It was time to make our last trip to northern Maine until spring. This 360 mile trip takes uo through three temperature zones and one big change in topography. To get there we will have to face three stop lights and one yield sign and approximately 20 beware of moose signs. With my wife was driving. If there is more then 4 cars in either direction she complains about congestion and tourists (at this time of year there are none) as we leave Portland I turnaround and notice we packed more gear then the Lewis and Clark Expedition, 2 wool blankets, sleeping bags, a Coleman cooler, with sandwiches water, and cookies. 2 cell phones and an altimeter why?), clothes and a box of pictures of the kids since we were last there. To make this trip consists of taking 2 roads both heading north, three roads if you take the shortcut up moose alley.
15 miles outside of Bangor civilization ends. Looking down exit ramps usually 10 too 25 miles a part. you see no homes or convenience stores. Maine is a place for strong bladders.
Exit Milo, Medway all look the same. The 5 second drive through Milo you notice a stand of smiling dental white birch trees welcoming you. You continue driving through exits named after extinct Indian tribes or Indian names of actual places. Penobscot then Smyrna a town that has as many families as letters in its name so the next exit is Massa wandaquansic, a little bigger.
Millanocket, population 1320, once the home of Great Northern Paper where one out of every four people worked at the mill and another 25% worked in the field. With the consequence of capping the dreams of dreamers or the curious. Few kids went on to college they knew their father worked at the mill and they will to, earning a good living doing a good days work under the paternalistic Mill’s protection. Then 1988 the Mill shut down al dreams stopped. We always make a quick stop here I have old acquaintances that now work at the gas station.
Back on this endless roll of unwinding duct tap they call 295 North. Trees no long with leaves so the major colors are brown, grey, shades of green and an occasional bright fire yellow. Passing over the Penobscot River all the eagles have left. Temperature has dropped 12 degrees. Passing the “Scenic View “sign which we have never once stopped at. For at the highway level you still see Mount Khatahdin, 5260 feet high Maine’s highest Peak.
Coming up to Benedicta, a hundred acres originally purchased by the church as a sanctuary for the Irish after a pogrom by the Natavists Know Nothings in Bangor burned 2 churches and killing 8 people. The Irish community refused to leave, returning to Bangor entering politics, the police and fire departments. Benedicta became a farming community of Potatoes, broccoli and for a short while flax Heading across Ashland we are on a well paved 4 lane rod with lights. How come here? It is said that the road ends just beyond the driveway if Maine’s most powerful state politician who owns the Motel restaurant, post office building, nursing home. And a non profit economic development agency whose office just happens to be in the one office building in town. A sign says only 28 miles to Fort Kent another 8 and we are there. Just pass the sign ee see a huge cow (female moose with 2 babies following her. They are not the usual mud brown color but seem to be a reddish brown and all three have a white stripe down their rear legs and a blaze. 2 miles more a Bull starts to run along side the van my wife laughs as we see him in the rear mirror. Put his head and rack on his shoulders and walk into the woods, we arrive hungry so people jump in the van and head to the only Chinese restaurant on this side of the border I order Lo mein with deep fried potatoes (called Jo- Joes – that’s Northern Maine.)
