So, imagine you’re in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. You’re causally walking around near the water, taking in the views. Then in the distance you spot a bridge. You look up what’s on the other side of the bridge, because you see another land mass on the other side of this structure.

After seeing what’s on the other side, and seeing that the bridge has a walk path, you decide to walk across the bridge. You’re walking and walking, taking in the views from the bridge.

The next thing you know, you’re not in New Hampshire anymore! You wonder, “how in the world did I leave New Hampshire?”. Like, the bridge took you to another island that was in New Hampshire, right?

No no, you walked passed said island and ended up in another state: Maine.

How I Ended Up In Maine

If you questioned if you could even walk from New Hampshire into Maine, and how on Earth you could possibly do that by accident, I questioned that myself.

As you’ve probably read, it all started out of curiosity about the other side of the bridge. The bridge I walked across is called the Memorial Bridge, which is dedicated to the soldiers who fought in WWI.

I looked on my Apple Maps app and saw that on the other side of the bridge, there’s this little island called Badger’s Island. It seemed like a decent size island and I wanted to explore it.

Being that I was in Portsmouth, NH, I wanted to do as much exploration as possible before moving onto the next location. The plan was to quickly explore Badger’s Island, then make my way back to Portsmouth for lunch.

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However, that did not go according to plan. When I walked across the bridge, I kept walking on the walk path as I didn’t see any sidewalks on the coast line.

After about 5-7 minutes of walking, I saw a sign that said something about not texting while driving. The thing of it is, the sign had the state of Maine on it. I know what New Hampshire looks like and that wasn’t New Hampshire on the sign.

I stared at that sign with such surprise, I literally walked into Maine! What I failed to see on my map app is that Badger’s Island is technically part of Maine. I didn’t see the little, thin red line that shows the divide between states.

So here I was, in Maine which apparently is a lovely little 20 minute walk from Portsmouth.

Exploring Kittery Maine

When I looked on my app, I found out that I was in Kittery, Maine. I’ve never heard of this little place before. But now that I know of its existence, and the fact that I walked into it, I figured I might as well walk around and explore.

This was fun because visiting Maine was not on my itinerary. The state is very big and I didn’t have enough time to visit it on my road trip. But this was such a fun and exciting surprise to be able to visit at least some portion of Maine!

Once I got to the intersection, I just followed signs for the Appalachian trail. Why? Because those signs were posted on multiple poles throughout the town and it was an easy way for me to find and keep my bearings. I had no idea where I was going or walking to, so I figured following trail signs would be beneficial.

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I walked on sidewalks in quiet neighborhoods and along busy roads for about an hour or more. The pavement eventually came to an end and I stopped walking. Even though the Appalachian trail signs were still on the poles, it seemed like you had to walk along the side of the road to get to the actual trail area.

I don’t like walking on the side of roads or in areas that don’t have sidewalks. Doesn’t seem safe to me. That’s why I stopped and turned around to start my walk back to New Hampshire.

But before I did that, I stumbled upon this quaint but small little area with a pond. The view was beautiful here. I saw the area while I was walking on the sidewalk, following the Appalachian trail signs. I didn’t see the entrance at first, so I passed the area.

Since I saw the entrance on my way back to Portsmouth, I decided to look at the beautiful pond and colorful leaves. If you weren’t from the area, you’d miss it. There’s room for about 2 to 3 cars to park, a bench or two, and it’s somewhat tucked away and out of sight. Such a cool little find.

The Walk Back To New Hampshire

Alas, my exploration of Kittery, Maine was coming to an end. I approached the intersection I first walked past earlier and the cute row of homes along the road. I kept staring at the homes and road, still in disbelief that I wandered into Maine.

Though the exploration was short, it only lasted about 3 hours, it was fun. Not much happened and there wasn’t much to see or do in Kittery. However, I was in New England to look at some fall foliage. I saw plenty of beautiful trees which were covered in stunning colors. As long as I saw this fall foliage, I was happy.

I walked across the Memorial Bridge once more, taking one last look at Maine before completing my crossing. Finally, I arrived back in Portsmouth with a sense of astonishment and happiness. Still couldn’t believe I did something like that and I wouldn’t change it for the world.

My next task was to find a place to have lunch because at this point, I was very hungry from all my walking. I love it when fun and unexpected things happen while you’re traveling. You just have to go with the flow and take it as it comes.