I've reread some of my old posts only occasionally. It's a lot of spelling mistakes, enthusiasm, pessimism, sometimes something to make you smile.
Smiling is underrated.
Where am I, where are you, what us changed between us, reader (which I realize probably me)? That's right, I'm living in America. Maine. Off the map. Dave Graham country, but he left a long time ago. We went to a lecture of his in Glasgow, I remember him saying, Maine it's just flat, it's just flat. Which is true.
Even the mountainous areas are pretty flat. It's quite similar to Coigach in that way. Except the forests are not cartographic, viz., they are real.
Endless trees. Why? Look at those trees. They're all pretty young. In the recent past these trees were clear cut. Recent is maybe 300 years... The trees were cut down for the masts of English ships, similar to Scotland. Then, people came and farmed the land - sheep - and you can still see the ruined dry stone walls of this livelihood, again, similar. Then the people left. This was after the American Civil War, so the story goes. The farmers who fought in the war realised the battlefields in Virginia were more fertile than Maine's shallow soil. So, Maine had a "Highland Clearances" of its own, but there's no Hallaig, or Empty Glen eulogising the lost people. This is because these farmers had only been here for a couple generations, and because they left by choice...
People rue the "Maine brain drain" which continues today, but they don't seem to write poetry about it.
Seemingly, the Maine farmers took the sheep with them and the trees came back. The forests are harvested, but there are no spruce plantations. I guess they just chop down whatever has grown. Land is cheap, particularly in Northern Maine: a few hundred dollars an acre if you can buy a million acres... and build a road to get there.
Along the coast of Maine the land is more expensive. This means people can only buy about one acre each, and on that acre they build a big house out of the cheap lumber.
The houses are in the wood. The entire coast of Maine is essentially a giant suburb, in which small town centres dot every 15 miles or so. This is great for the wealthy who own one of these parcels, but is terrible for the boulder hunter - my range is limited to public lands sandwiched between these low residential dough-fests.
Here's a few pic's of what I've found:
Tracy Shore, where to get started.
This is called "Tipping Rock," as yet unclimbed.
Looks better than it is! Pemaquid Point.
The Spot in Camden is really good. Other people boulder here, it's that good!
The local is Dodge Point. I've been trying the right to left traverse for 7 months! Epic.
All pics from Cath.
Stay tuned for more posts, you never know.
2 comments:
Interesting and nice pics Mike - keep it going :) ....... but where in Maine is Crab Apple Cove?
Haha, according to the internet, it'sCrabapple cove based on Bremen where we had that canoe.
"Hornberger lived with his wife in a house at 76 Heath Road in Bremen. The road runs along the southern shore of Broad Cove. Just to the south, the next road is actually Crabapple Drive. His house had sweeping views of Broad Cove which must have supplied much of the inspiration for his work."
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