...annnd we're back

Our trip to Sugarloaf was so quick, you might not even believe we ever left...luckily (?) I have ginormous blisters on my heels to prove it.  We arrived at Sugarloaf pretty late and it was very dark outside.  I am no longer in possession of a key to our camp, so we had to find the hidden one.  The only light we had came from my car and the flashlight app on Dan's phone.  The key is hidden under the eaves of the roof, so I sent all 6'6" of Dan to go find it.  After a few minutes of searching, and many run-ins with spider webs, Dan said he couldn't find it, but that he did find two of the biggest spiders he'd ever seen.

Side note: our camp is not normally overrun with spider webs. Well, that's not entirely true.  I guess it is in the summer, because we almost never use it then.  Since nobody has been there since late March, the spiders have taken to calling our front doorway home.  Yuck.  We had sticks and were trying to brush them out of the way.

Ok back to the story: so Dan saw two huge spiders and no keys and I was feeling kind of nervous that we'd either be driving the 2.5 hours back to Camden or spending the night in the car.  Suddenly, Dan goes, "Oh.  Well, I found they key...."  I didn't understand why he sounded so disappointed, until he continued, "it's under one of the spiders."  I get the shivers just thinking about this two days later.  Ugh.  Spiders and I do not get along.  I don't mind many other bugs...I'm cool with bees and mosquitos and flies, but spiders and their long, creepy-crawly legs are not for me.  If Dan hadn't been there, I definitely would have spent the night in my car. But, to make a long story a bit shorter, Dan rescued the key from under the enormous spider and we spent the night safely inside my camp.

The following morning, we leisurely made our way up to the mountain.  I showed Dan the bunny hill where I learned to ski and the base lodge.  In the East there is always a base lodge.  You get to go there to put on your boots in the warmth and leave all of your gear/your packed lunch there during the day.  In the West, I have never seen such a thing.  I don't really understand why some of the swankiest ski resorts in the world would refuse their customers such a luxury, but I suppose it does encourage them to stay in the overpriced, on-mountain hotels.

We eventually started to make our way up the mountain.  Either I'm a total idiot, or Sugarloaf is just weird, but there doesn't seem to be an actual hiking trial on the mountain.  We just forged our way up some of the ski trails and along the cat roads.  After about an hour and forty-five minutes we summitted the mountain!  I was so excited, because I had never hiked up Sugarloaf before...only ridden the chair lifts.  Even though I'd seen the view from the top many times before, it didn't stop me from being awed.

After enjoying our lunch and the view, we headed back down to the bottom of the mountain.  We were passed by a guy on a 4-wheeler, who was going so frighteningly fast that we actually decided we preferred being on foot.  Dan picked me a daisy to put in my hair.  I think we forgot the daisy in my camp....hmmm.  I wonder what it will look like when my dad goes up there in November...

Oh, and I annoyed Dan by singing the song from the LL Bean commercial most of the way down the mountain.  :)  It's been stuck in my head for about 5 days now and I'm still not sick of it.  How is that even possible? I don't know.

After our hike we went swimming in the Carrabassett river.  There's a really neat spot near my camp that has a deep swimming hole and little pools that are surrounded by very smooth rocks.  You can glide along with the current through the different little pools into the swimming hole.  

Then we packed up and headed home.  The trip was too short, but a great break from b&b land nonetheless. I'll leave you with this video Dan took.  I cannot for the life of me figure out how to orient it vertically, so you'll just have to deal...or tilt your head to the side when you watch.