Maine

Locations:            Acadia National Park

When:                   End of October

Miles traveled:     839 mi

Price of gas:         $3.489 and $3.699 per gal.
Camping style:     Rustic
High point:           AT hitchhiker & other travelers!
Low point:            Trying to fill up my water jugs

One thing learned: To listen to my limitations and                                   needs more often.

     In Maine, most gas stations are also small grocery stores and have a porta-john outside for travelers/customers.  I have no hesitations about using porta-johns.  I prefer them over vault toilets, which usually have more bugs and bad smells.  Maine also is big on fog, logging, pick-up trucks, high hit moose roads (have not seen moose yet) and closing the majority of tourism places by early October.  I found what seemed to be, the only open campground near Arcadia NP, on Airbnb.

   On my second day in Maine, as I drove the last few hours to the campground, I picked up a hitchhiker who had just thru hiked the Appalachian Trail!   He started hiking from the southern end on April first and finished in October.  I drove him 30 minutes south to a bus station.  He had some good stories about the "Luxury Trail" as he called it.  Luxury because there were always people ready and happy to help, and most weekends he stayed in motels.

Start of Great Head trail

  The fellow campers at the campground and in Acadia also had good stories.  One couple had planned on driving to the most northern part of Canada to see the Northern Lights, but because of a forecast of rain and cloudy skies, they decided to go to the easternmost part of the US.  They helped me built my first successful campfire.

   Acadia National Park has three main areas; The east and west sides of Mount Desert Island, and Schoodic Peninsula on the mainland.  I hiked in all three areas.  My favorite area was Hulls Cove Visitor Center because they had a water bottle filling station!  This location and a pump at Tidal Falls were the only places I found to replenish my water supply.  Hiking Great Head trail was nice, but I suppose after driving through similar looking trees and camping at a beach, I was not overtaken by Acadia's late October beauty.  Exploring Acadia's tide pools, and Winter Harbor (So named because the harbor rarely freezes, allowing them to fish year around.) was cool.  I saw periwinkles, barnacles, mussels, dog whelks, and birds.

At Winter Harbor

    Maine looks nice, but I'm glad to be headed for a family member's house in New Hampshire with easy access to clean water, showers, electricity, and wifi!  Which are hard to find in one location when camping.