August 5-6, 2017 Meetup at Mattawamkeag Wilderness Park in Maine

[leslie]

August 4th is the next date for surgery. Ronald Reagan had the "roto-rooter" procedure. I said to my husband that he was in good company.  He said that was no comfort.

Some 30 years later, the thing to do is burn the prostate. Which sounds more brutal?

[gbpack]

We left Ohio yesterday and are headed east towards Maine. In Fair Haven, NY, right now along the shores of Lake Ontario. Driving northeast tomorrow and stopping at Coles Creek State Park in Waddington, NY, for 3 nights which is along the St. Lawrence Seaway. After that, heading east to the White Mountains of NH for 3 nights and then Acadia NP in Maine for 3 nights before heading up to Mattawamkeag for our meet-up. We will be at MWP starting Thursday, August 3rd and leaving on Monday the 7th. Looking forward to seeing everyone soon! Gregg & Joan

[Merlin]

We left Ohio yesterday and are headed east towards Maine. In Fair Haven, NY, right now along the shores of Lake Ontario. Driving northeast tomorrow and stopping at Coles Creek State Park in Waddington, NY, for 3 nights which is along the St. Lawrence Seaway. After that, heading east to the White Mountains of NH for 3 nights and then Acadia NP in Maine for 3 nights before heading up to Mattawamkeag for our meet-up. We will be at MWP starting Thursday, August 3rd and leaving on Monday the 7th. Looking forward to seeing everyone soon! Gregg & Joan

While you are camped at Coles Creek SP, we will be going by on the 401 in Ontario, just north of the St. Lawrence River. If you gaze across the river and see us, be sure to wave   

[gbpack]

Got to Coles Creek SP in Waddington, NY, this afternoon. Beautiful here along the St. Lawrence Seaway (the American side!). Merlin, I have my binoculars out and am looking across the water for you! Have fun and we'll see you soon in Maine!

[Paul]

I won't be attending this year meet up but hope to be able to next year. We decided to stay in Canada for now due to a new baby. We will do a small camping trip in Nova Scotia not too far away from our home instead. This will be our first camping trip with the baby! Merlin is going to meet with us in New Brunswick prior to the meet up in Maine.

[gbpack]

Thanks Paul. We hope to meet up with you sometime in the future! Best wishes and blessings to you and your family.

[Chappy133]

On our way. Stopping in Vermont to visit my brother & family along with dropping Mom off for a visit. Mom wanted to take the Lake Chaplain Ferry  ⛴.

[gbpack]

We are looking forward to meeting you Chappy, along with all of the others! Also want to hear about you taking the ferry across Lake Champlain. We contemplated doing that, but chose to drive around instead. We are at Acadia NP right now and loving it. Mattawamkeag Wilderness Park is next! See all of you soon! Gregg & Joan

[DavidM]

We got back last night after three days at MWP in Maine meeting up with other LLers. Five couples attended: Greg and Joan (gbpack), Chuck and Karen (Chappie133), Ross and Heather (PEIslander), Roger and Jan (Merlin) and Joan and I (DavidM).

On Friday, eight of us in two cars made a day trip up to Baxter State Park. BSP is restrictive and doesn't allow RVs (only lean to and tent camping) and no dogs. That is why we picked MWP as a base. BSP is rather rugged and primitive- all roads are gravel but well graded. We stopped at an impromptu picnic site (an empty lean to camping site along a brook) for lunch and then then proceeded up to  Ledge Falls, a smooth rock slide area where kids were playing in the water and sliding down the water chutes.

A group pic of all except Roger and Jan who arrived later is attached. Ledge Falls is in the background.

That night we all had BBQ ribs and fixings in our campsite. The next day MWP held a BBQ in their pavilion for all campers and town people. It was a nice crowd, maybe 75. I found it interesting that many, probably a dozen, four wheel ATVs arrived with locals for the event. That night we hung out at Heather and Ross's campsite where some of us consumed the better part of a fifth of Knob Creek.

Joan and I left the next morning for Acadia's Schoodic Woods campground. See a report on this brand new campground in the Campground Reviews section.

How did we like MWP? Well ok, but I wouldn't do a return trip-  a bit run down and disorganized. Our campsite was great but we had to search for one with a picnic table, most didn't have one. The adjacent river was the highlight of the campground but the way the river sites were arranged, they didn't have a view of it. Poorly laid out IMO.

But in any case we had a great time meeting our old and new friends there. I hope others will post more pictures.

David

[pjcd]

BSP is a great park, I was there several times and climbed Mt Katahdin twice, never made it to the top though, got as far as the Knife edge and turned back. How was the bugs? Maine is notorious for them in the summer.

[gbpack]

Yes, Joan & I had a great time at the Mattawamkeag meet-up as well. Really enjoyed meeting all of the people in attendance from our forum, and really enjoyed the area and the other campers as well. Agree with David that the campground could have been laid out better, but we would consider coming back here sometime on our own just because of the beauty and solitude of the place. Tough place to get in and out of (20 minutes each way on a bumpy dirt road), but it's worth it once you're back in there. Would definitely recommend being down by the riverbank even though you don't have a view of the river. Neat area down there and very easy short walk down a path to the river. Thanks for organizing this meet-up David and to you and Joan for hosting all of us for ribs at your place on Friday night (they were fabulous and I loved the homemade BBQ sauce). Hopefully we can all meet up again somewhere else sometime in the future. Here are a few pics that I took of the area (and one of Ross and one of me!). Hope to see some other pics from others as well. Take care everyone and let's stay in touch!
Gregg & Joan

[Pinstriper]

Hey, you picked up a Sasquatch in that last photo !


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Paul]

This seem to have been a good trip! I hope I would have been able to attend but we had to go to the hospital for sick children in Halifax for our daughter on Tuesday Aug 8. We decided to do a vacation trip out of it. We went to Truro, NS from Friday Aug 4 to Wednesday Aug 9. There was a Geocaching event in Truro we wanted to attend. That was a really good event, we met 645 geocachers there from all over the world.

On Aug 2 on their way to Fundy National Park Merlin & Wife came to Moncton to meet with me and we went to Shediac to visit the Biggest lobster in the world and the Pointe du Chêne wharf and we visited my seasonal camp site. I wasn't able to attend the meetup but I am really glad that Merlin took the time to come visit me in NB!

On our way back we just had passed the NB border and we spotted a red Dodge Caravan towing a Camplite that were entering Nova Scotia!

[gbpack]

Thanks for the update Paul. Looks like fun! We're loving the lobster here in Maine right now! Glad that everything is OK with your family. We look forward to meeting you and them sometime in the future! Enjoy the rest of the camping season!

[Pinstriper]

That is like, the biggest crawdad EVER. Terrifyingly so.