Vacation in Newry with Leslie and Ian in the Mountains of Maine
For Labor Day Weekend, we spent a 4 day Vacation in Newry as guests at Leslie and Ian’s house on Mount Will in Newry, Maine. We had a great time kayaking, hiking and enjoying the mountain beauty. In this posting I share some of the highlights.
Vacation in Newry started with hiking Sunday River from North Peak to Locke Mountain.
For our Sunday River hike, we parked at the South Ridge Lodge area, took the No 7. “Chondola” ski lift up to the North Peak. We then started hiking south along the Three Mile Trail to the top of Barker Mountain. We took a short break around the No 1 “Barker Mountain Express” ski lift (which was not running), then we continued hiking along the mountain top on the Summit Traverse trail to the top of Locke Mountain.
From the ground Locke Mountain is where a big cell tower sits. From this spot we can see a beautfiul view of both the Sunday River valley and the view west into New Hampshire. This was really nice!!
We then followed the trail back to the North Peak ski lift and roade back down to our car.
Kayak Androscoggin River Shelburne to Bethel.
We put in to the Androscoggin River the spot by the Meadow Rd bridge, just down stream from the Shelburne dam. We paddled to Gilead, got out of the water and had lunch, then continued all the way downstream to Davis Park in Bethel.
The water was high and the current was flowing fast. The river though had several rough spots where the water was tricky to get through. Our hosts were used to the river and navigated us through the twists and turns nicely. A couple of spots were surprisingly shallow and we had to do some work to get unstuck. That was ok, no show stoppers for us.
Along the way, we saw a nice collection of wildlife, including Osprey, Hawks, Great Blue Heron, and some really cool looking ducks — it took us through dinner before we decided on what ducks they were. We heard eagles, but never saw them. We saw several crows making lots of noise and sure enough they were chasing after a troublesome Hawk. And, finally, our favorite Kingfisher was following us along a big stretch of the river, always flying away before it was close enough to photograph.
Shelburne is known for its Birch trees, and the early stretch of river had lots of them.
Kayak Androscoggin River Shelburne to Bethel at EveryTrail
Kayak Umbagog Lake
We put in at the south end of Umbagog Lake, paddled North though Sargent Cove and then followed the west shoreline north upto Thurston Cove. We ate lunch at a nice campsite on the Big Island and then headed back.
The wind direction and speed made crossing Sargent Cove difficult. The chop was heavy, but no white caps. Once we got far enough north, the trees along the west shoreline protected us and we had nice calm water.
For lunch, we headed east to a secret little camp site, No 5. It was heavily wooded, but with all the underbrush cleared and a fresh layer of mulch covered the ground. There was a picnic table, a fire pit and an organic out-house. We were nicely shaded and protected from the wind. We stayed here for a short while, then the wind picked up.
Leaving the Big Island we headed back east over the open lake to the west shore line. The water was pretty choppy, but was calm as soon as were back close to the west shore line.
Noteworthy: we heard loons! We had hoped to see some, but hearing them was good. Also, there was a stretch of water along the shore that had pretty lily pads in full bloom.
Kayak Umbagog Lake at EveryTrail
Restaurants
The evenings of our Vacation in Newry and Bethel area included several nice restaurants. We went to the Sunday River Brew Pub, Jolly Drayman Pub, 22 Broad Street, and Suds Pub at Sudbury Inn.