Inside Maine
Your monthly guide to enjoying life in the Pine Tree State.
EXERCISE
ONE SMALL STEP
Let’s face it: it can be tough to motivate yourself to head outside for an early morning stroll when the days are short and the temperatures dipping. But there’s no reason to blame your expanding waistline on the season, thanks to a slick Web site maintained by a coalition of trail and health organizations. The site, www.healthymainewalks.org, features extensive listings of indoor routes and trails in the great outdoors, and you can search by region, town, or even just by which paths have a roof overhead. Who knew, for instance, that you could log a mile and a quarter just by strolling past the foodcourt at the Maine Mall? Or that nine laps around the Madawaska Multi-Purpose Center equals one mile? The concept can be taken to extremes — somehow keeping track of twenty-eight laps at the William Haskell Community Center in Presque Isle seems dizzying — but if it gets you out of the house before ski season really gets under way, we’re all for it.
MAINE MADE
SWEET SOLES
No matter if you live in Bangor or Brooklyn, once the leaves are off the trees you just want to wrap yourself in a blanket and hunker down on the couch. For traipsing around the house or even out to the garage, though, there’s simply nothing better than slipping your piggies into a pair of leather moccasins, and a company way Down East in Perry has created a style so unique it’s drawing the attention of runway models and the fashion-forward types at GQ. The Grizzly moccasins produced by Kevin and Kirsten Shorey’s Quoddy Trail Moccasin Company come with hand-stitched soles of either crepe (a mottled, natural rubber) for extra grip or smooth leather for greater durability. The insides are lined in deerskin that is so soft, you won’t want to change out of your mocs for a trip to town. You don’t need to — Vogue covergirl Daria Werbowy has been spotted in the Big Apple wearing her Quoddy ring boots — but if you’ll be wading through slush you might consider the ankle-high Grizzly boot. If you can’t wait for the spring fashion shows to see this Maine company’s other footwear styles, call 207-853-2488 or visit www.quoddytrail.com
MAINE FLAVORS
SALT OF THE SEA
Anyone who’s eaten lots of boiled lobsters will tell you that cooking them in seawater is one of the secrets to success. That lesson was one that Stephen C. Cook learned early at his family’s famous restaurant on Bailey Island. And it’s one that led him, many years later, to get into an unusual business himself. Looking to bring that briny Cook’s lobster flavor to the world, he invented a one-ounce package of sea salt for cooking crustaceans. And so was the Maine Sea Salt Company (207-255-3310, www.maineseasalt.com) born. Today, Cook uses solar greenhouses and shallow pools to evaporate and reduce seawater to harvest his salt, some of which he flavors with either natural wood smoke or freshly-dehydrated natural flavorings, such as lemon, scallion, and dulse. Depending on what you’re cooking, there’s an interesting seasoning at hand. For fish, he recommends mild Alder Smoked Salt; for pork and salads, it’s Hickory Smoked Salt. And, of course, there’s always plain and simple Natural Sea Salt, which works with anything, including cooking lobsters. The secret’s out.
Bookshelf: The Greatest Monument
A new history of Mount Katahdin tells the fascinating tale of Maine’s North Woods.
By Andrew Vietze
Last fall, John Neff was almost late to a speaking engagement. The Baxter State Park enthusiast was bushwhacking through the woods beneath Katahdin in search of the lost Keep Trail, a famous early pathway to the summit, and he got tangled up. Not in any serious way, just slowed down enough that he had a hard time making it to the other side of the park to give a talk at Abol Campground, where a group of campers was eagerly awaiting his arrival. This is the sort of plucky, hands-on research, though, that
resulted in Neff’s book, Katahdin: An Historic Journey: Legends, Explorations, and Preservation of Maine’s Highest Peak (AMC Books, Boston; paperback; 354 pages; $19.95), which chronicles the history of the state’s tallest peak. And the book, exceedingly popular among Baxter Park campers and rangers, was the very reason those people were waiting for him.
Neff can often be found on the trail — or off it — in Baxter Park. A founder of the Friends of Baxter State Park, he has been a longtime member of the Appalachian Mountain Club and has done extensive trail maintenance along the AT in the park. He visits several times a year, knows the trails, knows the natural features, and knows many of the rangers. If anyone is qualified to write a book about the history of Mount Katahdin, it’s him.
And he’s done a fine job of it, collecting a wide array of primary materials — old logging chronicles, journals, park archives, local histories, native lore — and turning them into a fascinating single volume. An eminently readable one, too, which is no small feat when it comes to books on the North Woods. (Many of the previous tomes on Katahdin and the park, like Baxter State Park’s own Legacy of a Lifetime, are as difficult a slog as a climb up the Abol Trail.)
Katahdin’s 354 pages brim with intriguing anecdotes and captivating characters. People like to call the mountain a cloud factory, and weather systems are indeed drawn to it and held there by the mountain’s gravity. As Neff shows, it has had a similar magnetic draw with compelling personalities — and the legends and stories that follow them. Over the years Katahdin has exerted its pull on a diverse assortment of travelers, from internationally known artists like Frederick Church to naturalists like Thoreau to presidents like Teddy Roosevelt, and Neff has stuffed many of the best tales into the book. The mountain and its surrounding woods have terrified natives, been savaged by loggers, swallowed up U.S. Army airplanes, scared little boys, inspired Disney’s Bambi, and claimed the lives of many hikers and a ranger. And it’s all in here.
There was the epic struggle to establish the Monument Line in 1820, a surveying job that ultimately took thirteen years to complete. The time the cyclone of 1883 tore through the area and put a halt to the Tracy-Love lumbering operations. There was the “Great Gray Elephant Hunt” at the turn of the nineteenth century. And the exploits of Jake’s Rangers, a group of friends who returned for years to the mountain and included among them Jake Day, a Disney illustrator who found “Bambi’s Birthplace” near Katahdin, and Supreme Court Judge William O. Douglas, who was a “Colonel” among Jake’s Rangers and called the peak “my favorite mountain the world around.” There were the Colts, of Colt .45 fame, who had a camp on Kidney Pond, complete with an indoor bowling alley. There was Marsden Hartley the world-renowned painter who told a friend he’d “seen God for the first time [at the mountain] and that he earnestly hoped his name would always be associated with Katahdin.” There was the legendary Roy Dudley, who lived for decades at Chimney Pond and was supposedly friends with Pamola, the Penobscot god who lived atop the mountain.
Neff takes readers back to the earliest known visitors to the mountain and brings them to the present with the appointment of new park director Jensen Bissell in 2005. History buffs will find the book a fine overview of the area’s importance to the North Woods — and to all of Maine — and fans of Baxter Park can fill up on all sorts of information that will edify their next trip past Togue Gate. Neff explores the founding of the campgrounds, the blazing of the area’s most popular trails, the attempts to make the mountain the centerpiece of a national park, and, of course, the amazing, decades-long, patchwork assemblage of Baxter State Park itself.
Governor Baxter called Katahdin “the greatest monument to nature that exists east of the Mississippi River,” and there are many Mainers who are in agreement with him. In Katahdin John Neff has finally given the mountain a fitting tribute.
Briefly Noted
Candice Stover’s exquisite little book Poems from the Pond (Deerbrook Editions, Cumberland, Maine; paperback; 42 pages; $8) captures a piece of Mount Desert Island that most visitors never experience. Her fifteen poems, conveying the moods and seasons of life in and around Somes Pond, on the “quiet” side of the island, resonate with a pure sense of spirit and gratitude that is yet firmly rooted in the reality of the ordinary.
Getaway: Yuletide Yarmouth
Celebrate the season along the Royal River.
By Kathleen Fleury
Best known for its annual clam festival, Yarmouth is often thought of as a
summertime place. But long after the crowds subside and the carnival heads out of town, plenty remains to eat, see, and do in this quaint coastal town,
fifteen minutes north of Portland.
SHOPPING The craft booths of the clam festival no longer line Main Street, but there are still plenty of places to find beautiful arts and crafts in Yarmouth. For designer, custom-made furniture, check out Maine Cottage Furniture (106 Lafayette St., 207-846-3699, www.mainecottage.com), and choose from their bright and bold collections for indoor and outdoor décor. For savory supplies stop at Rosemont Market (96 Main St., 207-846-1234) and pick up fresh produce, seafood, and bread, or take home imported gourmet products like Spanish chorizo and an assortment of wine. While you’re busy sampling great food and shopping, be sure to pick up something to keep the kids busy at Island Treasure Toys (359 Main St., 207-846-6565, www.islandtreasuretoys.com) a Maine-based, family-run company specializing in natural wood toys. For that special gift, call jewelry artist Judith Barker (207-846-5802, www.judithbarker.com) to visit her Yarmouth showroom for unique necklaces, bracelets, and earrings.
DINING If you find yourself hungry after your shopping excursion, park your tired feet at The Muddy Rudder (1335 U.S. Rte. 1, 207-846-3082, www.muddyrudder.com) and treat yourself to fresh seafood, classic cuisine, and live piano on most weekend nights. With full-length windows looking out to the river, this spot is a perfect scenic stop. Hop over to the other river, the Royal River, for a more refined culinary experience at the Royal River Grill House (106 Lafayette St., 207-846-1226, www.royalrivergrillhouse.com). Enjoy the view of Yarmouth harbor and sample their delicious specialty cocktails and some of the best food in the area. If the Patriots are playing, stop in at All Star Sports Pub (438 U.S. Rte. 1, 207-846-6747, www.allstarsportspub.net) and watch Tom Brady throw another TD to Randy Moss. Sample some great bar food (don’t pass up the mussels) and a range of beers on tap. For a more formal affair, you won’t be disappointed at Seagrass Bistro (30 Forest Falls Drive, 207-846-3885, www.seagrassbistro.com). With an open kitchen and a menu that changes daily based on local ingredients, this restaurant offers a truly unique and upscale dining experience. Chef Stephanie Brown is also starting up cooking classes in the near future. Yarmouth’s dining isn’t restricted to sit-down fare, either. Pick up one of the killer salads and delicious deli sandwiches at Clayton’s Cafe (447 U.S. Rte. 1, 207-846-1117, www.claytons cafe.com) to take back to your room.
ACTIVITIES Yarmouth is a great starting point for exploring the rest of Maine, and you can purchase maps of the state (and the world) to guide you at the DeLorme Map Store (Two DeLorme Drive, 207-846-7100, www.delorme.com) in the DeLorme headquarters, also home to Eartha, the largest revolving globe in the world. No need to travel the state for homemade gifts, though, when you can make your own crafts at Clay
Play (756 U.S. Rte. 1, 207-846-4640, www.clay-play.com) and bring the kids, too. Stamp, stencil, or paint the more than two hundred pieces of pottery or reserve the studio for a special party or event. Or if relaxation and rejuvenation is your goal, schedule a day of pampering massages and beauty services at the Kiowa Day Spa (267 U.S. Rte. 1, 207-846-1272, www.kiowadayspa.net).
Dining: Harmony of Flavor
Portland’s Bresca keeps the atmosphere pared down but not the taste.
By Michael S. Sanders
Though in Catalonia bresca means honeycomb, Krista Kern’s eponymous Portland restaurant seems to take its inspiration mostly from lands farther east — the boot of Italy from top to toe. Earthy, blissfully simple, and eye-opening in its bold contrasts of flavors and textures, its unadorned ingredients, Kern’s cooking, honed over twenty-five years in big-city restaurants, is a welcome riposte to overcomplicated, over-sauced, and oversized plates long on the ingredient du jour (Out! Out! Damned truffle oil!) but short on [for the rest of this story, see the December 2007 issue of Down East]
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