Shortly after Your Scribe hiked up from the parking lot at LL Bean ( the greatest distance for me ever but it is the holiday season), I found the book section.

My purchase: "Maine's Most Scenic Roads" by John Gibson (Down East Books, Camden, 1998). Yeah, I know, 1998. But Maine's roads don't change that much even in a decade, unless you are talking about prospective alterations in Greenville. (Bad joke).

Anyway, the photo above was taken on a road that is one of the book's "top 25," from Bingham to Jackman. I agree, this (Route 201) is a dandy thoroughfare.

Here are some of the other "most scenic drives." Or at least, ones that I have traveled:

Wilton to Weld and Mount Blue State Park. I went last summer. No traffic, great views of the Blue Mountains.

Augusta-Belgrade Lakes-Augusta. This is my regular "commuter route," and highlights the lakes near the venerable Belgrade Inn.

Augusta to Wiscasset. I applied for a job at the nuclear plant in Wiscasset years ago. I'm glad I didn't get it.

Gardiner to Bath. I forget this one but you might know it.

Woolwich to Georgetown and Reid State Park. I remember two things about this area: how cold the ocean was, and a nice day at the summer home of former owner of the Press Herald-Maine Sunday Telegram, Jean Gannett Hawley.

Augusta to Camden. This might be overrated, save for the last five miles.

Thomaston-Port Clyde-Owls Head-Rockland. I think anything to do with Rockland is fabulous, since my heart remains at the Old Samoset Hotel (which burned decades ago). I am trying to warm to the "new" Samoset.

Castine to Deer Isle. Any trip that involves Deer Isle is a winner.

Bar Harbor to Southwest Harbor. This is really gorgeous country, which 90 percent of tourists probably never see. Too far from the big highways.

Schoodic Point. One of the prettiest spots in Maine, though there isn't much parking and you've got to travel to get there.

East Machias-Cutler-Lubec-West Quoddy Head. This route is underwhelming but pleasant. I traveled it on the way to Campobello, the old summer place of Franklin Roosevelt et al. Now this is a place that you should really try to visit! Managers (cooperatively run by U.S. and Canadian commissions) have kept it just like it was in the '20s. Even the (wooden) tennis rackets are authentic and the newspapers on the breakfast table are originals from that charming era. (Charming if you had money, that is).

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