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rails
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trails
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spring/summer.12
6
Bill Duncan
Most of the time, beachgoers try to avoid close encounters with
Jaws. But from April 13 to 15, people will flock to the Gulf Coast
town of Venice looking for the biggest incisors they can find.
Fortunately, the dentition on display at the annual Shark’s Tooth
Festival (
www.sharkstoothfest.com
; 941.412.0402) is harmless,
shed by sharks in ancient times and eventually carried to Venice’s
beaches by currents and tides. If you can’t find any teeth on your
own, vendors at the festival will happily sell you some—or a
variety of other marine fossils. If you’d like to commune with
some living wildlife, check out the nearby Legacy Trail. This rail-
trail between Venice and Sarasota passes through parks, woods
and wetlands, where you’ll find not only a wide assortment of
birds, but also deer, bobcats, tortoises, frogs and the state’s other
famously fanged resident, the alligator.
Length & surface:
12.4 miles; asphalt
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End points:
About 1 mile
south of State Road 72 (Sarasota) to Venice Avenue and the Venetian
Waterway Park Trail (Venice)
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Website:
www.co.sarasota.fl.us/
LegacyTrail/default.asp
Craving some
rotmos
? Itching to do the
hambo
? Or maybe
you’d just like to fling a
kastpinnar
at a
kubb
? Whether
it’s root vegetables, dancing or lawn bowling, there’s
something for everyone at the Maine Swedish Colony’s
MidsommarFest
(
www.maineswedishcolony.info/
midsom/index.html
). This annual celebration of sum-
mer and all things Swedish takes place in—where else?—
New Sweden, Maine, from June 22 to 24. Once you’ve
had your fill of this smorgasbord of Swedish culture,
history, music and eats, grab your
cykel
and pedal out
on one of the two lengthy rail-trails that run through
this Scandinavian section of the state: the Aroostook
Valley Trail and the Bangor & Aroostook Trail.
Totaling nearly 90 miles, and running through remote
forests and bogs filled with wildlife, these paths will
test your inner Viking.
Trevlig resa!
Length & surface:
28 miles (Aroostook Valley) and 61
miles (Bangor & Aroostook); stone and dirt
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End points:
Aroostook Valley: Presque Isle to New Sweden to Caribou;
Bangor & Aroostook: Van Buren to Mapleton to Caribou
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Websites:
Aroostook Valley: www.state.me.us/spo/
lmf/projects/project_detail.php?project=1516; Bangor
& Aroostook: www.maine.gov/cgi-bin/online/doc/
parksearch/details.pl?park_id=96
Special Athlete Boosters, Inc.
How
Swede
It Is in
Maine
Take a
Bite Out of
Florida