A Living Magazine - Grounded in Maine - Day 18 - Brunswick to Woolwich

The hot mug of the last few days was swept away over night. And, on this day I was met with cool, dry air and a bright blue morning sky. It was time to move on to Bath or beyond. It wouldn't be a long trek, only about six miles. But I had to do laundry first. 

I stopped at McDonald's for an ice coffee, then headed to the Sunshine Too Laundromat. It was the only one on that side of Brunswick. 

The place was pretty cool. I think it was slightly overpriced. For the smallest, 30 pound, load at $4.00 ($2.75-$3.00 is more typical). But when it's the only game in town, you play with a smile on your face.

It was, on the other hand, an exceptionally friendly place. The owner Ed, and the young woman working with him, love to hang out and talk with the customers. They had a vending machine with snacks, plenty of papers and magazines, and seating inside and out. Detergent was a bit higher than I'm used to, at $1.25 (usually $0.50-$1.00). On the whole I wouldn't mind using the place regularly if I lived there, just because of the nice atmosphere. It was clean too. 

I took the failing SD card out and put it in several times until the error message went away. As soon as my laundry was dry, folded and the pack rearranged, I immediately headed down Route 24 to the onramp of Route 1 and started north toward Bath. 

There was a lot of cool stuff to photograph, marsh land, objects I found (including a pocket knife, little blank notebook, pair of sunglasses and a small foam shoulder bag that I could use to separate things in my backpack and also as a satellite bag to bring items (like the tablet) around town if I am able to leave the full backpack in a safe place. Good finds. I also passed a potential sleep spot that was the nicest, most private and picturesque I'd ever seen. It was down a hill, right on the western side of the highway, and overlooked New Meadows tidal river, with rocks and a small beach. Had I been better supplied, I would have spent the rest of the day and night there just for the experience. I did take a picture. 

After getting off of Route 1 and continuing up State Street for another three miles, I passed two osprey nests, each with a single chick yapping away loudly for mama. I was thrilled to get good shots of each.

When I reached Bath I had to walk on a small foot path along Route 1, then up the first exit, across the bridge to the western side of the highway and then down the hill into town. I had vetted the downtown area for cafes and drug stores; the former for working and the latter for a cheap SD card. But downtown Bath, on a Sunday, is a veritable desert of amenities for the Modern Nomad. I did locate Brackett's Market. They had a cheap meat end of roast beef and I bought a third of a pound of swiss cheese, for lunch.

Best of all, they had a small area with tables and high speed internet Wi-Fi, with AC outlets. I plugged in and began eating my lunch, while I plugged in the SD card adapter and then saw the error message come on the screen. All of my pictures were once again...gone. I was highly irritated. This problem needed to end asap. I wrote up a post as the afternoon sun slowly crossed the sky. 

I still had the rundown feeling that had been dogging me for days back in Brunswick. But I absolutely had to work. Funds were basically gone again. I think I had done well conserving as much as I had. There was still more planning, people to contact, and more writing to do. I did as much as I could, then checked out my route for getting over the relatively new, four lane Sagadahoc Bridge, over the Kennebec River and into Woolwich, where there was plenty of woods along the highway to camp.

After leaving, I made a quick stop at the Waterfront Park public restrooms, to um, rest. Nice clean facilities, three separate, private unisex rooms, one of them a handicap. Walking out, I noticed what a nice little park they had there. Families were relaxing on the soft grass and watching the docked boats bob up against their rubber bumpers along the floats. Thick puffy clouds lazily rolled by high above. Despite my physical discomfort, I could really appreciate just how nice the day was. Then, it was an easy walk down the street, up the stairs and onto the bridge.

Not being able to take pictures of all the great views, the bridge itself (I love photographing bridges, as readers of this blog have seen), and the wave-swept water frustrated me with each lost opportunity. I stopped midway across in desperation and clicked the card in and out of the camera with no luck. At this point I didn't have enough to buy a new card and was dreading having days go by with no pictures.

I stopped into a couple of gas stations to ask if they sold cards. They did not, but one helpful young woman suggested that in western Wiscasset there was a Family Dollar that probably had something. Other than that, my only opportunity would be around the Damariscotta area. Still, and either way, I would need a few more funds. It would be worth skipping a day's meal to be able to take pictures again.

I definitely felt that I had the advantage over drivers as I passed by the Taste of Maine restaurant and across the marsh. They had just tarred the left lane, and it was a one lane only passage for both north and southbound traffic. I had walked three quarters of a mile before the directions changed and the next line of traffic was allowed  to roll. Just there, was a great place right past a clear cut area on my side of the road that could serve as an excellent sleep spot.

I climbed up the hill and ventured into the woods. It seemed like a large forest area, but I would discover that it was indeed close to a business. Wasn't a big deal though. I set up the tent and then did my standard pacing and thinking, stewing over the SD card. For shits and giggles, I tried one more time to get the damn thing to work, without luck. Then, I remembered that I had two other cards in a little red fabric bag that I had brought just in case they might come back to life. I fished them out and cleaned off the dust. The 4GB was completely dead. The 1GB card had a broken edge to it, but I clicked it into the camera anyway, and turned it on. The camera said the card needed to be formatted, so I did that, and it worked!

In a last ditch effort to capture some shots on this day, I took these...

A sliver of moon cutting through the evening sky.

I used all three poles on this evening, because I was not convinced that a shower wouldn't hit.

In fact, for about three minutes there was a brief bit of rain. I wanted to be able to get the rain fly

on the tent as quickly as possible if more rain came during the night.

I thought this cloud looked like a swan, its long neck stretched out to the left.

Before dark I left my Nomadic symbol.

And, I drew some other symbols on a nearby tree.

I heard heavy footfalls in the deeper part of the woods. But I recognized them as a deer. Their thin hooves have a smoother impact, cutting down through the leaves and pine needles. A human or a bear breaks a lot of sticks when he/she walks through rough areas like this.

I climbed into the tent and found that it was much more comfortable than I thought it would be. I had done a good job excavating first and that helped. I can do much more when the mosquitoes aren't as numerous, and they weren't here. Such would not be the case on the next night. I fell asleep and slept quite soundly. My dreams had been quite significant as of late, but I've held off from describing them. Perhaps I will once I'm completely caught up again.  

Woolwich Sleep Spot