We woke up to sunny skies, and warm-ish weather. I didn’t wear a coat for most of the day, which was glorious. Although, both Peter and Mark informed me there was 90% chance of rain tomorrow, I guess I can still hold out hope for the 10% chance there is no rain….

After a proper breakfast of huevos rancheros (yes, they serve that west of the Rio Grande), we packed up and headed out at the earliesh hour of 9:30 AM. The tag line for today’s drive: Beauty at Every Bend. Yep, someone paid a marketing team for that, or maybe just provided beer and pizza to a group of college marketing majors.

Maine is experiencing a tick epidemic. Peter spent an entire day treating all of our clothes with tick repellant before we left. So we donned our chemically treated clothes, sprayed our skin generously with repellent, and tried to stay conscious long enough to exit our room with a Pig Pen-like cloud following us. I even wore my Irish hiking pants that were designed to repel insects.

First stop, Cascade Stream Gorge Trail. I was told there was a waterfall 1/2 mile in. But what I failed to ascertain was what were the hiking conditions for the 1/2 mile. It was a very rocky trail, that was slippery from the rain and the wet leaves. I had to abort before even getting to the waterfall. There was a section that was beautiful with red and yellow leaves, so I contented myself with just taking in the beauty.

Our second waterfall was Smalls Falls. We drove by it yesterday, and Peter said he wasn’t wasting time on something called “Smalls”. He wanted a “Big” waterfall. But less than 24 hours later, we found ourselves in the parking lot of Smalls Falls. The waterfall was in full sunlight, so we spent time photographing the part of the river in shade. We were fortunate in that fall color was reflected in the water by the same bright sunlight that thwarted our waterfall plans.

We switched gears to stopping at overlooks to take in all that glorious color. There is an ongoing debate over which one is the fan favorite: Shelton Noyes or Height of the Land. I personally prefer the unnamed one between the two. Peter is still staring at me with an incredulous look on his face.

Our last stop, was Coos Canyon. It was more like a rocky drop-off on the side of the road. I was hopeful there would be a bathroom, but after one of the motorcycle riders in the parking lot told me it was so bad she used the woods, and made it clear that I knew she was not particular about those types of things, I decided to do a little bladder training to see if I could make it back to town where a more civilized option was available. I made it as far as the Rangeley Lake State Park. There was an AMAZING bathroom at the boat ramp. No running water, but a large wooden box someone made out of plywood remnants from Home Depot. With the 3/4 walls, and lack of usage (I’m assuming its rustic look scared off most people who opted for a “nature potty”), it was clean and smelled of fresh air. I’m definitely keeping it on my Secret Bathroom Spots list.

Oh, and Mark bought me a map today. A real one, that is as large as the Birds of American book by James Audubon. It is 80 pages of teeny tiny words and a bunch of scribble lines, and a few cartoon pictures thrown about (thank god). I’m going to start on page 1 tonight, and hopefully I will finish reading it by the end of the trip (just kidding, but I am going to need to stop at Walmart AGAIN and buy some more powerful readers.