August 30 -The views of Borestone Mountain

We are way behind in getting travel posts published this summer because we're having too much fun traveling! So we won't be confused about when each "wandering" happened, we'll start each blog with its actual date.

August 30, 2022

Now that we are in the mountainous area of the interior of Maine, we are seeing more hikes that involve summits and lots of elevation gain. Are we really ready for another mountain peak? It was a 34-mile trip to get to the trail head of Borestone Mountain. We had to pay $5 per person to enter the Maine Audubon Sanctuary, so we were expecting to see lots of birds today.

The trail to the top of Borestone Mountain started with lots of tree roots and steep sections of rock scrambling. We made our way to the audubon nature center beside one of the many lakes we would see today.

 

In this moist environment, the mushrooms were thriving. So Denisa was taking lots of mushroom pictures--mostly because she needed an excuse to stop and rest on this steep trail.

It was another 0.7 miles to the West Peak of Borestone Mountain at 1,960 feet. It was a pretty good rock scramble for the last section of trail before this first peak.

We thought we had made it to the top, but the west peak is just a false summit.

It was another 0.3-mile push across the mountain saddle to get to the East Peak of Borestone Mountain for even better views.

We have wandered into another God's wonders! From the east peak, we could see a dozen different lakes below us. The biggest and closest was Lake Onawa, and we're already making plans to drive to see it at eye level once we finish this hike.

We spotted a little movement on the water far below us. We were hoping it was a moose. But with the zoom lens, we could barely tell that it was a one-man boat on Lake Onawa. We're hoping that we'll be on a boat on that lake later today.

What a beautiful view from the East Peak of Mount Borestone! We read about a program called the "Moosehead Pinnacle Pursuit." It's a hiking challenge that provides badges to hikers that summit six of the tallest peaks in these mountains. We have made it to the top of two of the six so far--Mount Kineo and Borestone Mountain! So we are 2/6 of the way to a badge if we could just stick around a little longer to do some more hiking. We had a snack in the shade of a rock wall, with views of the lakes surrounding us some 1,500 feet below.

It was an easier walk down, with more mushrooms to keep Denisa entertained. Some of them were huge!

We also found pine cones just dripping with sap.

It was easier--but not easy--as we scrambled down this trail strewn with big rocks to get off of Borestone Mountain.

After getting back to the pickup, we drove to the tiny village of Onawa. We've noticed that Maine does a good job of providing public boat access, with signs that lead you in the right direction. We parked in a paved parking lot, and then looked over the lake we had seen from the top of the mountain.

We were greeted by eight loons. That seemed invitation enough to convince us to get the kayak out. 

When we left the motor home this morning, we had planned to do a hike. But we never know what we will find as we wander, so it's good to always have the kayak with us in the back of the pickup.

As soon as we got on Onawa Lake, we could see the mountain in front of us. We were treated to another view of Borestone Mountain.

We were surrounded by the Longfellow mountains and the loons. This is a beautiful place to be!

A smattering of houses along the lake make up the village of Onawa. With few roads in this area, it is easier to fly in rather than driving.

We kayaked all the way to the edge of this big lake, until we got to the railroad bridge and a dam.

We were so glad that we spotted this lovely lake from the top of Mount Borestone and made the decision to try to find it for ourselves. We were the only boat on this big lake today.

Mark seemed to be having a good day on the lake this afternoon!

We paddled all the way to the other edge of the lake, where the water got shallow. Tasty water grass should entice a moose to come here to graze.

This looks like prime moose territory! We found some nibbled leaves that made us think that we had just missed a moose sighting in this remote location. 

The sun was getting low in the sky when we got our last view of Mount Borestone from the kayak. We spent three hours on Lake Onawa this afternoon--a place that we didn't even know existed before our hike this morning. Now we still have a one-hour drive to get back to our motor home's camping spot.

We had wanted to get home in time to visit more with our Boondocker Welcome hosts. But our long hike and our long kayak trip brought us back to town way past the designated happy hour at their little campground. To make us even later, we spotted a gathering in the park as we drove through the little town of Dexter. They had free live music tonight, so we parked and got to hear the last of the concert. As tired as we were, we still managed to dance a little in the park tonight. It's been another full day of wandering God's wonders, with different views of Borestone Mountain.