Our plan on Saturday, was to take our time and make our way back to Bangor to meet the couple we house sat for in Bangor. The hostel had a nice kitchen area and we ate breakfast at the hostel and headed out. We had plenty of time, as we did not need to get to Bangor until 5 pm. Thom decide that we should drive Route 1 up the coast of Maine from Portland to Great Pond Mountain Wildlands. At Great Pond Mountain, there is a trail that we can hike that just under 4 miles round trip.
The drive up the coast was beautiful and there were several rivers that flowed into the ocean. There were often ports at the rivers' sources with quaint little shipping towns. The day was a bit gloomy, but at least it was in the 50s. On the way to the trail, we saw an interesting center column suspension bridge. I later found out that the bridge also has an observatory. The Penobscot Narrows Bridge is one of only 4 bridge observatories in the world. The columns for the suspension bridge ran down the center of the bridge. We crossed the bridge to get to the trail.
To get to the start of the hike, we went by Craig Brook National Fish Hatchery. This was a very large fish hatchery. There were many lakes in the area and from our hike we got great good views of Craig Pond and Great Pond. We could also see Penobscot Bay, the Penobscot Narrows Bridge, Penobscot Narrow Bridge, and Acadia National Park (specifically Cadillac Mountain). The hike started out in a mostly oak forest where almost all the leaves were down and it gradually became a pine forest. We often walked on ridges of granted and could see far in a great distance. The hike took less time than we thought and so we did another short walk to Craig Pond.
After taking our walks, we drove the half hour to Bangor and to Nancy and Jeff. On the way to Bangor, we saw yet another fort. It was called Fort Knox - Maine. When we arrived, we met them and their daughter Leah and Leah's cat Dewey. We had a lovely dinner of African Peanut Stew, Salad, and Apple Pie. Nancy worked for the National Park System after graduating from college and then went into the Peace Corps to Ecuador. She actually stayed and worked in Ecuador for three years after the Peace Corps. She now works as an English as a Second Language teacher. Jeff was originally from Indiana and he does work with an ecology group. They have solar panels, a Chevy Volt, and they compost. They have done some interesting travel and hikes. We enjoyed the evening and we stayed the night in their mother-in-law's suite.
After breakfast, we said good bye and headed to Montpelier to see the capital of Vermont. On our way, we drove by the White Mountains which have snow on them. We could not drive to the top of White Mountain, because the road wasn't open to the top.
Montpelier is the smallest capital city by population in the U.S. with a population of just over 8,000. We weren't able to go inside the capitol building as it was Sunday and it was closed. But we walked through the cute town of Montpelier in the downtown and then on as bike trail along the river. The capitol sits up on a slight rise with a big hill behind the building. You can only walk on three sides of the building. It has a very bright gold dome.
After our walk, we traveled on to Burlington, Vermont to our room at the Comfort Suite. We walked a half mile from our room to the Everest Indian-Nepali Restaurant, The food was really good.
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