Did you know that Rangeley Maine is halfway between the Equator and North Pole?

Well neither did I until I came, no- returned here. Years ago we took the kids up here on a Moose viewing expedition which, although mildly fun and really amusing at times, did not produce a single sight for the boys, excepting a hot steaming pile of dung at 4 a.m. in the morning that they thought was fantastic. I came home with a rotting moose jaw for my time and troubles.

First trip to Rangeley Maine

Memorial day weekend was to be the return trip,  on yet another mission, this time doing "Meteorite Research." 

Yup, you got that right. We were driving 5 hours North on a Friday night to check out a potential strewn field of approximately 2-10 mile range in the woods of Maine. Rangeley being the bigger, booming town of approximately 1700 folks, we found a room at the Rangley Inn.

The drive up was piece of cake. A straight shot up 91 North for about 150 miles and then wending down to smaller roads without streetlights, then humans, and finally into a potential tragedy. At approximately 10 miles to destination we came upon stopped cars and a smaller car off the road. Apparently the man had swerved to avoid a moose and landed in a soft ditch with the car almost ready to flip. No one had cell service, so we agreed to drive down the road until we did and call it in to get a tow truck to him. His last words to us were, "be careful- there are a lot of them out there tonight." The area is a huge moose viewing tourist site (image that! silly humans wanting to look at these beasts).

We hadn't driven more than 5 miles when silently out of the woods and into our trajectory was a moose. It crossed, we breathed again, and I realized I had come a long way since the last journey. Having moved high into the woods in Western MA, these creatures had become our neighbors, we peacefully coexisted and enjoyed our occasional paths crossing.

However, at 10 p.m. on a small road in Northwestern Maine we did not want to kiss or even view a moose. We wanted to hit the bed in our historic Inn (aptly named Rangeley Inn) so we could an early start on our real mission- Meteorite hunting. Not with guns, but with maps, curiosity and magnets.

The "event" actually happened on May 17, 2016.

http://www.amsmeteors.org/2016/05/huge-fireball-over-northeastern-us/

and geeks do what geeks do- they got their geek on! My hubby Puggles being up there in the top ten Meteorite Geekhead Society announced our next journey with a fire in his eyes not unlike the fireball you see here:

The siting from Portsmouth, NH

So we packed our bags and magnets and off we went. You may remember (okay you may not, but I do) we have done this before. The last time being Western PA at the same time a crazed cop-killer was hiding in the remote hunter's cabins in the woods that we were driving around in (February 2015).

Buoyed by this article: http://www.sunjournal.com/news/oxford-hills-bethel/2016/05/18/bethel-museum-offers-20000-reward-meteorite-lit-sky/1926719, and a strong desire to get out there and hunt, plus a little free time- we were golden.

Here's how it went down:

 Yes it always starts with these ugly looking, barely readable (at least to non-geeks) strewn field maps.

However, rarely is there this kind of enticement to get one up and out into the wild looking for...well looking for that proverbial "needle in a haystack," or meteorite in Maine woods.

Oddly enough (yes we are), we ran into others who had gotten their geek on before us (the sooner you get your geek on in this business the better) and Puggles Pete was quite proud to see some of his tribe at breakfast:

Intense, highly scientific stuff was being bantered about while I sipped my coffee and had highly esoteric thoughts myself (like what music should we listen to while we meandered for miles and hours in the wilderness).

Out in the field came my training. Really re-training as I learn it all in the moment, but forget it all in between falls (b/c they are far and few in-between). Side jog here for a minute: isn't in-between a funny word? Wedged in there good, eh! Why not be betwixt if you're going to be wedged? 

Ok, so back to the Betwixt Training:

 Here is a meteorite. A real genuine chunk of shitty black boring rock (not from Rangeley Maine mind you, used here for demonstration purposes). Place one said "real genuine chunk of shitty boring rock" on the ground...

scratch your ass for good measure...

...and pretend you just stumbled upon it like, "Oh! Look- a fairly large chunk of shitty boring black rock," and you just may be driving home from Rangeley Maine with more than moose dung on your boots.

Now it's going to get pretty technical and highly intelligent, so I have supplied a video (mostly b/c I could never explain this stuff to another, so let's let Puggles):

https://youtu.be/cJGvIp9-uMs 

So for two days and approximately 10 hours we hunted. 

The facts first:

1. Maine is a big-ass place with lots of woods.

2. Western Maine and Rangeley in specific is really big Moose Country.
     a. Moose can be seen throughout our state, but their population is greatest in the areas known as “the          Maine Woods,” which include a large part of the Lakes and Mountains region. The best times to                spot them are at dusk and dawn from mid-May through July and again in the fall during their 
         breeding season, called the rut. Fall is also when the impressive antlers of the bull moose are fully            formed. They will shed their antlers in November or December, and new, larger antlers will begin 
        to grow in the spring.

Many experts list Maine’s Lakes and Mountains’ Franklin County as a top place in the state to spot a moose. Here are some of the best moose-watching spots:

Route 4: Between Phillips and Rangeley

Route 16: Between Rangeley and Stratton

Route 16/27: Between Stratton and Carrabassett Valley

Route 27: Between Eustis and Chain of Ponds

Here's our Moose stuff, 'cuz I know damn well most readers are more wondering did we see moose than did we find meteorites. The answer is YES (and don't believe that shit about dusk and dawn= we saw them morning, noon, and night. We saw them sleepy, dead, but never thankfully angry and charging).

And a short video clip for the doubters (it's short and fleeting, but look to the far right when viewing):
https://youtu.be/x5geWr6yJ78


Maine’s Lakes and Mountains’ Franklin County

Our base was Rangeley and points Western Maine, but we went up into Northern Franklin County as well. 

Funny finds while we were up there. The folks in the cabin near this tree must of thought we were moon bats (which we are) as we drove by lost about 3 or 4 times.

 I found it funny to see these dotting the area in random places. Who the hell would want to go into one of those if you have 35,385 mi² of land to drop drawers in? I certainly didn't (yes I dropped drawers in the wilderness, a favorite pastime of mine and I had no ticks crawling up my perineal area, nor did I go home with poison ivy. But back to the facts:

This area near Bag Pond in a funny named town, "Chain of Ponds" is where we ate, is also considered a mountain (one of Maine's 70). Bag Pond Mountain near the border is about 3,100 ft. high. This was about the average size of the mtns. we were on when we went into the interior of the region, hunting on logging roads. There were many (too many) gated places which made the hunting and gps tracking almost useless. next you see Puggles the business man trying to talk his way onto a gated road:

They were very interested in his "Meteorite Official Research Mission," but guess what? The answer was still a resounding, "NO."

We found other ways in. One of Puggles Meteorite peops hummed a few bars of an old Doobie Bros tune at breakfast, which stayed with me as we headed in. Who remembers "Takin' it to the Streets"?
We took it to the streets alright, except the streets were roads, all unpaved, most logging, some treacherous, and my favorite was "Wiggle Brook Road." Here is what my car looked like after one day:

We often had no idea where we were, just that there were mountains all around, no cell service, and we had plenty of water and cheese balls should we get stuck. We didn't!

With over 230,000 acres the High Peaks region of Western Maine (Franklin County) is a beautiful wild place. Few people and lots of scenic stuff was just what I needed. So come along and enjoy the views:

FAUNA FIRST

 Who knew?

 Funky frog. Spots look like the ones forming on my face as I age. Maybe part of an amphibian double live. But I really would like to be an otter in my next life (just saying).

 These tracks are either bobcat or lynx me's thinks

 Poor, poor baby bunny. Mean, mean Puggles reminded me of our MISSION (which did not include a several hours walk and ride back to civilization to find a bunny rehabber on a holiday weekend) and so left little injured one with some good luck karma and kept on hunting!

 I think either a bobcat or a lynx got ahold of this one. We saw a rather large (momma we think) a few yards down the road hop into the woods as we drove. Hope she came back and got this little one.

 Robin egg

 I really dig turds and used to have a turd book in my backpack, but of course this MISSION didn't allow for much scat analysis. I'm thinking deer though as my very uneducated urban-ghetto-rat- converted-country-chick guess.

 Yes I have no problem being a bug-mating voyeur. Heck, my damn eyes were trained on the ground for hours looking at goddamned rocks, I needed some relief/pleasure!

 Bear poop!?!

 More bug mating? This could have been a hostage situation as well. Not enough time for a full investigation however.

Probably a common garter snake

Cutie, but likely a destroyer of trees or something. Ever since the dangerous stinging caterpillar I encountered in Mexico, I have not much liking of these critters anymore.

https://youtu.be/-r1k3idN53s

This was a rare sighting- a human on a mountain bike. He came by and told us there was just a big bull moose near our car.

FLORA NEXT

 Not sure if this was a part of Kennebago River,  or Lower Cupsuptic Lake?

We were very curious about Rock Snot. As I'm sure readers who make it this far are as well. Then get your damn ass to somewhere near Rangeley Maine and find out!

https://youtu.be/KY9flUesrv0

 I dig moss.

My favorite road!



And isn't it a beautiful Wiggly Brook?

The dandelions were exceptionally large and pretty

 Hippy Clover!

 AND FINALLY SINCE IT'S WHAT WE CAME HERE FOR...

THE ROCKS!!!

 Pretty greenish-hued ones aplenty

 Even more abundant granite

 Wishful looking

You try looking at this stuff for 10 hours! A justified junket to get to hang with the one I love!

 Lots of magnetic rocks in the world, did you know that? Me neither.

 Cool large one with little micro-village on top

 F$#king black rubber got our hopes up EVERY TIME! This area is ATV haven and so lots of rubber, which of course in the distance looks like shitty boring black rock.

 ...and I of course got all excited about any slightly larger rock that stuck to my magnet. The Pukey Puggles Pete Pooped on my Parade with just one word, "grey." I had to remind him of my ethnic heritage as a mulatto from the South whose ancestor was a slave owner mistress-slave male  byproduct aptly named "Grey Edmonds." I LIKE GREY!

 Our best two............................METEOR-WRONGS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Don't they look so almost the real deal thing sitting there with cute round magnet's attached?

 Hey, so we didn't end up wiser or richer. But we had fun, got out of Dodge, dodged bullets (lots of shooting ranges in Rangeley, did I mention that?),  and took home some free souvenirs- see my 3 heart rocks? We've now done Rangeley twice, who knows- we may come again soon. Ya just never know.

https://youtu.be/YdDLGz_tekI

A summary slideshow of the odd things humans do in case this blog is discovered by aliens (Greetings to You Aliens, and whatever you see, only know that my husband made me do it).