I say "more or less" because it was actually the former nanny and companion of Dr. Chapman's daughter Abigail - who died at the age of 16 - that lived in the house until her own death in 1957.

Rumor has it that after Abigail passed away, the nanny took on the role of mistress to William and when he died he left the house and enough money to operate it in trust to Abigail's former companion. While William's widow went to New York and enjoyed the life of a socialite, the companion stayed in Bethel and lived in this house until the day she died. It's believed by a paranormal investigator that the house is haunted by both Abigail and her companion who stayed on to keep her company even after death. If you'd like to read more about the haunted aspects of The Chapman Inn, click on this link.

According to their website, the house still looks like it originally did when it was first built as unlike a lot of buildings in New England it hasn't been subjected to additions over the years and as such it makes for a wonderful old bed & breakfast with a wonderful old history.  When we arrived on Wednesday evening in the dark and the rain it was hard to get an idea of what the house really looked like on the outside but as soon as I walked through the entryway near the kitchen I was reminded of walking into my grandmother's house to visit as it just had a smell that brought me right back to my younger days.  As a matter of fact, every time I entered the house, I was reminded of my grandmother - not a bad thing at all!

The Chapman Inn is run by Fred and Sandra who have apparently been doing it for quite some time if you read any of the reviews over on TripAdvisor and Fred is also the breakfast chef. He bakes his own bread (both white and wheat) as well as Maine blueberry muffins and cooks up what he refers to as "possibly the world's best French toast".  Having ordered it for breakfast on Thursday, I can tell you that the man isn't kidding!  I just wish I had been able to eat all of it along with more of the delicious offerings that were on the sidebar which includes fruit, yogurt, cereal,and  several different types of juices as well as the aforementioned fresh-baked muffins and homemade bread.

Breakfast is included with your stay and if you walk away hungry, it's your own darned fault!  Add on the fact that the coffee was delicious and all I can say is that I wish that I was more of a breakfast person but alas, my stomach usually wakes up a lot later than the rest of me.

The room that I had booked for our stay was Room #2 which is located at the top of the stairs and has two twin beds and one queen.  Needless to say, the room is huge and there was plenty of space for us all to spread out and relax.

There's also a new flat screen TV mounted to the wall, antique furnishings to match the rest of the house, and a closet big enough to put a small child in comfortably!  

If you didn't want to stick the child in the closet there was plenty of room in the enormous bathroom- which was so big I couldn't get a picture of the whole room! 

Oh and there's Wi-Fi - let's not forget the Wi-Fi!  You'd think Jamie would be smiling about that, huh??

Even though the smell of the house reminded me of my grandmother's, the rest of the house reminded me of the house that my Aunt Nancy used to own.  It had the same sort of main staircase and downstairs rooms and her bedrooms were just as large as the ones at The Chapman Inn.  I'd always said that Aunt Nancy's house would have made a great bed & breakfast but I guess that's not something that ever interested her which is too bad as I'm sure she'd have made a very gracious hostess.

In addition to Fred and Sandra, Mike and Molly also live at the house - Mike is the family dog (that I didn't see again after we first checked in and never got a picture of) and Molly is the housecat who is, I believe, right around 12-13 years old.  The first time I saw Molly sleeping on a chair in the living room, I thought I was looking at a fluffy throw pillow!

Having never stayed in a bed & breakfast before, I have to say that I honestly wasn't sure what to expect when it came to other guests and such but to be honest, it really seemed like we had the whole place to ourselves it was so quiet! Even though there were other cars parked outside, the night that we checked in there didn't seem to be anyone else around so imagine my surprise to come down to breakfast and find the dining room quite crowded with folks enjoying Fred's delicious breakfast!  Where on earth did all those people come from??

It was actually very nice sharing breakfast with strangers and hearing what plans they all had for the day as Fred declared that the rain had come to an end and it would be blue skies over Maine - though to be honest, he makes a better cook and innkeeper than he does weather forecaster I'm afraid!  Some of the folks were first-time guests of the inn like ourselves while others, like a couple from California, were repeat visitors who came back because they "loved it so much the first time!"  I'm pretty sure I can understand their sentiment!

As for the ghosts, even though I woke up several times during the nights that we were there, I didn't notice anything out of the ordinary though part of me was rather hoping to!  I didn't tell my mom about the possible haunting while we were there as I wasn't too sure how she'd feel about that sort of thing but after we had checked out I told her about it and she said that she hadn't noticed anything either - nor had Jamie.  I guess maybe that's a good thing, huh? Still, it would have made for a heck of a lot more interesting blog post!

All in all, I'd have to say that if you ever find yourself in the Bethel area and you want someplace nice to stay - someplace that's comfortable and cozy and non-pretentious that reminds you of your grandparents' house - then by all means, get in touch with Fred and Karen and book yourself a room at The Chapman Inn. I really think you'll be glad you did, especially if you try the world's best French toast or one of Fred's delicious omelets and who knows?  Maybe you could come back and tell me that you met up with Abigail while you were sitting in the living room by the fireplace reading a book!

Venturing Out on Vacation, Part Eight: Moseying Over to Maine

This post can now be found in its entirety at Moseying Over to Maine on my travel blog, The Distracted Wanderer. Please click over there to read about the beauty of Bethel, Maine!

What Grows Up, Must Come Down ... Into My Yard!

Okay, so ... how did it get to be November already? What - may I ask - happened to October? Considering it's one of the months with 31 days, you would think it would last a little longer but oh no ... not October ... it goes by like it thinks it's February during a non-leap year! Which figures because October is hands-down my very favorite month of the year and I always hate to see it end.

Speaking of ending, this tree here is the lone tree that stands in the yard here at my humble abode. It's a rather large tree and, as such, possesses quite a few leaves which turn several lovely shades of orange and yellow during my most favorite season of all. Unfortunately, though, those leaves eventually drop after ending their autumn show and we end up with a carpet of leaves on the lawn which then has to be raked up. It's one of those rites of the season that all of us in New England with a yard go through every year.


This year, though, it seems like there are a lot more leaves than usual to rake and bag up.  I'm not sure if it's because the trees produced an overabundance of leaves this year or if it's because all of the neighborhood leaves decided to come over to my house and play and have ended up in the area that I am responsible to rake.

This rather large pile of leaves to the right were leaves that weren't in my yard but had congregated on the sidewalk in front of the house and the curb.  As such, I don't think that they were leaves from my tree but immigrants from another yard.  By the time Jamie and I had bagged up  that batch there and the rest that were just out of the picture, we had filled 10 bags - 10 very large 40-gallon bags that Jamie even sat on a couple of times to compact the leaves down so that we could fit more in.

By the time we got done with those, I was too worn out to even think about bagging up any more leaves so instead we just raked them all into an area next to the hedge on the side yard - a very large area!

These leaves to the left are the next ones that are going to have to be bagged up and put out by the curb for the city to haul away at some point but first I have to go buy some more bags because we ran out after just doing the ones on the street.  And looking at that pile, I get the feeling I need to either buy bigger bags or double the amount that I normally get as that's a lot of leaves.

The worst part is, there are still more leaves that have yet to fall from the trees and what grows up, must come down.  Oh my aching back ...