Maxx's Maine Camping Blog

Local Hiking Trails

Hey!  Maxx here!!

This summer, Tami, Dave and Ben discovered two awesome hiking trails.  And they’re only 15 to 20 minutes away from the campground!  Sheesh.  You think they would have found them sooner . . .

The first was Mt Apatite in Auburn Maine, just off of Route 11.

Mt. Apatite was an important part of Maine’s mining history.  They mined commercial feldspar, and found (among other precious minerals and crystals) green and pink tourmaline. So if you like rock hounding, this is a great spot!

Tami said she saw lots of quartz and mica on the trails, and she brought me a couple pieces.

Dave said he and Ben got to play with their new hiking GPS a little bit . . . this photo makes me think of the commercial for UP

“With my handy dandy GPS, we’ll NEVER get lost!”

Not only didn’t they get lost, but they found two geo-caches with it!

Ben was pretty excited to have found these humongous polywogs sunning just below the surface of the water, too.

He said it was the best hike ever!

But he says that about aaaaaaallll the hikes.

Later on in the summer, they hiked to the top of  Rattlesnake Mountain off of Rt. 85.

Tami said it it was a nice hike with an early upward climb and fabulous views!   They took a picnic lunch and looked out over Sebago Lake, Panther Pond and Jordan’s Bay.

Then they kept following the trail across the top of the mountain to another lookout point with a view of the White Mountains.

Unfortunately, the geo cache on this mountain was missing, but Dave and Ben left a note in a bottle in it’s place so the next treasure hunters would have something to find.

Tami and Dave love to try out new hiking trails and area attractions.  After 19 years of exploring with the kids, they have a wicked long list of local things to do from hiking, to beaches to shopping to wildlife farms to museums!  Everyone who checks into the campground is given a list.  If your looking for recommendations, just ask Tami!  Or you can click on a tag at the right of the screen to bring up past blog posts.

Did ya notice that Alex and I didn’t get to go hiking this year?

We had to stay behind and work.

I think we’re gonna have to do something about that in 2010!