This all comes up because we just got back from another fantastic trip, this one may have topped them all. 12 incredible days in Maine.
8/2: Camped at Flander's Bay Campground on Frenchman's Bay. A beautiful spot right on the water. Arrived after dark and quickly set up camp. Walked down to the rocky beach and gaped at the gazillions of stars for a long while. Very soft ground!
8/3: Biked about 12 miles on Eastern Greenway, lots of mosquitoes! Biked another 12 mi. down to Schoodic Point, part of Acadia NP. Night 2 at FBC: Chris picked up lobster from a closeby restaurant while I cooked up some corn on the fire. Amazing campground meal!
8/4: Drove into Acadia NP. Set up camp at Blackwoods Campground, lush and beautiful, balsam firs, ferns and cushy moss everywhere. A little gravelly on the site, not quite as comfortable for sleeping but we had mats. A steady drizzle kept up through lunch but we decided to go ahead with our 20 mile bike ride. Chris wore plastic bags over his shoes and I wore his shoe covers and arm warmers which were both way too big. A pretty hilly ride but not too many cars on the road. We had a few clearings every now and then and stopped halfway during a sunny break and recharged with a Clif bar... then it started raining again. We laughed our way through it and loved every second. Back at the site we got warm, dry clothes on and drove to Bar Harbor for dinner at McKay's (more lobster!) and some souvenir shopping.
8/5: I headed back out to the road and picked a bunch of wild blueberries and Chris made some delicious blueberry pancakes! Packed up and drove to the top of Cadillac Mountain, picked some blueberries and did some yoga. Drove to Portland. My mom was there as a surprise for Bill's birthday along with his sisters, their husbands and an old friend. The surprisers went out to Seawater Grille for a delicious dinner on the bay that night. Back at the beautiful Danforth Inn we drank some beer and played billiards until late in the basement with Mom.
8/6: Breakfast at the Danforth then Chris and I rode our bikes to the Crab Shack in Cape Elizabeth where we were meeting to surprise Bill. We got there just after Mom and everyone else and Bill still had tears in his eyes and a huge grin on his face when we walked up the stairs.
We took a scenic route back to Portland (35mi total), showered and changed then headed to Bill's daughter's house for the birthday party and lobster boil!
It was great to get to know Bill's family a little better and toast the great person he is.
We planned to camp at the Burke's that night but the noise of the rain and foghorns drove us inside to cozy couches. (Thanks Burkes!)
At some point during this day Chris comes to the conclusion that there is too much to do yet in the only 2 days we have planned, and proposes that we stay another week. It doesn't take long for me to agree.
8/7: Planned to drive to Eastport to camp, but it's raining pretty hard and we're tired so we drive to Bangor and stay at the Charles Inn. It feels good to get all of our stuff reorganized, take a shower and sleep in a bed. We walk over to Paddy McGrath's for a pint and sleep like a couple of rocks.
8/8: Back in the car! We complete the drive to Eastport and set up camp at Seaview Campgrounds. Our site does, in fact, have a view of the sea. The fog horns are wailing again and as the night rolls in we feel like we are actually camping in a cloud. We snack on chips and salsa and cook up some kielbasa for dinner.
8/9: Leftover kielbasa with scrambled eggs for breakfast as well as some wild blueberries from our site with yogurt. Reorganized our stuff to take the essentials with us for a little camping
adventure. Drove to Lubec (easternmost point in US), parked at the West Quoddy lighthouse and strapped our packs to the back of our bikes. Rode 18 miles of hills (not something I'm used to with an extra 40 pounds on my bike) to the Bold Coast Trail. It was a beautiful day, 75 degrees and sunny and the 6 mile hike through seriously rugged terrain was tough but fun. It seemed like as soon as you got used to one terrain it would change: craggy boulders, climbing tree roots like ladders, crossing creeks on natural bridges, an easy mulchy trail amid the delicious scent of balsam firs, a rocky path engulfed in the smell of seawater, a soft mossy path, and tall grasses where the trail almost disappears (what did I forget?). It was simply incredible. It took us about 4.5 hours to hike the 6 miles and we came across 3 other parties: a single guy, a middle-aged couple and two young women with a dog.
We reached the remote campsite when my legs were about to give in. It was the first site of three but we were pretty sure we were the only two people around. There was a fire ring and a pit latrine and a fantastic view of the ocean. (I was SURE I would see a whale... didn't). We had an hour of sunlight left and our flashlight died so we hurried to set up camp and Chris hunted for firewood. It turned out that the moon was so incredibly bright that we didn't even need to hurry. We got the fire going, Chris boiled some water he'd collected from a fresh spring (the water was brown and tasted like iron, but according to him it was fine for making coffee).
8/10: 5 a.m. RAIN. Crap. Pulled on the rain fly and snuggled back to sleep for a couple more hours. Still raining. We could sleep for another hour and see if it stops? Still raining. Oh, well. Time to break everything down and head back to the car. Plastic bags over the socks, packs on and back out into the varied terrain. Now we had more creeks, swamps and rock-hopping to do and this persistent rain is what makes this area so green with moss and ferns that it was hard to do anything but embrace it. My steps started to get heavy and slow and we were SOAKING wet, but the rain did stop eventually and we were mostly dealing with the aftermath. We picked blueberries along the way and felt refreshed each time the scene changed.
8/11: Back to the Charles Inn in Bangor to dry out. We set up our tent inside the room and draped most of our belongings over the chairs, TV, doors, and dressers. We thought we deserved a really good dinner and found it at Fiddlehead Restaurant (lobster lasagna for Chris, salmon with fiddleheads on top for me).
8/12: Packed up our stuff and took our time heading to Searsport. Stopped on the way for breakfast in Ellsworth and worked out our sore legs stopping into a couple of antique stores and other cute shops. Stopped at Atlantic Brewing Company for a tour, some samples and lunch and bought plenty of beer to take with us.
This was the most cushy camping we'd done on this trip or ever. More family style long-term camping. There were lots of RVs and I think over 100 sites, but we were quite separate in a "no kids" section with beautiful ocean views. We had perfect weather for the whole stay and got to feel a little more settled with three nights in one spot. Made some delicious campfire nachos for dinner.
8/13: Slept late, and snacked a leisurely breakfast of yogurt and fruit. Drove to Deer Isle a little over an hour away and rented a Kayak at Old Quarry Campgrounds. This seemed like a much more chill place to stay than at Oceanfront which had a few too many rules for our taste. We had the kayak for 4 hours and after about 45 minutes we realized we were going to need beer. We paddled up to Stonington and I ran up to get some at the Fisherman's Friend Convenience Store (I had luckily thought ahead here and brought my ID because everyone seems to card in Maine). We paddled across to Rock Island with a sandy beach and hiked around a little bit and took in the beauty of Deer Isle. Chatted with some friendly Canucks upon our return and decided that we could easily spend an entire week on Deer Isle, kayaking from island to island to camp, eating lobster and drinking good beer (maybe next summer?).
"I can't describe Deer Isle. There is something about it that opens no door to words." ~ John Steinbeck.
8/14: Woke up to another beautiful day. Drove to Kennebunkport and rode bikes around gaping at the huge coastal homes. Ate lunch at the original Shipyard Brewery - Federal Jack's Brew Pub and bought some saltwater taffy. Started heading home, noticed traffic was looking pretty bad so we stopped and saw Cowboys and Aliens (really). Passed through Ogunquit which looks like a pretty cute little town with a strong gay community. Chris drove the remaining 6 hours home through some pretty heavy rain and we were unloading the car at 1am.
Amazing.
This is a long post, I know. Jon Barsness is a man of fewer words: "Maine is fucking beautiful." It's true.
