When we pulled into the parking lot, we were the only car in the entire parking lot of hundreds of spaces! It was a mild day for Maine, so where were the people to enjoy this beautiful beach?
Once we began walking along the beach, we did find another car at a different parking area with a mother and three pre-school age children who were actually in the cold water. The air temperature was around 60 with a breeze blowing towards the lake shore. I wonder how cold the water was? Probably in the upper 50's - way too cold for us to swim.
Paul is shown below along the lake shore wearing a vest because of the cool breezes. This photo only shows a very small part of the lake. The sand was a darker brown than what is found at our campground and made the water appear to be iced tea in color.
Along the lake shore, we found some live evergreens with their roots exposed from the movement of the lake water washing away the sand around the roots. It was surprising that these trees are still thriving with their bare roots exposed to the elements.
Once we headed back away from the beach area, our 4-mile hike was through heavily wooded terrain. A portion of the hike was along the Songo River which provides the passage of boating traffic from Long Lake and Brandy Pond through the Songo Locks to Sebago Lake. There is a four foot difference in the water levels of Long Lake and Sebago Lake, necessitating the need for the locks.
The forest was dominated by many types of trees, several of which we haven't seen so far including beech and quaking aspen trees. When the sunlight was able to get through the foliage, there were often clumps of small pine trees two to three feet high and occasional areas of ferns. We encountered no wild flowers during our hike; perhaps because there just isn't enough sunlight for flowers to grow. Notice how close together these small pines are. Eventually, the stronger of the small trees will survive because there is only so much sunlight available for the trees to grow.
We did find several downed tree trunks covered with moss. I wonder how long this tree has been lying on the ground to gather this much moss?
We also found several trees covered with an algae of some sort that looked like mushrooms.
The only wildlife we encountered were a Canada goose, squirrel, chipmunk, and this pretty scarlet tanager. The Canada goose was too far out in the lake to get a good photo but its honking sound was unmistakable. The squirrel was too high up in the tree but again, we heard its unmistakable shrill sounds first before spotting it. The chipmunk barely poked his head out of his little den before disappearing for good. We were lucky to get a photo of the beautiful scarlet tanager shown below because these birds normally stay way up in the trees.
After our picnic lunch we drove about 10 minutes further north to Naples, Maine, to enjoy a cold beer at Brays Brew Pub and Eatery.
It was a great day to explore the Lakes Region, since the temperatures were back to normal June levels. This past weekend, we had two days with temperatures in the low 90's. Some of the locals have told us that the summer in Maine only lasts about 20 days. Time will tell just how true that old wives tale might be.
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