Category: Outdoor Activities

A Fairy Tale Hike at Donnabeth Lippman Park in Windham

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On a hectic weekend with little time to spare, we still managed to sneak out for a few hours to get in a quick hike. Hike may be overstating the exertion needed for the terrain on this particular trail. It was really more of a beautiful walk but, given our time constraints, was the perfect destination for this particular Saturday outing.

We had driven by the entrance to the park many times. It is marked by a large, rectangular granite sign etched in black lettering, announcing the entrance to the Donnabeth Lippman Park. But, this was our first time turning down to discover what was at the other end. Given how busy things were this particular weekend, we had not done any research ahead of time so had no expectations on what the trails would be like.

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Hiking Swan Island for Father’s Day

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Free is a happy word. I’m always up for finding a bargain so I was excited to learn that Maine Resident’s Day, offering free admission at many Maine State Parks and Historic Sites, was scheduled for Father’s Day. We decided to take advantage of the free admission and try a new destination. While Swan Island is generally excluded from the free admission, I noticed on their website that they too were offering free access on Father’s Day. Admission is normally $8 per person, but on this sunny Father’s Day it was discounted 100%.

In planning our hike, I learned that for this particular trip, apostrophes are important because there are actually two destinations where you could end up if you google Swan Island and they’re located fairly far from one another.

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Maine Hikes | Fort Williams Park, Cape Elizabeth

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For this hike, we went a little urban, and full on traditional Maine. Since we had the girls with us, we were looking for a more casual, leisurely pace. We ended up heading to Fort Williams Park in Cape Elizabeth to check out the Bite into Maine Food Truck and discovered that it was also a perfect spot for our hike.

I had only been to this park one other time as a chaperone for a long ago school field trip. I only vaguely remembered the park, which is more a statement on my memory than on the beauty of the location. But, like so many other people, I have seen the iconic pictures of Portland Head Light which so perfectly advertises the look and feel of Maine.

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Maine Hikes | Douglas Mountain, Sebago

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Now that we’ve been hiking a bit more regularly, we figured why not skip ahead to a more challenging destination. After a bit of research we decided to head to Douglas Mountain in Sebago. Why bother with all that pesky gradual increase in intensity from hike to hike. Let’s just jump right in. In fairness, it wasn’t that extreme a leap, it just felt like it on a few of the steeper inclines.

It was probably the first hike we have taken this spring that really did fall more into the hiking side of things rather than the walking one. There are a few trails that you can take to the summit but, not really knowing a lot about the options, we headed out on the first one we came to after parking in the lot, which was the Eagle Scout Trail.

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Maine Hikes | Little River Preserve Gorham, Maine

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We were looking for something a little more strenuous when picking out next hike but also having limited time needed to stay somewhat local. So, we headed to Gorham and the Little River Preserve . Still being new to hiking, finding the trail entrance is often a struggle for us. They can be somewhat hidden.

This trail was even harder to find than usual for us. It’s located on Route 202 on the eastbound side right before Little River Drive, but we drove by it a few times before finally seeing the entrance. Once we found it, we realized there was also a small parking area by the trail entrance. Continue reading →