Anybody here living in the Bangor. ME area?

[Big Tom]

Wife wants to move to Maine and we found a house we like in the Bangor, ME area (about 30 min SW from Bangor). My concern is not so much around firearms laws in ME, these seem to be fine, compared to the rest of the states, but how are winters there? I hear different things from "mild due to the Atlantic being close by" to "winters suck, lights go out at 3pm and on at 9am, darn cold and 10+ ft of snow...".

Anybody here who can share first hand experience?

[BD]

I live about 75 miles northwest in Greenville. Winter in Bangor these days is very much like it was in Central PA when I was a kid 60 years ago. It snows frequently, but then melts, or you'll get rain so there's rarely more than a foot or two built up. Folks are used to snow so the city does not get paralyzed by every storm that comes through. There will be a week or two of very cold weather, (0 to 10 deg F), most years. Other than that between 20 and forty in the winter. Gun laws are OK. I don't know of any ranges in Bangor, but there are at least two nearby, one in Hampden and one in Orrington

[Wayne Smith]

We left Palmyra, ME when I was 12, and am now 70! My memory was of Dad plowing snow up against the base of the house for additional insolation, that the shed connected the house to the barn so you could find the barn in a blizzard, of snow piles that we tunneled in. I have no information of how global warming is affecting Maine, however.

[.429&H110]

I grew up in MA, fled to NH for two decades, have relatives on the coast of ME.
So far, a decade in Alaska was the most fun...

Maine is three states, the Boston end, the coast and the interior.
Maine is almost as big as the rest of New England added together.
Florida and New England are about the same size.

Maine has sleet changing to snow
changing to freezing rain then snow
then Canadian cold
then it all melts until next weeks noreaster.
I live in AZ now, no more ice, thank you.
Fairbanks AK, a dry cold, has a better winter than Maine.

Spent a family weekend in Portland ME back in 1998
Our girls team qualified for a major AAU girls basketball tournament.
Was also gay pride weekend, parade and everything.
So Portland hosted a couple hundred teenage girls
and a couple hundred gay marchers, whatta Satiddy night!
Wasn't a hotel room for twenty miles
the restaurants did really well
and the traffic was unbelievable.

On the Boston end of ME a bicycle will easily beat a car anywhere you go,
and you can park the bicycle for free.

Thomaston ME, coast of ME, a hundred miles from Boston
starts to look like Maine as you would picture Maine.

Women look at a Yankee farmhouse and swoon.
No, just no. That's a money pit standing on a rockpile.
Build a replica for less money and you can actually heat the thing.

Go up the coast, down Maine, there's no work, but it isn't Boston.
New England is a nice place to visit, but I voted with my feet.

[Battis]

My son went to U.Maine Oreno, 10 or so miles north of Banga. My daughter was at UVM in Vermont at the same time. Each school was exactly 207 miles from my house. They used to compare coldest temps during the winter - I think it was usually a tie. Both were very cold. They know how to handle winter up there.

Remember the Roger Miller song, King of the Road..."destination Bangor, Maine."

[.429&H110]

1974 McDonalds opened up stores in Ft Kent, Bangor.
Was a long ride on bad roads.
Ft Kent is the end of the world in potato country.

My dad and I would drag the boat over to Moosehead and Richardson.
There's another whole Maine over there.
I have walked (in pieces) the New England AT part to Kahtahdin
Long Trail in VT is better.

The New Hampshire dirt roads of my youth
are now paved over suburb full of Cali-loving democrats.
If you leave Hanover NH and drive south
you will be in city all the way to NC.

[BD]

Central Maine is a very beautiful place to live, but a difficult place to make a living. Folks have been moving in more since covid, and the ability to work from home online.

Want to know how to become a millionaire in northern Maine? Move here with 2 million :)

[square butte]

I think the Maine is getting darn close to rolling over to bad side on gun control laws - Like VT has done in the last two years. Pretty far left governor and now ME has ranked choice voting laws which pretty much rigs it for the left

[Big Tom]

Thanks all!! Your insights are greatly appreciated! Sounds like I need to move there to get them two more votes against gun control ;-) Will fly there next weekend and check out the house/area.

Yes, with remote work, it is not a concern and when I have to go to the office in Chicago, there is even a direct flight from Bangor, so no problem either. Already saw that the only internet option is Starlink, but coverage in the NE of the country supposedly is pretty good, so that will work as well. I was mainly concerned about the dark winters and don't mind the snow too much (probably until I experienced it for a couple of years). So let's see... will update here on the progress.

[BD]

Oddly though, additional gun control proposals keep losing in the legislature. The "pretty far left" governor has generally stood with the republicans against the democratic efforts to pass gun control bills. Not so much that she's "pro gun", more that she is very skeptical that gun control laws have any real effect. Jared Golden, our Democratic representative to Congress is rated A+ by the Sportsmen's Alliance of Maine, compared to the A rating of his Republican challenger, Bruce Poliquin. NRA rates Poliquin A, and Golden B, but they declined to give Poliquin the endorsement over Golden in the last election.

[curdog]

I lived in Limestone in the late 50s when my Dad was in the Air Force. I can remember snow up to the window sills and having to use a engine block heater on the car so it would start. Brutal cold weather. I can remember going trout fishing with Dad to a beaver pond and a bull moose ran us out of there...........................Curdog

[.429&H110]

Well, good luck!
Be sure to tell your new neighbors
that you're from Ohio and not from Connecticut.

[BD]

When I moved to Greenville in 1981 we averaged 200 inches of snow each year and there was generally snow on the ground from mid October through mid may with 4 or 5 feet in the woods through most of the winter. These days we don't even hit 100 inches a year very often and there's rarely more than 2 or 3 feet in the woods at any point. We get rain in the winter at times. Bangor is considerably milder than Greenville.

[Ed K]

I'm in NH but to go the area a lot - in fact going tomorrow. Just wanted to comment on the weather: the northeast swath the weather takes through western Ma, VT/NH and on through central ME has really moderated over the last 10-15 years. Here in NH we too see winters that seem but 1/2 what they once were - even earlier in this century. Is it cyclical, global warming or something else? I don't know but I don't mind spending less on energy and moving less of the white stuff around.

[Wayne Smith]

One major advantage of the area, as far as I am concerned, is a quick trip down to Acadia NP. One of my all-time favorite places, even though we haven't been there for several years now.

[Big Tom]

Yes, the Acadia NP is one of the highlights in the area, it would be less than an hour from the house... The more I hear about it, the more excited I get :-)


One major advantage of the area, as far as I am concerned, is a quick trip down to Acadia NP. One of my all-time favorite places, even though we haven't been there for several years now.

[MaryB]

Wife wants to move to Maine and we found a house we like in the Bangor, ME area (about 30 min SW from Bangor). My concern is not so much around firearms laws in ME, these seem to be fine, compared to the rest of the states, but how are winters there? I hear different things from "mild due to the Atlantic being close by" to "winters suck, lights go out at 3pm and on at 9am, darn cold and 10+ ft of snow...".

Anybody here who can share first hand experience?

https://weatherspark.com/y/27412/Average-Weather-in-Bangor-Maine-United-States-Year-Round

[Maineboy]

It's hilarious to me that folks consider Bangor as Northern Maine when it's really in the central part of the state. I've lived in the real Northern Maine all my life and consider the Bangor area a good place to visit and shop but way too crowded to live. Too many people and too much traffic for this country/woods boy. Good luck relocating and when you do, please venture North and West and experience the Maine few people know.

[jonp]

Ft Kent is the end of the world in potato country.

That is no lie. Grew up 2 states over but have traveled most of Maine as a truckdriver picking up and delivering everywhere from Rangley to Bangor to Machias to Ft Kent. South is nothing like the north and interior. Ft Kent is like Machias, I think, in one aspect. When you get there it's like the end of the world and feels much different almost like your not in the US anymore. Great place, though. Wife and I looked at an abandoned blueberry farm NorthEast of Caribou a few years ago. Very good price.

[DocSavage]

Have family on Boothbay and as I remember winters were brutal at times. Late uncle had a house there heating ot was ok but his heater like most of the folks in the area used kerosene (K2) because it would flow better when it got really cold. I went to high school there and remember missing only 2 days in the winter one it was so cold the busses would start the other the heating system in the HS broke down. This was 1966 as I recall
Also stock up on bug repellent mosquitoes will suck you dry.

[Big Tom]

Made it back... House is nice, property is nice, but a bit too steep for my taste (at foot of larger hill). The worst part was the mosquitos. Had my arms, neck face and other exposed parts covered in mosquito repellent and that worked really well. What I did not know was that these suckers will not get stopped by a rather thick cotton T-shirt. Lesson learned after almost 20 bites on the back and shoulders within 10 minutes or so in the wooded area. The area is nice and quiet, large property, nice house... but these beasts make me wonder if I should do it or not...


....
Also stock up on bug repellent mosquitoes will suck you dry.

[hwilliam01]

Made it back... House is nice, property is nice, but a bit too steep for my taste (at foot of larger hill). The worst part was the mosquitos. Had my arms, neck face and other exposed parts covered in mosquito repellent and that worked really well. What I did not know was that these suckers will not get stopped by a rather thick cotton T-shirt. Lesson learned after almost 20 bites on the back and shoulders within 10 minutes or so in the wooded area. The area is nice and quiet, large property, nice house... but these beasts make me wonder if I should do it or not...

They can be annoying, but they are here for a short while, a breeze and smake will keep them mostly at bay. I gre w up in Brunswick (before they became a liberal mess) wih a camp up in Moosehead Lake (close to where BD lives). It is a beautiful place. Like others have said, it's really three almost distinct locations, Northern Massachussetts, Coastal Maine, and the North Woods. It is a sportsman's paradice....good hunting, fishing, snowmobiling, skiing, etc. The snow is not so bad....we live wih it and everyone understands it. I grew up in Brunswick, Maine and lived near PHilly for 35 years and have now moved back. Married Jersey girl and she was petrified of driving in the snow. The wife was concerned about having to drive in the snow, and has told there was a bog difference bewteen Maine and Pennsylvania. She says, they know how to take care of a snow storm here. We have full time people that plow snow and do it all night till the raods are clear. If we get a good snow storm, people now to stay home and reschedule and people accept that since most of them are doing the same thing. I think you'll like it here, especially the summer which is usually on a Tuesday! Oh and the msquito is the Maine state bird! Bill
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