MAINE DAY 1: Scenery, Hiking and Les Miserables!

Yes, we scheduled too much on Day 1.  We had to cut down on some of the stops we wanted to make on the way over.

We’re in MAINE! After crossing through 2 other states before it 😉

We did extend our drive time a little more because we wanted to avoid all the toll charges so we went onto little highways instead of the I-95.

The plan was to go on the Rangeley Lakes scenic drive and the first stop was Height of Land located on Route 17.  Lets just say, we saw one sign then it was pretty vague as to where it was…  We did end up stopping at one place with a bit of an obstructed view.

Obstructed area!

Then when we turned back, we saw the open area and we assumed that was the Height of Land.  Whether it is or not, if you live in Maine, you can tell me 😉

Height of Land (my assumption)

We may have cut out a lot of the Rangeley Lakes drive but we kept the hiking trail.  I really doubt the one we went to was where it was meant to be but we found it spontaneously and did the Bald Mountain Hiking Trail which was 1.3 miles long.  Thats a pretty decent length for us but man, this is not a hiking trail, ok?

The start of the rocky path on Bald Mountain Hiking Trail

I was doing A LOT of rock climbing and testing out those deep groves in my hiking shoes that helped me avoid lots of tumbling.

Here are the rocks! Its a lot steeper than it looks…

Plus, I was wearing jean capris…lack of foresight being the main reason.  I guess my brain was on pause at 7am on the Sunday morning.  For all of you who have done hiking, isn’t the feeling of reaching the top and getting that totally breathtaking view all worth it? IT IS! I did a 360 degree view of the scenery that we had in front of us!

On top of Bald Mountain Trail!

The walk back seemed to be really hard but it turned out to be a lot easier than I had anticipated and before we knew it, we were back on the road.

We couldn’t afford to make any more stops because we had to get to our hotel in Portland to freshen up and shower and prepare to hit the road, grab something to munch on before going to see Les Miserables at Maine State Musical Theatre!

Les Miserables Program booklet and Ticket stubs 🙂

I’ve never seen Les Miserables anywhere live but this seemed a worthy choice 🙂 This show was totally awesome! Everyone did a great job and it was an amazing musical to see live! 🙂 BUT, you know as we were waiting for the show to start and during the intermission, I felt like we had butted into a town barbecue or huge gathering. Its a pretty refreshing feeling to see everyone know everyone else in the room! It made us feel even more foreign but something about it was pretty awesome also 🙂

At the end of the day, it was amazing to get back to the hotel and just rest.  We both didn’t sleep much the night before and we needed to charge up for the next day’s activities! So far Maine has been pretty great!! 🙂

Check back tomorrow for Day 2 of my trip! 🙂