Maine’s 2023 October Update

October 2, 2023

Maine’s Cider Bars

Maine’s love affair with cider dates back to the 18th century, when locals drank up to 35 gallons a year, and children were given a watered-down version called ciderkin. Many family farms had cider presses and a wide variety of apples – there are currently more than 3,000 in the state – were suited to both eating and cider-making. Cider making is enjoying a revival in Maine, with producers like Absolem Cider in Winthrop, Portersfield Dry Cider in Pownal, and Orchard Girls Cidery in Kingfield. For a taste of ciders in the city, Portland’s Anoche is a Spanish-style cidery with more than 40 varieties available. Go to Visit Maine for more details.

Portland Museum of Art This Fall

The Portland Museum of Art has a variety of exhibitions running through the fall and into the winter months. “Alex Katz, Wedding Dress” is “a series of large-scale paintings that highlight the artist’s interest in the intersection of art and fashion, the texture of the painted surface, and the flatness of pictorial space.” It runs through June 2, 2024. “Fragments of Epic Memory” opens on October 6, 2023, and runs through January 7, 2024. It’s a groundbreaking exhibit that PMA describes as “an immersive encounter with the Caribbean and its diaspora that vividly intertwines past and present, memory and myth, and continuity and change, creating a testament to the enduring power of art to illuminate the complexities of personal experience.” Ongoing is “Passages in American Art,” where “community members drive the conversation across a fundamental reinterpretation of the collection, revealing new ways of looking at some of the museum’s most beloved works of art.” Visit the Portland Museum of Art.

Maine State Parks for Leaf Peeping

Maine’s dramatic fall foliage offers an incredible spectacle. One of the easiest ways to take in the colors is to take a walk in one of Maine’s Maine State Parks, such as Camden Hills, Bradbury Mountain, and Baxter State Park. Maine also has Public Reserved Lands comprising over half a million acres of protected wilderness. They include Cutler Coast Public Lands, which offers miles of oceanfront exploration.

Gardens Aglow

Gardens Aglow is an annual festival of lights at the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens in Boothbay from November 18 through December 31, 2023. The installation has grown to more than 750,000 LED lights among the 14 acres of gardens, making it easily the largest light display in Maine and one of the best in New England, welcoming close to 90,000 visitors every year.

Maine Huts & Trails and the AMC Lodges

The best way to explore snowy trails in the rolling, forested Maine landscape is on a pair of snowshoes or cross-country skis. It’s even better when there’s the promise of a stoked woodstove and a warm cabin at the end of the day. Maine Huts & Trails, three Alpine-inspired mountain huts in northern Maine, are ideal for snowshoers and cross-country skiers. Laid out on an 80-mile trail system, these cabins have woodstoves, a brightly lit and welcoming common room, hot showers, toilets, heated bunkrooms, and gear-drying rooms. Guests can elect self-service stays or full-service stays. The Appalachian Mountain Club ‘s (AMC) Maine Wilderness Lodges are an ideal combination of rustic charm and creature comforts, so expect a wood-fired sauna, hot showers, and home-cooked meals. The lodges — are Gorman Chairback, Little Lyford, and Medawisla — are each surrounded by cozy cabins. AMC’s lodges are known for providing more than 80 miles of groomed ski trails, allowing extensive exploration by cross-country skis and snowshoes in the heart of AMC’s 100-mile Wilderness Conservation Lands.