Fiddleheading, Frenchman's Hole, Pie, Step Falls, and a Notch--our last day in Maine

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.

September 2, 2022

After yesterday's 136-mile loop to Rangeley Lake, we're staying closer to home today. Temperatures were in the 30s when we woke up this morning, so we understand why many of the campgrounds in Maine will be closing soon. By the time we were out the door at 10:30 this morning, it had warmed up to a comfortable 55 degrees. Just down the road from our campground, we found six very curious signs among these trees--"No Fiddleheading." What's that about?

A google search explains that, "fiddleheading is a long-standing Maine tradition. It's an annual adventure to trek to your local river-flats to pick the ferns before they unfurl in the spring." The young fern plants are harvested and then prepared as a vegetable. Opinions differ that it tastes similar to asparagus or broccoli or green beans. Some Mainers prize them for their delicate flavor and crunchy texture. Since we are here in the fall instead of spring, we didn't get to taste fiddleheads--and especially not here where fiddleheading is not allowed.

Seven miles away, we came to the Sunday River Bridge. It's hard to take a picture of this covered bridge because the road now curves around it on one side.

We had to do some rock-hopping across the Sunday River to get a water view picture.

The Sunday River is a beautifully clear stream that lends its name to the nearby Sunday River Ski Resort.

Frenchman's Hole (5 miles/10 minutes)

We continued down a gravel road into the Mahoosus public land to find this little-known swimming pool among the rocks. A family of six had the place to themselves until we arrived. It was fun to watch the children get up the courage to make the jump off the rocks into the swirling water below.

Denisa didn't have the courage (or the swim suit) to make that jump today.

Letter S Pool (3 miles/7 minutes) 

We're not sure about the origin of the name of this local swimming hole. Along another gravel road, it is a wide place on Sunday River where the locals come to swim 

Puzzle Mountain Roadside Bakery

We're really not sure how far this stop was down the road because it was totally unplanned. We've seen hundreds of produce stands along roads in New England. We've stopped at many of them, but today we didn't need any produce. But when Denisa announced that the stand we just passed said "Pies for sale," Mark made a quick u-turn on this narrow little road.

Welcome to the Puzzle Mountain road-side pie stand. Today's special is wild blueberry pie, but there are also chocolate and maple whoopie pies. Those pies on the counter were still warm on this cool morning.

We picked out a $20 pie and a $2 whoopie pie and deposited our money in the slot of the iron pot that Mark is standing beside.

Our warm blueberry crumb pie only made it a couple miles down that road, before we pulled into the parking lot for the next hike. Then we dug into that luscious homemade pie right there on the back of the pickup, and had an unplanned snack!

Step Falls (6 miles/22 minutes)

Our next stop was recommended from a brochure we found at our campground. It explained  that some of the area we were going to visit was on private property. According to the brochure, "there is a tradition in Maine of private property owners generously allowing public use of natural resources. Please respect this tradition." We hiked a half mile up the steep trail to find ourselves looking down on the step falls.

A family of four that we had seen on the trails at Rangeley Lakes yesterday, was sliding down the falls here today.

Wet slippery natural slides are perfect for splashing down the slick rock to the pools of water below. It was so cold this morning that we didn't consider packing swim suits today.

This is the second fun swimming opportunity we have missed on this 69-degree afternoon in Maine.

Grafton Notch State Park (4 miles/5 minutes)

We arrived at the parking lot in this popular state park, where several trail merge. We can look up to the rocky side of the mountain where we are planning to hike this afternoon.

One of those merging trails is the Appalachian Trail. We've seen the stacked "AT" insignia many times this summer. We're planning to hike yet another piece of this famous trail today. Denisa is mimicking the usual hiker pose from the trail head sign before we started our hike.

We did the Table Rock Hike, that started in the forest. Then hikers head straight up the mountain, with the help of metal bars drilled into the rock to form a ladder.

The rock scramble up was worth the views at the top. We met other hikers that offered to take our picture together. They had many questions once they found out that we were full-time RVers. Perhaps we'll see them on the road one of these days.

This is panorama view from Table Rock.

At the top of the table, the rock ledges were a steep drop off over the valley below.

This is a 2.7-mile loop hike, so we had a different trail going down the mountain. Again, we were glad to have the assistance of metal bars in the rock to get off the most steep sections.

Denisa must be obsessed with Maine mushrooms. These 4-inch mushrooms were stacked on the side of a fallen log.

The dots of the mushroom tops made them look like sesame seed buns stacked at a bakery.

While the summit trail wasn't part of the AT, the beginning and end of our hike was. We talked with several AT through-hikers, and found that we were now at mile 1,971 on their epic hike of 2,170 miles. Just 199 more miles to go! It was interesting to see evidence of the assistance that locals give to the AT hikers. For example, we saw that someone had delivered some donuts to the passing hikers, while someone else left a box of full-size candy bars at the trail head. Both are good sources of energy for these hikers that don't have to worry about counting calories.  We have seen a few dogs accompanying their masters on the trail. We had never thought about the extra weight of the dog food needed for that travel companion. It looks like someone also dropped off dog food for the four-legged AT through-hikers.

From our last stop at Grafton Notch State Park, we were just 13 miles (16 minutes) away from our motor home parked at Stoney Brook. We were in a bit of a hurry to get back this evening because our campground was serving a Ribeye dinner from its little cafe. For $16.95 we got a good-sized steak, baked potato, carrots and a roll that was big enough to share. It's been a great last day in Maine--full of learning about fiddleheading, Frenchman's Hole, warm wild blueberry pie, Step Falls, a nice hike at Grafton Notch, all topped off with a ribeye steak. We will miss you, Maine.