Camden Hills

Few trails scream "run me" more than the trails in Camden Hills State Park. My sons (Sam, Tom, Will) and my dogs (Sasha, Rodney) and I did a fast hike across the Megunitcook Ridge on Thursday. No stopping to rest, other than to snap a few photos. We started at the base of the Mt. Battie Trail and climbed Battie in 16 minutes. Then we took the Tablelands trail to the Lookout Trail to climb Megunticook. Mt. Battie and the Lookout have stunning views of outer Penobscot Bay. From the Lookout, we took the Ridge Trail along the Megunticook Ridge. Most of this is in the woods. But the Scenic Trail continues along the ridge line and much of it is pretty open with views over Megunitcook lake toward and to the Georges Highland Trail on Bald and Ragged mountains. It is this trail that simply can't be walked. Sam was running back and forth like the family golden retriever. The open ledge whoopdeedoos are wicked fun to run up and down. Even Tom and Will ran them, just after Tom said "Dad, none of my friends on the xc team think running is fun!" After a short break at the cross on top of Maiden's cliff (marking the spot where a little girl fell in the mid 1800s), we descended down to our camp on Megunitcook for a short swim.

Friday morning, Cacky and I went for a 1 hr row on the lake. It's a beutiful lake for rowing and paddling. We had a nice look at a Bald Eagle soaring over Fernald's neck. After lunch on the harbor, I went for an "easy' run on the multi-use trail in Camden Hills SP. This is a dirt road and is more fun to ski (because of the 1+ mile of solid downhill on the way home), but is the perfect choice for keeping it easy.