Trip 13 – Champion (Pennsylvania)

July 28-30, 2017

Route – Wilmington, NY to Champion, PA
Trailer mileage: Trip – 595 miles      Cumulative – 4,141 miles
Route – Champion, PA to Oxford, OH
Trailer mileage: Trip – 334 miles      Cumulative – 4,475 miles

Mountain Pines RV Resort and Campground

Site D058 – electric, grass pad, unshaded, $38.00/night (includes rally discount)

This was the last stop on our big Maine vacation. The campground was very large. There was also an enormous outdoor swimming pool and even a performance stage. On Saturday night we heard The Vogues perform. They’ve been around for a long time and do nostalgic/oldies numbers. There was quite a big crowd.

Trip 12 – Adirondacks (New York)

 

July 25-28, 2017

Route – Bar Harbor, ME to Wilmington, NY via Brownington, VT

Trailer mileage: Trip – 413 miles      Cumulative – 3,546 miles

North Pole Campground

Site W RV 54 – electric, grass pad, partly shaded, $47.00/night

Here’s our camp site. It has a fire pit and picnic table and is partially shaded. There’s a little bit of separation from the other sites.

TIP – The North Pole Wine and Spirits Shop, to the left of the registration building, has a surprisingly large selection of wines.

Trip 11 – Acadia National Park (Maine)

July 21-24, 2017

Route – Hopewell Cape, New Brunswick, Canada to Bar Harbor, ME

Trailer mileage: Trip – 284 miles      Cumulative – 3,133 miles

Hadley’s Point Campground

Site D-14 – electric, grass pad (slight tilt), partly shaded, $42.03/night

Here we are unloading at the camp site. As you can see, we’re close to the next site. Although you can’t tell, the site is shaped like a wedge with a slight downhill slant. We had to park our car a little ways away because they brought in a fire pit and placed it where the car was. That’s a little inconvenient but not too bad. I don’t think all of the sites were like that but we probably didn’t reserve early enough to get one of the better sites.

The showers were coin-operated – seven minutes for fifty cents. The water was nice and hot. During the summer, a free shuttle that makes a circuit through Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park stops right in the campground. It’s very convenient.

The Aliner

Everything worked well – nothing special to report.

The Adventure – Acadia National Park

This was our first time at Acadia National Park. There aren’t any geysers, half-domes or similar epic sights, as there are in other national parks. Acadia is a beautiful, but subtle, park.

We saw areas covered with small, wildflowers and sections of coastal rocks with nice patterns of colored stone and lichen (see below, and double-click for the full-size image).

Delicate wildflowers on rocky cliff

The views were relaxing and the skies often a crisp blue.

Wildflowers and lake

Crisp, summer day in Acadia NP

Wildflowers and lake

There are lots of vistas and places for picnics.

Phoebe and Greg

We saw a five-masted schooner and a nice little lighthouse out on an island.

I managed to get a nice sequence of a seagull spotting a crab underwater, diving in and catching it, and then flying to a nearby rock to enjoy its dinner.

The coast and beaches are in general rocky.

The rocks can have some surprises. A view from a cliff by the shore shows  a distant lake covered with algae and surrounded by pine trees.

However, further and farther inspection reveals the true scene – a small pocket of water on some seashore rocks.

The shore line on ocean inlets is also rocky but with smaller stones and clearer water

Shoreline – Acadia NP

Shoreline – Acadia NP

– terrain suitable for a conquering bulldog.

It was a sublime and beautiful day.

Trip 10 – Bay of Fundy (New Brunswick, Canada)

July 19-21, 2017

Route – Millinocket, ME to Hopewell Cape, New Brunswick, Canada

Trailer mileage: Trip – 272 miles   Cumulative – 2,849 miles

Ponderosa Pines Campground

Site 25 – electric, water, grass pad (level), partly shaded, picnic table, fire pit, $33.83 USD/night

This is a nice campground up in Canada. A poor picture of our site is at the left. There was plenty of room, especially at the back of the site. There were lots of French-speaking people, which was a nice change. The camp store was one of the biggest we’ve seen. There’s a short trail that goes down to the (rocky) beach. It makes for a nice evening stroll

Trip 9 – Millinocket (Maine)

July 16-19, 2017

Route – Shelburne, NH to Millinocket, ME

Trailer mileage: Trip – 229 miles Cumulative – 2,577 miles

Wilderness Edge Campground

Site 25 – electric, water, grass pad (level), partly shaded, picnic table, fire pit, $38.10/night

Female, juvenile moose

This is a nice campground, run by nice owners – Wendi and Marcel. The sites are decently sized and level, with a smooth dirt road connecting them. The camp store has lots of necessities and goodies. The owners take people on morning or evening moose-sighting excursions ($65). Millinocket and the Baxter State Park entrance are within easy reach by car.

Trip 8 – Shelburne (New Hampshire)

July 15, 2017

Route – Erie, PA to Shelburne, NH via Niagara Falls and Syracuse

Trailer mileage: Trip – 695 miles       Cumulative – 2,278 miles

Niagara Falls

After leaving Sara’s Campground we drove to Niagara Falls, which only took a couple of hours. We put Phoebe (our bulldog) into a doggy day-care kennel and started our walk around the area. Katie had been to Niagara Falls before but this was Greg’s first time. It’s well worth a visit!

Trip 7 – Erie (Pennsylvania)

July 13, 2017

Route – Oxford (OH) to Erie, PA

Trailer mileage: Trip – 355 miles    Cumulative – 1,583 miles

Sara’s Campground

Site 38 – electric, water, gravel pad (level), partly shaded, $34.00/night

This is the start of our first excursion with the Aliner. Our daughter Molly and her boyfriend have been doing a through-hike of the Appalachian trail since mid-February. They started in Georgia and will soon finish in Maine. That’s 2,189 miles on the shoe-leather express!  Check out how Molly and Nate hiked the Appalachian trail.