Sue on the (very active and friendly) Maine Photography Meetup group on Flickr mentioned the Greenville Dog Sled race a couple of weeks back. I didn’t think I’d be able to make it because it’s pretty far up north and I didn’t relish the idea of driving through the ice to get there. Luckily another member, Jason, offered me a lift and thus on Saturday at 6:45am outside the Brunswick 7-11 the expedition began.

Once you get off the highway the towns get pretty scant. Mainly made up of a few churches, an ACE hardware, and a few taxidermy and hunting shops. It was nice not to be driving so I could take shots out of the window and Jason slowed down to expedite the process. Some of the houses struggle to withstand the elements.

We missed a turn but still got there a bit early at the meeting point. It was next to Moosehead Lake. So-called because it looks like a moose’s head from space if you squint. Which either speaks to the impressive cartography skills of the early settlers or the view from local mountains. The lake was frozen, obviously. Really thick- planes were landing on it, trucks driving across it and herds of skidooers (skidooists? skidoodlers?) noisily sweeping over it.

Next up, the main(e) attraction, the 30 mile dog sled race start. The 100 mile one had been cancelled due to patchy (lack of) snow which was a blessing in disguise because it started at 9am which would’ve meant getting up even earlier and being colder still. I bet the dogs were disappointed that their run was shorter than they wanted.

There were about a dozen teams, they’d get set up on the start line and set off every couple of minutes which allowed everyone to change their vantage points. You could tell the dogs were loving it. Here’s on of my favourites:

Here’s the link to the full set. After a couple of hours of dog watching we went to the Black Frog in Greenville for lunch. A restaurant specialising in comfort food with a menu that gave Bertie Lou’s in Sellwood, OR a run for its money. They had Poutin on the menu which I’ve heard nothing but good things about. So I ordered that:

It’s chips, cheese and gravy. What’s not to like? I expect there are a few differences to the Poutine they serve in Canada but until I sample those delights I’ll just have to recommend the N. Maine version.

Next up Jason reckoned skirting around the side of the lake, over towards to the Canadian border and then down following the Kennebec river’d be entirely possible and still manage to get back to Brunswick for 6pm, so we did that. Very little traffic along the way, maybe the Moose warning signs every 500 yards put other road users off. It was fantastic scenery- frozen rivers, ice floes, more taxidermy shops. If we’re around in the summer that would be the time to get the full experience though as leaving the car for more than 5 minutes invited hypothermia.

One of the many coffee stops was in Waterville on the way home. I only mention it ‘cos there was a gorgeous sunset. Regardez:

And that was my Saturday. Even managed to squeeze in a Flickr meetup in East Portland on Sunday too. Lovely to see the gang again. Here’s the 4×4 of my pix from then. As you will notice it was a TTV day:

How was your weekend?