If you like walking tours, you like Maine. Half the cities and towns in the state seem to publish a pamphlet that guides people on a constitutional of each community, pointing out places of historic, folkloric, and architectural interest. Portland has its share of such tours. It's also home to some of the most unusual self-guided jaunts in the state. These can be found at the Web site of the Forest City's booster arm, the Portland Downtown District. Click over to
www.portlandmaine.com , and you'll find tours devoted to live music, happy-hour action, cheap eats under $15 (forty-three options), and late-night noshing (Rosie's, Sebago Brewing, and Wimpy's Hamburger Stand are three night-owl eateries). Each location is marked on a handy map that's printable and easy to follow. It's sort of like having a native Portlander guiding you around.
Shopping Plaza SurpriseThe owners of Rock City Coffee proved themselves eminently capable of running a café when they opened the bookstore-coffee shop Second Read on Main Street in Rockland in 1992. So it's no shocker that the company's newest location is a well-run and inviting eatery with the same excellent coffees and a delicious menu of soups, salads, and wraps. What's truly impressive, though, is that they've fashioned a cozy café out of an old Harbor Plaza storefront in Rockland, a couple of doors down from Radio Shack and Rent-A-Center. With its tile floors, track lighting, intimate tables, and rugs on the wall, Rock City Coffee is a nice place to stop for lunch when you're out for errands or passing by on Route 1. The food is quite good lunch fare, especially wraps like the chicken teriyaki (with tamari, red peppers, and rice) or the Black Forest (smoked ham, Swiss, Dijon, mayo). Top the meal off with a fountain soda or go for a smoothie. Consider the fact that your sandwich cost you about as much as you'd spend across town at McBurger, and you're happier and healthier. Visit Rock City in the plaza or online at
www.rockcitycoffee.com . Or call 207-596-7250 for the daily specials.
Bike ItIf ever there were a month for biking in Maine, October would be it. The temperatures are cool and comfortable, ideal for long days in the saddle, the leaves fairly glow everywhere you go, and the roads and highways are quieter than they are in summer. This is no surprise to Bike Riders Tours. The Boston-based, two-wheel-outing company sponsors a six-day, five-night excursion on the coast during October that takes cyclists from Camden to Castine. The trip covers fifteen to thirty-eight midcoast miles each day, stopping to hit all the high points and spending nights in some of the state's finest hostelries, like the Castine Inn and Islesboro's Dark Harbor House. Since you're pedaling for hours a day, you can eat all you want (these two inns have exceptional dining rooms), and there are plenty of side trips — a tour of the Blue Hill peninsula, out to Lake Megunticook in Camden, and to Dice Head Light in Castine. Set before the blue Atlantic under a canopy of colors and run by an extremely professional outfit, this trip has real promise. You could do it yourself and avoid the $1,980 fee, but you'd be missing out on the camaraderie of a tour — and you'd have to do all the work rather than just sitting back in the saddle and enjoying yourself. Contact Bike Riders Tours for more details at 800-473-7040 or visit
www.bikeriderstours.com Sprawl BustingSprawl is one of the largest issues facing Maine today, an insidious trend that homogenizes everything it touches and saps the life out of small towns everywhere. If you're worried about sprawl, and want Maine to remain Maine, you might want to drive to the Augusta Civic Center on October 20. Conservationists, developers, local land trusts, and state and municipal officials will meet to discuss ways to control development and preserve the traits that make Maine unique. Find out more at
www.growsmartmaine.org Guide SchoolLast year more than 500 people took the test to become a Registered Maine Guide — and about half of them failed. Many of these prospective guides would have benefited from a class like the one offered by the Maine Outdoor Learning Center in Lincoln. Taking a course doesn't guarantee passage, but it sure can help. The MOLC has been teaching guides since 1997, and it claims a 90 percent success rate for its students. The class is certainly rigorous enough, lasting a full week and including more than sixty hours of classroom and hands-on study in every subject covered in the test. Students live at the center's site on Folsom Pond, and every waking hour is filled preparing for the exam or refining outdoor skills. One whole day is devoted to map and compass skills, for example, which is the discipline that traditionally trips up aspiring guides at test time. Search and rescue — another stumbling block — is covered in depth as well. The school's instructors have extensive guiding backgrounds and many decades of teaching experience, and even if you never plan on taking the test, the class is an opportunity to brush up on your woods smarts. Scheduled for October 2 to 8, the guide course ($695) is but one of the many offerings at the school, from wilderness survival to fly-rod building to wellness weekends. Find out more at 207-794-2516 or click over to
www.mainesoutdoorlearningcenter.com Heavenly Hotline The last vestiges of summer haze melt away in September, and by October the sky above Maine is typically brisk and clear, affording a magnificent view into the cosmos. If you're curious about that red star approaching so close or wonder when that partial eclipse of the moon is supposed to happen, you might want to call the Southworth Planetarium's Skywatch Hotline (207-780-4719). A nifty resource provided by the University of Southern Maine's astronomical arm, the hotline will clue you in on all the major goings-on overhead each week. You'll learn where to scan for all the visible planets, how to identify at least one constellation a week, and get the 411 on meteor showers and those ethereal northern lights. A new episode is recorded each Sunday: "Greetings, stargazers. . . . "
All the News…The librarians at the Portland Public Library are always helpful. Among their most inspired creations is the Maine News Index. If you've ever wanted to locate an article in a back issue of the Magazine of Maine, for example, or the Portland Press Herald, Mainebiz, or any of the other major periodicals in the state, you can look it up easily here. The index only provides a blurb, but it's sufficient enough to track down what you're looking for. Most of the indexes go back to the early nineties — the one for Down East dates to 1993 — but it's a truly fantastic resource. Find it at
www.portlandlibrary.com/locations/portlandroom.htm#newsindex 