We had a really long drive today made longer by the fact that we have added Rangeley Lakes into the journey which are rather out of the way but according to the ‘Fall foliage tracker’ website have good coverage of colours so after breakfast and loading up the car we were on the road by about 8.30. After navigating the detour (again) and finding petrol we were on our way. The route took us via Bangor where we started to see more colour changes but it wasn’t until we hit the Rangeley area that we really started to see whole mountain sides covered with trees that have changed colour. The forecast for today had been for rain most of the way and unfortunately the first part of the journey we did have a lot of rain but miraculously when we actually arrived at Rangeley Lakes it had actually stopped raining. This region has six major lakes and hundreds of smaller lakes, ponds, rivers and streams. We stopped at Smalls Falls picnic area which is a small waterfall and to be honest compared to some we have seen not that spectacular, but it was a nice place to have our picnic lunch so we sat looking at the trees and watching the waterfall eating lunch, very civilised. We drove round the main lake and then for some reason ended up on an unpaved road that was used by loggers and actually was blocked although we couldn’t tell why so we turned round then as we were driving back to the main road the heavens opened and the road started to flood, we were a bit worried that if the rain kept up we may not make it out but luckily we hadn’t gone too far so we eventually made it back to solid ground. Then we took route 16 to North Conway which actually meant that we drove through the White Mountain Forrest but as the weather tomorrow is meant to be worse than today we didn’t really mind as the colours here are spectacular. Like Breckenridge they have planted pine tree at the top of the mountain, but the bottom is full of pine, elm, and maple that are all at various stages of changing colour. Just before we entered the Forrest we had a little detour to a covered bridge – this one was the 92 foot Bennett-Bean Bridge which spans the Magalloway River and was built in 1898. We have left Maine and made it into New Hampshire where we will spend the next few days before moving onto Vermont. I am really looking forward to going round the mountains tomorrow when hopefully the rain and thunderstorms that are scheduled will pass through quickly.
