I recently had a wonderful weeklong camping trip with our younger daughter on the shores of South Branch Pond in Baxter State Park. Our first three days were in lean-to #1, and our last 4 days were in lean-to #7 (there are seven of them; we booked it in April).

We enjoyed the orange full moon rise, the loons, hummingbirds, cedar wax wings, rabbits, and frogs, our daughter’s amazing baked goods done in the fire (including Gougere and biscuits), reading lakeside (me) or hand-sewing or story-writing (her).

Our daughter hiked the Traveler’s trail, a very difficult 10.5 mile loop including 3+ peaks, which took her 12 hours to do in 31,000 steps. At the top of each peak, she rewarded herself with some of our Sourdough Discard Everything Crackers. On the trail she encountered a moose three feet away, with fortunately a rock between them. When she completed the trail, she got in the lake in her clothes. She said the trail was harder than Mount Katahdin, and she’d not want to do this one again. I climbed the closest peak for the view, and painted.

We had a full rain day where we hunkered down in #7 and read all day; our daughter needed to recoup anyway.

Then toward the end of the week, our other highlight was a day canoeing (you can rent them for $1/hour). We took a seven hour sojourn, which included hanging out next to the birches at the other end of the lake and then portaging into the next lake, which we had never been to before, and it had some steep cliffs.

The lake is incredibly clear and you can see right to the bottom, as much as 15 feet down. The views never get old, because they change all the time with the light, as you can see in the photos.

I am so grateful for this quality time in remote nature with our daughter.