Maineiac Heart

If you live in Maine, your sanity depends on getting outdoors--especially in winter. They have a thing here called "woods crazy." It's real and it happened to me during my first winter in northern Maine.

Months spent in the dark, confined to the room with the woodstove, with snow piled up like a fortress wall preventing you from seeing beyond the boundaries of your yard, lend to an unhealthy mind. It took me a long time to figure out that my quality of life depended upon learning to tolerate (and dress for!) the cold, and to get outside.

Last weekend we skied by the sea, at the Ragged Mountain, Camden Snow Bowl.

Now, that is a view. The only place you can ski and see the sea on the Eastern Seaboard. Camden-Rockport, ME

This Sunday, we decided to check out the record-breaking snowfall on the coast. My goal was to get to Lubec and Eastport, because that's where the biggest snowfalls have happened. However, between the time-change and sleeping in until 10 a.m., I blew that dream. It is a 3 1/2 hr. trip one-way to Lubec and Eastport. Our next best option was to head to Mount Desert Island and Acadia National Park. The park is closed in the winter, but if you are lucky, someone has plowed some of the Park Loop Road, and we were lucky! Take a peek at this beautiful place.

We smelled the sea, stomped through snow, and had ourselves a day.

The snow frosting the rocks, briny breeze, the frozen Taunton Bay, and the type of good-tired that makes two Old English Sheepdog brothers fall asleep all tangled over each other in the backseat-kind of day.

I recommend it. Go out, smell the air, walk the earth, let your cheeks get icy cold and ruddy.

Go!