I had surgery on Thursday and it all went really well. I came out of the OR with a wound vac over my left elbow, as expected. I was up and moving around a couple of hours after surgery. Pain and nausea were well controlled.
I got a lot of visits from curious residents and medical students since my case is a rare one. Felt like I was in an episode of Grey’s Anatomy…except McDreamy didn’t make an appearance!
I was seen by the plastic surgery team to begin making plans to patch up my elbow once we get the OK by the orthopedic oncology team.
I was discharged on Friday after a bit of a delay in getting the home version of the wound vac but still managed to beat the rush hour. I am home now and just resting. The recovery from this surgery is actually better than the initial cyst surgery in May. With the wound vac, I have no cast or sling; only an ace bandage covering the area. The pain is very manageable at this point
A lot of you have reached out to see about ways you can help, I should be getting this out later this weekend.
Last year, I shared a great list of family-friendly trails with Acadia National Park and I am back in 2025 to share even MORE great trails for kids within the Park. As my daughter is getting bigger and stronger, we have been able to explore more and more trails around the Park. It is truly amazing to watch her joy and interest in hiking!
So impressed by this kid!
A great piece of advice I like to give parents is always consider the trade off. Hiking a steeper summit? Consider a short, yet appropriate, trail. Doing a flat trail? Try to go for a little bit of distance.
And always, always always…bring the “power ups” as my daughter calls them: Trail mix with chocolate, fruit snacks, or even leftover marshmallows from s’mores the night before. These snacks are magical unicorns to hiking!
Along with the “power ups”, here the essentials that are always in my hiking pack:
Here is a list of some more family-friendly trails you can find within Acadia National Park. This year, all of my trails have a theme…read through to take a guess at what it is!
List of Additional Recommended Trails
Views from Gorham Mountain
Gorham Mountain:
Located on the Park Loop Road, it is a 1.9 mile trek with phenomenal views. We like to tackle this trail going North and catching the Island Explorer bus back to our truck. Park at the Gorham Mountain Trailhead Parking Lot located on the Park Loop Road.
If the parking lot is filled, there is some additional parking just down the road where Otter Cliffs Road meets the Park Loop Road.
Hike north for .2 miles and then decide if you want to continue to make the trek of foot or opt for the more challenging Cadillac Cliff trail where you will climb a portion of the mountain using ladders and rungs. You will get great views of Thunder Hole and Sand Beach along the summit ridge!
Make your way down the backside of Gorham Mountain and watch hikers climb around the Beehive. End your hike at Sand Beach and use the Island Explorer (it’s FREE) to catch a ride back to your car. Both buses that stop here (#3 and #4) will get you back to either parking lot.
Some notes here about the trail:
Cadillac Cliff trail is NOT suitable for young children or pets.
Gorham Mountain Parking Lot is in a VERY busy section of the park. Consider an early morning or late afternoon hike for your best chance of getting parking.
Located in downtown Bar Harbor, it is a 3.0 mile out and back relatively flat trail. Accessible 90 minutes before and after low tide, make your way across the sand bar that appears and hike around the island. The biggest climb will be at the start of the trail on the island. With great views of Bar Harbor, ruins of once great mansions, and tons of wildlife, this a great spot with lots of kids to do!
Some notes here about the trail:
There are many, MANY signs about the reminders of the tide. Be sure to double or triple-check that you have the tides correct for this adventure.
Do your kids want to play on the sand bar barefoot before the hike? Be sure to bring along some dusting powder to make putting back on hiking socks and sneakers a little easier.
There are NO bathrooms on Bar Island. The closest restrooms can be found near the Village Green.
Consider taking the Island Explorer bus into Bar Harbor for this adventure. The trail is just a short walk from the Village Green.
One of the intentional arches on Homans Path
Sieur de Monts Trek:
I’ve talked about Sieur de Monts in my previous blog about Acadia National Park trails and…I’m going to do it here again! There are a ton of kid-friendly trails along with the Nature Center, Acadia Gardens and the Island Explorer makes a stop here.
This year, we decided to do a reverse of sorts from a trail that my daughter only did via a hiking pack and she ROCKED it! This short 1.0 mile trail will take you up the Emery Path to Homans Path and back down. What this trail lacks in length, it makes up for in elevation climb…almost a 600 feet change in less than .4 miles.
The views of the Great Meadow and Bar Harbor are amazing, on a clear day, and the several arches that were put there by design are fascinating to look at and led to a long conversation on our descent about the work that went into building these trails such a long time ago.
Some notes here about the trail:
There is a bathroom available at the Nature Center.
This one is…a CLIMB with a lot of rock stairs. We needed several “power ups” to get to the top of the Emery Path. 🙂
A view of Otter Cliffs from Gorham Mountain
Were you able to guess the theme? It’s the Island Explorer Bus! All three of these trails are accessible by riding the FREE bus! The bus is a great option to avoid the anxiety and stress of wondering if parking will be available at the trailhead. And in Bar Harbor..it’s always an affordable option versus the pay-to-park spots that are everywhere in town.
Have you done any of these trails before? If so, drop a comment and let me know what you have thought about them! Or share your experience with the Island Explorer bus!
As always, thank you for following along! If you do not subscribe to The Wandering Chickadee, please consider dropping your email into the box below. Your support means the world!
I’ll be honest…I’m kind of dragging my feet putting my thoughts together after my last Boston visit. Not because we received any bad news (actually, the opposite) but because it’s all starting to get real. Like real, real.
And with the reality of the treatments beginning soon, grief has been hiding around more corners than I would care to admit. Grief can sometimes be rude, very rude, sneaking up at the most inopportune times, like when I am about to start a squat set at the gym or blowing out birthday candles. And it’s for petty and serious things alike; like changing up all our summer camping or for finding/making plans to support my daughter through a journey I thought she would never have to go on.
I digress…
Our Boston visit, complete with seeing a car on fire and then watching it explode on the side of the highway, a SUV crushing their Thule car rack, and subsequently getting stuck in the parking garage, and an 18-wheeler tire in the middle of the turnpike, is always eventful, even without the medical stuff.
Ok..let’s talk about where we are at with MFS:
We learned that MFS has NOT metastasized to my lungs (yah for that!) and that the sarcoma is grade 3 (the most aggressive). My oncologist tends not to stage this type of cancer in the way I’ve come to know of “traditional” cancer staging but rather has it metastasized or not. The treatment plan remains the same as previously discussed, with the first surgery to come in just a couple of weeks, and we shared with the Boston team that we intend to pursue radiation treatments in Boston later this year.
Because MFS has a high recurrent rate, I punched my ticket for lots of MRI and CT scans. MRIs for my elbow and CT scans of my lungs will be every 3 months for 2 years, then every 6 months for 3 years, and then once a year for what feels like, and probably is, for the rest of my life to monitor whether or not MFS decides to return or not.
The high recurrent rate is also the reason we are pursuing radiation treatments in Boston.
I also think it’s worth noting that while we were awaiting the results of the images and this visit to Boston, I had annual blood work completed with the medical provider who oversees my autoimmune disorder (Hashimoto’s Disease).
Now, you would think that all the inflammation markers we test for would be off the charts (or at least somewhat wacky) because of MFS but..NOPE.
My inflammation markers are the LOWEST they have been in 7 YEARS! And… every other test is in an appropriate range of normal!
These numbers deserve some acknowledgement because this just didn’t happen by chance. Not a single bit. 20 months ago, I recommitted to a mostly gluten and dairy free diet (because a good french baguette, crunchy spicy tuna rolls, and cheese are worth a little bloat), no more alcohol, weekly strength training, conditioning classes when I can, and better sleep habits.
What this past week has shown me is that I’m a HEALTHY and STRONG person with cancer and this diagnosis is such a loud reminder to continue to keep my body healthy and strong.
And that brings me to another thing…I am beginning to re-think the term “fighting cancer”. I know I used this phrase a couple of times in my first blog; probably because it’s the cliche thing to say when you are diagnosed with it. But it just doesn’t fit me. I wanted it to, just like I wanted low rise boot cut jeans to work for me in the early 2000s, but it just doesn’t. Truthfully, I don’t even know how cancer fits into my identity at all right now.
*MFS stands for myxofibrosarcoma (mix-O-fibro-sarcoma)*
While you would think that many questions about treatment plans would be a priority for me with the medical team. They weren’t. I wanted to know more about the complicated relationship between Larry (aka the cyst), MFS, and the refrigerator door incident. And here is the down-and-dirty…the cyst was NEVER a cyst, it was always MFS. The refrigerator door was just an unfortunate incident and the MFS was a result of just plain old, bad luck, as one of the Oncologists put it.
We also learned that MFS is very rare, as only 500 people in the country are diagnosed with it each year.
Treatment is going to be a bit intense and here is what I know today with the caveat, that it only takes one one MRI or CT scan to require a hard pivot to a new plan.
Speaking of scans. I will be getting CT scans of my chest pretty routinely (like every 2 weeks) for a while and then the scans will decrease in frequency to every month, then every 3 months, then every 6 months and so on. For the next 5+ years of my life, I will have some routine dates with a CT machine. Why? MFS has a high recurrence rate and can metastasize in your lungs so the medical team will keep tabs on what my chest looks like. Fun.
Ok, so what is the treatment plan as of today?
It will start with another elbow surgery to ensure that as much of the MFS cells are removed. This will be a much more intense surgery as they need to expand the area around my elbow to include an area where my drain from my previous surgery was put in. There is some concern that the drain may have dragged (my words) cancer cells from Larry’s home on my elbow to further up my arm. (Remember, Larry was suppose to be a benign cyst on my elbow and never a rare sarcoma. So putting a drain in made sound surgical sense.) If margins are cancer free then that will conclude the surgery portion of the treatment. If not, more surgery lies ahead for me until margins look good.
There is a bunch of temporary closures and wound care with the surgery while the soft tissue is sent to pathology to look at the margins. I will skip over those details because..well, it’s probably the part I’m LEAST looking forward to and are just… pretty gross. A plastic surgeon will join the team at this point and I will receive a skin graft on my elbow as the result of the surgery.
Once surgery is done, I will need to heal from it for about 6-8 weeks. After that, I will undergo rigorous radiation treatment. 5-6 weeks, 5 days a week-kind of rigorous.
When we were on our third appointment of the day in Boston, learning about the treatment plan, I became so overwhelmed. Not because of the intensity of the treatment but because of the overwhelming logistics of commuting to/from Boston on a frequency I am not accustomed to, logistics of daily radiation treatments most likely in Boston, and logistics of maintaining a sense of normal for our daughter.
It’s a lot. It’s going to be a lot. As I’m sure my colleagues would agree, I’m not one to delegate easily and like to do a lot of things myself. And the harsh reality is..I’m going to need help. And I am reminded, that my husband, daughter, and I have an amazing support network and help is just one phone call or text away.
So..I’ve started small. Tasking people with telling others about my news. Team leaders, of sorts, that get all the nitty-gritty details and who can relay to others. And while today, as I write this, I’m not sure beyond that what help needs to look like, I will lean into family, friends who are like family, and strangers who are like friends, and ask for the help.
*MFS stands for myxofibrosarcoma (mix-O-fibro-sarcoma)*
Unfortunately, I have known too many friends and colleagues who have “made the trip” down to Boston. The trip to see some of the best doctors in the world to get answers and treatments for cancer, rare diagnoses, and many other ailments.
I always, for better or worse, considered myself lucky; lucky that I didn’t need to see experts or have any complicated diagnoses. But now, I have joined the club of those that have made the trek down to Boston for medical reasons.
As we drive down to Boston, I am distinctly aware of the place that I am in; a limbo of sorts between what was and what is going to be. An official departure of life as I knew it but not yet at an arrival of what life is going to be. This feeling is familiar but I can’t place where I have felt this before. It’s only once my husband parks the car in the hospital parking garage, and we grab a quick bite of our packed lunches, do I remember where I have felt this before: arriving at the labor and delivery unit for the pending birth of our daughter.
While nostalgia draws me into that time and lets me linger, it also distorts my memories. Today, the memory of that limbo is heavily filtered where everything about that time seems perfect and synced to some Enya song from her Memory of Trees soundtrack because we were able to have the outcome we desired; the healthy arrival of our daughter. In reality, I was as scared back then as I felt parked in the truck today.
Anyway, I digress…
I am under the care of a team of doctors at Mass General Bridgham, specifically the Orthopaedic Oncology Department and Center for Sarcoma.
I wasn’t sure what to expect from this initial team meeting. I had images in my mind of sitting in big oversized chairs with a doctor behind a dark stained mahogany desk surrounded by academic textbooks handing out a rigid, void-of-emotion, treatment plan.
In reality, it was the complete opposite.
We were brought into a sterile, small exam room where my vitals were checked like I was being seen for strep throat and then a series of casual, yet overwhelming, conversations took place.
If you swapped out the sterile exam room for a campfire and replaced the notebooks and pens in our hands with beers, you would have never guessed that we were talking about treatment for a rare sarcoma. It was THAT casual.
Needless to say, we were really impressed by the team. Impressed, of course, by their expertise but also for their sincere empathy and compassion about this journey I would soon be embarking on.
So, who makes up my medical team?
An Orthopaedic Oncologist: This is captain of the team, so to speak. He will be overseeing my entire care, along with my surgery (more on that later).
A Plastic Surgeon: Part of the Surgery Team.
A Chemotherapy Oncologist: While I will not be receiving chemotherapy, this Oncologist will follow my journey, receive updates on my care, and be there should I need that course of treatment.
A Radiation Oncologist: I will be working with this Oncologist later on in my treatment.
A Social Worker: I will be working with a social worker to navigate some of the internal systems of care like housing, gas cards, etc.
I feel like I have the BEST team to help tackle this cancer shit. It feels like a rock star team, the best minds working together to give me the best possible outcome. More to come on treatment in the next post.
The thing about new chapters is that sometimes the beginning and ends of chapters are a bit blurry; while others loudly pronounce their starts and ends.
Monday June 2nd @ 12:32pm is the date and time that marked the loud arrival of a new and very unfamiliar chapter of my life. It was the date and time my surgeon called me and shared the following: The pathology report on your cyst came back. It had clear markers for cancer.
The following conversation with her is a complete blur. I heard only fragments of words and statements: Rare sarcoma. Boston. Treatment.
And with chapters that come with loud arrival, we sometimes have to go back to few to figure out how we got here. So let’s do that:
It’s June 2024. I’m carrying reams of paper to a counter in the teachers’ room at the high school I work at and I manage to hit my left elbow off the corner of a staff refrigerator. And not just a casual and clumsy bump into this ancient appliance, I collided with such force I was most certain I broke my elbow.
In August 2024, the pain from the collision subsided (and definitely no broken elbow) but I was left with a small bruise and bump that was easy to rationalize are the remnants of the injury. By Christmas, the bruise is gone but I’m left with a bump that many of those in the medical community tell me is probably a cyst from the injury. I get the distinct feeling it’s growing but dismiss it because eyes play tricks on you sometimes, right?
Now it’s March 2025 and my eyes are NOT playing tricks and the cyst has clearly grown; making it uncomfortable to do any forearm exercises in the gym and is beginning to interfere with bench pressing. I make an appointment to see my PCP who decides to x-ray my cyst and to refer me to an orthopaedic surgeon for consultation. X-ray results conclude it’s a cyst.
I met with the orthopaedic team in April 2025 and got further imaging, this time an MRI, on the cyst. MRI concludes it’s a cyst with some small concern about where it’s housing itself on my elbow. The surgeon agrees to move forward with surgery with no concerns regarding the placement of where the cyst is on my elbow.
May 2025. My cyst is officially named Larry from some of the best humans I get to workout with on Sunday mornings. 🙂 Surgery also takes place towards the end of the month. Surgery went fine (with the exception that I hated wearing the cast for two weeks) and the surgeon shared post-op that the removal went well and that it looked like a cyst. However, it would still be sent to pathology.
June 2025. Cancer. Myxofibrosarcoma (mix-O-fibro-sarcoma) to be specific and MFS for short. A super rare sarcoma that typically affects older white males with a high re-occurrence rate. In looking back, naming the cyst ‘Larry’ was a good choice. 🙂
I think the backstory is what makes this next chapter’s arrival such a jarring one; that I didn’t see it coming. I also know I am not unique in this way. Many others before me, and unfortunately after me, will receive this kind of news in the exact same way. Nevertheless, being blindsided with news like this..I still have no words.
So what’s next? A trip down to Boston to get more information and to learn what my treatment plan will be. And then, I fight. I will fight like hell to rid myself of this nasty sarcoma and the odds that it will come back.
And while I’m doing that, I will write. Writing is something that brings me immense amounts of joy and groundedness and so I plan to share my journey of fighting and healing through my blog. How frequently I write and to what length, I will figure out as I go.
What I am certain of though, is that while these updates will have a home on The Wandering Chickadee, I will NOT be sharing much of my journey on my social media platforms.
If you already subscribe to The Wandering Chickadee, you will get my health updates in your email. If you don’t, please drop your email address below as this is the only blog I will be publicly sharing.
As always, thank you for following along! It means the world!
In honor of Mother’s Day, I wanted to bring you THE BEST stroller friendly trail in Southern Maine. We know in those early postpartum days, weeks, months, and even years, being outside in nature with a friend is sometimes the best medicine!
The award for the Best Stroller Friendly trail in Southern Maine is….The Town Forest in the town of Cumberland.
The Town Forest is accessible from the Tuttle Road in Cumberland
Read through the blog for an in depth summary of the Town Forest and IMPORTANT BATHROOM details or head straight to the summary at the bottom for quick information.
General Information
The Town Forest is located at 290 Tuttle Road and adjacent to the Cumberland Town Hall. No need to worry about parking. There are ample spots available at the trailhead!
The Town Forest was planted around the 1930s with many plantations of red and white pine trees along with varieties of spruce. Unfortunately, some of the forest has fallen victim to invasive species and the town is working hard to minimize their impact on this beautiful parcel of land.
*You can read more about their protection efforts on placards located throughout the trail.
Most strollers will have no issue with this graded gravel trail.
This trail is very wide and has graded gravel. You will have no issues on this trail with double strollers or two strollers side-by-side. Most strollers will have no issues with the gravel trail..with the exception of maybe umbrella strollers. I could imagine some issues with maneuvering on the trail with umbrella strollers but a jogging stroller, or heavy-duty strollers like Uppababy, will have no issues.
All trails in the Town Forest are clearly marked and intersections have placards with additional info.
Another great feature of this trail…a story book walk that changes its story every month.
The storybook walk is roughly a ¾ mile walk. If interested in this, you will want to walk the trail in a clockwise fashion. About half of the story is at the start of the trail, and the last half towards the end of the trail. If you have little ones who are walking with you, there is a nice cut through where you can pick up the story towards the end of the two mile loop.
And…if you forget, don’t worry! There are well-marked signs that will point this out for you.
I LOVE that this storybook walk changes books every month…even in WINTER!
Dogs MUST BE ON LEASH. The Town of Cumberland even provides extra leashes for you to borrow at the trailhead in case you left yours at home.
We have wonderful walks through the Town Forest in Cumberland! My daughter is now 7 years old and can easily complete the larger loop (roughly 2 miles) now. Our biggest motivator to keep coming back to the trail is the changing storybook walk. I love that it changes on the first Saturday of every month…even in the winter! The inner loop can get a little muddy, which can make it inaccessible for strollers and requires boots for all.
There are a ton of benches like this along the trail.
Even though I have a sense that a lot of people know about this trail, I do not find it very busy!
The trail is well marked and a map is available to scan at the trailhead.
The trail is very well marked. These placards are at every trail intersection, too.
Sometimes we visit when the Town Hall is closed and have to be mindful of bathroom breaks. We usually visit this trail more in the summer (#teacher) so having the Town Hall open and getting access to a nicer bathroom available VERY NICE!
Bathroom Rating: B+
I would be lying if I didn’t say that the access to clean bathrooms is a major draw for why I love this trail. The Town Forest is in the same parking lot as the Cumberland Town Hall. When the Town Hall is open, you will have access to sex-separated bathrooms. Currently, the hours of the Town Hall are: Monday-Wednesday 8am-5pm, Thursday 8am-6pm. They are closed Friday-Sunday.
Cumberland Town Hall. Photo credit: Town of Cumberland
The only drawbacks to these bathrooms are that they are NOT accessible when the Town Hall is closed and there are no changing tables within the bathrooms. When the Town Hall is closed, you will find a port-a-potty at the trailhead.
Port-a-potty is available at the trailhead
If coming when the bathrooms are closed AND the port-a-potty isn’t going to work for your family, I highly recommend the Oxo Tot Travel Potty and liners.
Local Food Options:
Rise Pizza offers some great pizza options in downtown Cumberland. Their gluten free pizza is quite good!
Dara Bistro is a cute coffee shop just up the road from the Town Forest and offers a variety of caffeinated beverages, pastries, and breakfast goodies. Weekends can be very busy so get there early!
Additional Adventures:
Looking to add on to your adventure to the Town Forest in Cumberland? Here are a couple of options you add to your day on the quietside:
Pineland Farms. Consider the short 15 minute drive from the Town Forest to Pineland Farms in New Gloucester. Grab a bite to eat in their family friend cafe and then head to the Education Barn to visit some barnyard animals.
Wolfe’s Neck State Park. Want to keep exploring? Bring a picnic lunch (Bow Street Market has delicious grab-and-go options!) and continue to explore the trails and shoreline of this beautiful state park just 15 minutes up the highway in Freeport, Maine.
Rainy day or muddy trail? I love these Bog Boots for kids! My daughter wears these constantly so these are one of our gear items that I typically buy new. However, these are usually a well-stocked item at consignment stores!
Dirty or wet clothes? I always have a wet bag ready. Even if the clothes are not wet.. I like to put our trail clothes in a contained space just in case there are ticks on them.
Tick Removers. To be honest, I have one in my car, hiking pack, and at home. I don’t mess around with ticks. Period.
Summary:
The Town Forest in Cumberland is FREE and open year-round. The trail is very wide and has graded gravel. You will be able to comfortably fit two strollers wide or a double stroller. Dogs MUST BE ON LEASH.
We like this town ordinance!
The inner loop of the Town Forest is part of a Storybook Walk; with a new book that changes the first Saturday of the month (even in Winter!).
When the Cumberland Town Hall is open, so is access to their sex-separated bathrooms. If the Town Hall is closed, you will find a port-a-potty near the trailhead.
Coming on a Saturday mid-May through mid-October? Be sure to stop by the Cumberland Falmouth Farmers Market in the parking lot of the trailhead.
Thank you for reading this blog post on The Wandering Chickadee!
~Natalie
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Sherwood Forest Campsite is a family-owned campground located in New Harbor, Maine It is about a 1.5 hour drive northeast from Portland. It is nestled right into Pemaquid Point with access to Pemaquid Beach less than 800 feet from the campground and short drives to Fort William Henry at Colonial Pemaquid and Pemaquid Point Lighthouse.
Just a short walk from our campsite to Pemaquid Beach
This campground also gives you easy access to many of the trails on the lands owned by the Coastal Rivers Conservation Trust including my personal favorite, the La Verna Preserve, the historic Whaleback Shell Midden Site, and the quaint village of Damariscotta. We even managed to squeeze in visits to the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens and Boothbay Harbor when we stayed at the Sherwood Forest Campsite.
Sherwood Forest Campsite is a very small campground with about 70 sites on the grounds; 37 sites are seasonal, 22 sites are water/electric hook ups, and about 12 tenting sites (some with electric hookups, some without). Each site has the perfect balance of sun and shade and all sites have a gravel pad (no sand, yah!!).
They also have 4 cabins available to rent. They are duplex log cabins. Just keep in mind that the campground map is somewhat confusing. It looks like there are four individual cabins but…they are not. Cabins #1 and #2 share a wall as do cabins #3 and #4. The campground DOES SHARE that they are duplex cabins; it’s just the campground map that isn’t up to date for them.
Upon arrival, you will check in at the front office. The owners live at the campground and someone is always in the well stocked front office. Reservations are made through their website using the FireFly Reservation platform. A huge bonus is that Sherwood Forest has uploaded great pictures of their campsites! I LOVE getting to look at the campsites ahead of time!
You will always find a well-stocked camp store here!
Quiet hours are 10pm to 8am and are well respected. With the exception of the occasional game of night tag, or our older neighbors who were particularly funny and probably drunk one night, it’s a pretty quiet campground.
This is probably one of my favorite campgrounds to get out and walk in the morning. I have the option of doing loops on the campground road, heading down to Pemaquid Harbor and peeping the beautiful older summer homes there, and walking on the freshly groomed Pemaquid Beach. Traffic is very quiet and I always manage to see deer in my travels!
My morning walks can be so breathtaking here!
The campground is limited for children’s activities. There is no pool and the very small playground could use some love and attention. However, the campground roads provided excellent entertainment for my daughter’s growing independence and her desire to always want to head out and explore the campground on her scooter.
If you are looking for a little beach getaway with options to jump onto a trail, see some historical sites, and/or visit villages like Damariscotta or Boothbay Harbor and then come back to enjoy a campfire at your site, Sherwood Forest Campsite should be added to your list!
Cleanliness of Site/Site Details:
With mature tree growth, most sites have a good portion of shade for the day. The sites are very clean with a well-maintained gravel pad. Each site is pretty spacious and comes with a picnic table and fire pit. A dump site is on the premises and honey wagon services are available as well.
Our FAVORITE site is #18
Here are my recommendations for sites:
Sites #16, 17, and 18. These are our FAVORITE sites. We have stayed in #17 and #18 during both of our visits.
A note about these sites: There is a LOT of mature tree growth. A love for me but a challenge for backing in a trailer. We decided it was better to back in with the site spotted from the passenger side. This meant two things: driving by the site and turning around in the grassy field and to be the husband/wife Dream Team in parking our trailer because my husband is relying solely on my communication. Maybe I will see a back-up camera in the future…but we work really well together so it’s not an expense we are ready to dive into yet!
Sites #56-59 are against the treeline and provide a little more privacy than the ones mentioned above.
#22-23, and #29. If you are looking for pull through sites, I would go with these ones. All three have a great gravel pad site.
Site Costs:
A water/electric site will run about $45/night and a rustic site $39/night. The sites we like will run about $53/night. You will be able to lock-in your site for an additional $10 per reservation. I think this nightly rates are truly AMAZING because…you have Pemaquid Beach within 800 feet of your campsite! Sites like this, in Southern Maine, would go for over $100/night (or more) easily!
Rates for 2025 look to be the same as 2024. As always, these are subject to change so reference Sherwood Forest Campsite’s website for the latest rates.
Amenities:
Pemaquid Beach Access (admission fees apply)
Playground (small and could use some love)
FREE Wi-Fi
Coin Operated Showers
Coin Operated Washer and Dryers
Campstore (really well stocked with camping essentials and more!)
Dump Station
Bathroom Low Down:
There are two bathroom locations at Sherwood Forest Campsite. You will get centrally located sex-separated bathrooms in the middle of the campground. These bathrooms will also be where you find the showers. There are a couple of showers within the sex-separated bathrooms and more attached on the outside of the complex. This bathroom complex also houses the laundry facilities and a dishwashing station.
Centrally located bathrooms and showers
One note here: The dump station is also close to this complex. With that, I do give my daughter a reminder to avoid playing in this area because..well..the dump station.
The other sex-separated bathroom situation will be directly behind the camp store.
Bathroom Rating: B-
The bathrooms and shower rooms are clean but show their age. I like that the bathroom facilities are centrally located so that I do not need to factor in their location when looking at what campsite we want to stay in.
The bathroom facilities behind the camp store do appear to be built more recently.
Coin-operated laundry is on the backside of the bathrooms and showers
Overview of our Experience:
We have been coming to Sherwood Forest Campsite for each of the past 2 years and love it here! A 3-day weekend stay here is perfect for our family. I love the short walk to Pemaquid Beach from the campground. You pay a daily fee to enter the community-run beach and your ticket is valid for the entire day. So…that means you can come and go as you please. Want to have lunch at your campsite and come back? No problem. Need to give a little one a nap and want to return in the late afternoon? Not an issue.
Evening strolls on Pemaquid Beach
They also have chair, umbrella, and boogie board rentals available at the beach. We always snag a beach umbrella and then head down to the beach to set up our spot.
Notes about the beach: Bring cash and the seagulls can be aggressive so be sure that your food is secured very well.
If you have pets, please observe the No Dog rules for Pemaquid Beach
Here are our itineraries for the past two visits:
Itinerary #1:
Arrival Day: On our first visit to Sherwood Forest Campsite, we stopped at the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens with our travel trailer in tow. There are spots available in the back of the parking lot that could accommodate our truck and 27 foot trailer. Getting into the parking spots was a breeze but getting out was a bit trickier because we couldn’t make very wide turns. From there, we headed to the campground where check-in was a breeze.
Day 1: We made our first full day a beach day and it was fun to enjoy a rare sandy Maine beach north of Portland. Shells, seaglass, and just a small sunburn (on me!) were collected on the beach!
Day 2: We spent the day exploring Damariscotta and the Pemaquid Lighthouse.
Departure Day: We had a slow morning at the campsite enjoying our last breakfast of the camping season.
Itinerary #2:
Arrival Day: This past year, we changed it up a little bit. We headed straight to the campground for check in and then headed out to explore the historic site of Fort William Henry and explore the archeological site at Colonial Pemaquid. My daughter was able to snag more State Park stamps on her quest to collect them all!
Day 1: On the first full day, we headed back to the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens (don’t forget to grab your FREE passes to the Gardens at your local library. Not sure if your library has passes to the Gardens, check out my blog to see if your library does! This time, we bypassed the beautiful gardens and spent time on their nature trails and made sure to check out all the trolls around the grounds. After we finished at the Garden, we headed into Boothbay Harbor for some exploring and some lunch. I love stopping into Seawicks Candles and Coastal Maine Popcorn Company.
Day 2: On the 2nd full day, we headed to the beach for a perfectly warm beach day complete with epic sand castles.
One of us has to stay under an umbrella, the rest of us get a nice tan.
Departure Day: We really like to have a slow morning at the campsite on departure days. And this year, despite all our bad luck with rainy departure days, we did the same!
Sherwood Forest Campsite is such a great campground to add to your camping season. Whether you want to hike one of the local preserves, spend time at the beach, or check out all the historical sites around the Pemaquid peninsula, you are sure to find something for everyone.
I also love that Sherwood Forest is VERY BUDGET-FRIENDLY and in talking with other fellow campers, it appears many families make multiple trips each summer to Sherwood Forest to enjoy the wallet-friendly rates and easy access to the beach.
For more on our trip to Sherwood Forest Campsite and the Pemaquid Peninsula as well as all of other adventures, check out my stories and reels on Instagram and Facebook.
The Wandering Chickadee has been featured in a recent Redfin article! A couple of weeks ago, Sarah Ford, the Content Marketing Coordinator for Redfin reached out and asked me to contribute to an article about rainy-day activities at home. Picking an activity to share with her was a no-brainer! Check out the article to see which activity I picked to share with her readers!
The recent news of the farewell of the milking cows has saddened me tremendously.
The farmyard education and the various cow barns have played such an integral part in our daughter’s life. From being a baby and toddler standing back in awe of these great creatures, to a curious yet cautious 5 year old who enjoyed long visits in the barns quietly observing the cows at a distance that felt safe to her, to now a 6 year old who gives them hugs and doesn’t mind the occasional tongue licks on her winter jacket, your barns gave her an opportunity to grow.
Your barns provided so much for her; a truly magical place where she got to learn a little bit more about herself with every visit. A place to find her comfortability with these gentle giants; to take risks in asking questions to staff, strangers in her eyes, and to find reward in the kindness and knowledge they willingly shared with her; and most importantly, to be connected with the beautiful harmony that intertwines us all when we are connected to the land and animals that nourish us, feed us, and support us.
I would also be remiss if I didn’t say that these cow barns have been an extraordinary place for me, a 40 year old woman, to visit. Your barns provided opportunities to get comfortable as a new mother taking my daughter out solo in those early months of her life, time to connect and have conversations with dear friends while our children were entertained by feeding hay to cows in the heifer barn, and so much joy in the simple pleasures of petting a freshly born baby calf.
And while I hope that this letter, along with all the other letters, comments, and calls, would have you reconsider this decision, I trust that this choice was not made in haste but with much deliberation and discussion as to what is in the best interest for the larger farm entity.
So..with all of that said, THANK YOU for giving me and my family 6 years of beautiful memories in these barns. We will miss the cows dearly and look forward to the next chapter of the farmyard at Pineland Farms.
