Two kinds of Maine winters

Mattanawcook Lake, in Lincoln, Maine.

“Ellsworth (Maine) winters are a maddening ‘tease and freeze,’ thanks to the warm Atlantic currents. I never got used to them. It may snow in October or it may rain into December, or there may be a two-week cold snap of forty below, teeth-numbing weather. In January there is a thaw when it may be forty above for several days. It can snow in Ellsworth, sleet in Trenton, and rain in Bar Harbor at the same time. Half-hearted winters drop snowfall from crisp to slush through the beginning of April, when mud season begins. …

“Lincoln, however, is serious about winter, and the feeling is mutual. Once it snows in November, the whining of snowmobile engines fills the air. Snowmobilers ride across Mattanawcook Lake as soon as it freezes. … Those who ride onto the vast ice warm themselves in ice fishing shacks that remain into April, and the snow sticks until May. The winters are the good, old-fashioned Maine kind with plenty of snow and a good deal of disappointment if there isn't.’’

— Scott Warner, writing in www.theheartofnewengland.com