I live at the door steps of Acadia National Park , and have what seems like endless miles of hiking trails all around me. But my true passion is for tramping through the woods, going to places where there is no trail, no sign to point the way. I am like the kid who is given an empty bag and told to fill it with whatever he or she wants in the candy store, around every turn there is nothing but rich sweet views, sights you will never see on a marked trail, hidden delights that are just out there waiting to be discovered.
On a marked trail, one knows where the starting point is, and where the end is, where one will come out. Not so when you are tramping the woods, you enter where ever you please, and come out where ever that may be, and not knowing where your going to come out only adds to the excitment. Here are some photos of a recent venture me and my son took tramping through the wood. This photo is where we veered off the roadroad and entered the woods.
The going can be steep at times, and you are always pushing through brush, stepping over fallen tree's and crossing loose rocks, so wearing proper hiking boots for tramping is a must.
Along the way, one never knows what one will stumble upon. We first spotted a chipmunk up in a tree feasting on an acorn. No sooner did we spotted him, when our attention was drawn to some very colorful wild mushrooms beneath some pines. Just the sight of them was making my camera very happy.
The way I came about loving to tramp the Maine woods was because I have been doing so my entire life. My parents owned 175 acres of land in the middle of nowhere, and we had built two log cabins on the property. My dad taught me when I was very young how to go off into the woods and know where I was by following old stone walls. Later he taught me how to follow ridge lines, and tell direction by observing the sun. So I am very much right at home in the woods where no trail goes and no signs point the way.
It may of been my dad who taught me not to have any fear of tramping through the forest of Maine, but it was my great uncle who taught me to have a passion for the tree's and wildlife around me. He also suffered from very poor eyesight like me, but it did not stop us from going off for the entire day criss crossing the woods of Maine. Eye sight has very little to do with knowing where your at, at least in my opinion. What counts most is having an inner sense of your surroundings and knowing how to read the landscape. Ridgelines, brooks and streams are all part of mother natures pathways.
Following a ridgeline in Acadia National Park can at times become very dangerous. Out of nowhere a sudden dropoff can appear, loose rocks can cause you to slide on a steep mountainside, and one never knows when a swarm of bee.s, hornets or yellow jackets are going to rise up and say a friendly HELLO. We seem to become someone's unwanted company about once a year, you just have to learn to accept those risks if you want to tramp the woods.
The best part of tramping is that as you pass in and out of sections of woods, you cross wide open spots as well and fantastic views suddenly emerge from out of nowhere. And just like that, we quickly moved from one great view to the next.
That is eagle Lake in the distance, about a mile off from where we were. Had it not been so late in the day, we most likely would of continued on toward the lake, but all good things must come to an end, so we turned and headed back toward the world of shadowed tree's where even more stunning sights were waiting for us.
