Alone With Ivy

We took Ivy on a little getaway before Addie has her puppies. We thought the alone time would be good for her…and good for Addie too.

We went to find the “ghost trains” of Northern Maine, which are two abandoned locomotives hidden in the woods of Maine since the 1930s. To get there, you have to follow what seems like a treasure map and really pay attention to where you’re going. We had gone a few years ago, before we got the girls, and had a lot of fun searching through the woods for them.

We thought this would be a fun trip, so we began our long drive to Maine with Miss Ivy.

On the ride up, she was awful. She would pant and whine…she was too anxious to be alone in the back. I even brought her some bones and her Groov with peanut butter, but she wouldn’t eat anything.

We had to keep the armrest up so she would give us some space. However, she didn’t like that.

She would hurl her body at it, and do anything she could to get into the front seat. On the way down, she ended up laying in my lap…

It made for a long ride, but at least I didn’t have a dog crying and breathing in my ear. We’re working on it…

The journey to the trains began before sun rise.

We wanted to try and find some moose, so we got up early and hit the road…of course, with Ivy on my lap.

We drove for several hours on dirt roads through the woods. There were moose tracks everywhere, and just barely we were lucky enough to see one!

The trail to the trains is all logging roads, with minimal (if any) street signs…you really have to pay attention to all the directions that are listed.

The directions might tell you to look for a mile marker, or keep an eye out for a gravel pit…so you’re not always clear if you’ve taken the right road. It was about a 3 hour drive once we got to the beginning of their instructions and supposed to be about an hour hike in the woods to get to the trains.

We started on our trek and little Ivy did great. She was the happiest girl, running through the snow.

She stayed with us the whole time and listened pretty well (surprisingly).

We had followed some snowmobile and moose tracks once we began, since the snow that was off of the trails was about 3 feet deep.

As we walked, we were supposed to find some flags in the woods to know the trail to the trains was beginning.

We walked, and walked and walked…never finding the flags.

The trails were slushy, but we finally came across a new set of tracks with flags attached to the trees, that looked like they led to the lake where the trains are. We didn’t remember walking this far last time and this didn’t look like the beginning of the trail, but it was the only path we could take because of the deep snow.

We finally made it out to the lake, and our surroundings did not appear like what we had remembered from the first time we visited the trains.

It looked like we had travelled the complete opposite direction from where we were supposed to be going.

Up to this point, we had already walked past 4 mile markers and been walking for hours. We were hungry, thirsty and ready to head back.

Ivy had no idea where we were going, and she didn’t care. She was so happy to be outside and be with her family. We knew we had another 4 miles to walk back, so our new journey to the truck began.

On the home stretch of the hike, Ivy was by our side the whole time…unless she was chasing leaves or sniffing moose poop.

We finally made it to the truck and stuck her in the back. Although she was tired, she seemed more confident in being able to be alone. She stayed in her bed in the back seat, finally!

She napped and realized that being by herself was ok this time – though she still has some work to do…

Once we were finally in an area of service, we checked the map and realized that the directions hadn’t listed one final turn we had to take to get to the trail where the starting flags were. With the snow on the ground, no one had gone that way so we wouldn’t have been able to walk it without snow shoes.

We walked about 9 miles and never made it to the trains…

But, to show you how cool it would’ve been, here are some pictures from last time.

Overall, it was a long day but it was good to be out and enjoying the last bit of snow for the year with Miss Ivy.

She’s never had a day as an only dog, but the time by herself was good for her.

Today’s Lesson: it’s not about the destination, it’s about the journey. Ivy walked 9 miles with us and built up her confidence every step she took. She is slowly realizing that sometimes things are different, but different is ok. She was a little crazy as our journey began, and although we didn’t make it to our destination, she had a great ride along the way.

Check out this link to read more about the Ghost Trains of Northern Maine!

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