At Summer Feet, we build special links between our visitors, our communities and our natural environment, with a spirit of fun and adventure. The reason? Our home state of Maine is truly like no other, with its breathtaking scenery and cultural history, rooted in generations of relationships between people, soil and sea.
Here are five reasons why we believe this, and we challenge you to join us on one of our Maine bike or Maine walking tours to see for yourself!Do get in touch for more information about Maine or our tours, or to chat with one of our friendly team.
Maine in Fall – technicolor scenery
Maine is home to the Acadia National Park, which holds an incredible diversity of terrain, from mountains to wetlands, meadows to coastlines. The park is well maintained and easy to navigate; accessible for all kinds and ages of adventurer!
Maine scenery will take hold of all of your senses, with the exhilarating crashing waves at the coast, the gently rolling farmland and richly scented forests. As you can imagine, this landscape offers great opportunities for hiking, climbing, kayaking and sailing. If hiking appeals to you most, you like our ‘Whites and the Water’ Hiking trip in New England that visits both Acadia National Park and New Hampshire’s famous White Mountains.
Our Maine Multi-Sport adventure tour includes all of these, and is especially designed to introduce you to the very best of our landscapes, from a hike down Cadillac Mountain to a gentle ride on an antique wooden schooner.
Over 80% of Maine’s total land is forested or unclaimed; in fact, it has the most forest cover of any US state. The huge diversity of our trees means that Fall in Maine is absolutely stunning.
Our Maine Festival of Color bike tour takes you along the Androscoggin River, passing the Mahoosuc Mountains, and you will witness the magnificent fall foliage in all its glory.
Maine’s fabulously diverse wildlife
Maine’s protected reserves provide a home to a huge range of wildlife. Maine was first populated by the Algonquian speaking nations – now known as the Wabanaki Confederacy. For generations, they and others have worked to ensure a sustainable relationship between people and wildlife.
The Acadia National Park is one of the most popular destinations for wildlife watching. Walking offers the perfect pace to take in the wildlife and with this in mind we have designed our White Mountains and Acadia National Park walking tour. Look out for woodpeckers, eagles, porcupines, white-tailed deer, moose and even black bears.The coast and waters offer another wonderful wildlife-watching experience. Maine is home to the only nesting colony of Atlantic puffins on the US mainland. From boats or kayaks you can see seals, humpback whales and bald eagles. Our Maine Solitude and Sunrise bike tour offers an extra-special whale-watching experience, together with a trip to a secret beach. Not to mention the lobsters….
Maine’s marvelous food and drink
….Speaking of which, Maine is famous for its lobster dishes! Our week-long Maine Lobster Rolls and Localvores bike tour offers insider secrets on the very best local places to try this delicacy. Other specialities to try are Maine clam chowder, our state dessert of blueberry pie and the hearty Maine baked beans.
Far from anything you will buy in a can, these beans are traditionally slow-cooked underground in a ‘bean hole’ and flavoured with molasses and bacon — the perfect comfort food for after a long hike.
Maine’s food and drink scene benefits from the state’s rich cultural history, and particularly from Wabanaki cuisine, based around corn, beans, squash, blueberries, maple syrup and seafood.Many of our restaurants have received national recognition, and our breweries too — so much so that the area of East Bayside has come to be known as “yeast bayside”. Portland alone has over 25 working craft breweries, and you need a good guide. Join our Pedals and Pints bike tour for the very best of our brews.
Maine’s rich cultural scene
Maine has a thriving arts and cultural scene, not only in the world-class museums in the larger cities but also the island havens, such as Monhegan Island and Deer Isle, which offer artistic retreats and special exhibitions.
Maine’s natural landscapes and rich harvests feature widely in the work of its artists. For example, the state is home to the internationally recognized basket artist, as featured in Vogue magazine 2022, Geo Soctomah Neptune. You can see their work in the Abbe Museum in Bar Harbor, and the Tides Institute and Museum of Art in Eastport.
Catch either gallery as part of our Solitude and Sunrises bike tour (linked above). We created this tour to offer both the beauty of human-created art and architecture with that of Maine’s forests and coastlines.
Other cultural hot spots include the Maine Coast Book Shop in Damariscott, the Portland Museum of Art and the Maine State Music Theatre.
Maine’s Lighthouses
Maine’s rugged coastline is marked by lighthouses which, for centuries, have been looking out for those unaccustomed to navigating its waters. Today, Maine’s lighthouses are appreciated for their charm and fascinating tours, but lighthouses also mark sites of tragedy and incredible bravery.
Maine’s lighthouse keepers have an extraordinarily heroic history. Examples include Joshua Strout who in 1886 climbed down the rocky cliff face near Portland Head Light in a storm to help a stranded crew to safety, and Thomas Orcutt, who rescued an entire crew in 1915 by rowing into dense fog to find a wreck near the West Quoddy Head Light.Discover the fascinating history of these lighthouses on our five-lighthouse Maine bike tour, where you can see the site of Joshua Strout’s rescue mission for yourselves. Check out more fascinating facts about Maine’s lighthouses in our blog dedicated to these gentle beacons.
We will leave you with a fun couple of facts for free: Maine is the only US state whose name consists of a single syllable and the only state to border exactly one other US state. Remember these for your quiz night in Portland, where you will be accompanied by a rich, frothy brew, deliciously tired legs from your cycle and a lobster roll to top the evening off.Sounds good? Get in touch to discuss our carefully tailored Maine tours, or to build your own unique Maine bike adventure.
