can you see the forest for the trees?
Isle Au Haut, Maine (pronounced “I’ll a hoe”)August 14-15, 2012
Don’t worry. I’m not going to complain about bugs. Again. On August 14th, we took our leave of Mt. Desert Island and sadly turned Patronus southward. We could have happily spent at least another month in Maine, exploring the northern sections of the coast and maybe even reaching Nova Scotia. Chris was very disappointed that we didn’t make it to Rogue Island, which is known as the place where the “real” sailors go. We made a list of the places we missed on the way up north and headed for Isle au Haut.
Porter and I are towed behind the boat for fun.
Far off the coast, much of this island is actually part of Acadia National Park. It is protected from boaters and visitors of any kind by approximately 6 trillion lobster buoys. To keep things really interesting, many of the buoys are connected by a rope to a sister buoy. That rope lies about a foot under the water between the buoys, which might be as much as 15 feet apart. Your guess is as good as mine which ones are connected and which ones are not because you can’t tell until you are right next to them and can see the line between them. As a reminder, Patronus’ keel draws 5’7” (how far the bottom of the keel is from the waterline). I’m not sure how we made it through, but it probably has something to do with years of playing Minesweeper in the 1990’s.
The risks were worth it, because we pulled into Duck Harbor as the few boats there were preparing to leave for the night. We ended up anchoring with one other boat in this tiny little protected harbor. There was a cliff on one side, with one little house. On the other shore was a dock for the ferry and dinghies and a little beach with a tide pool.
Acadia Hiking on Isle Au Haut
We went ashore and found the Western Head Trail, which is part of Acadia (notice I am covered head to toe in the picture, despite the heat, to protect myself from the bugs. I’m a fast learner.)
heading up the trail
Here is what the guidebook said: “This is the least visited part of Acadia and one of the most beautiful. A short hike leads to the top of Duck Harbor Mountain, where there are great views. A much longer walk will take you around Western Head, passing cobble beaches one after the other, each more beautiful than the next.” Here’s the part I ignored: “The trails are likely to be rough and wet, and perhaps longer than you might expect, but they are well worth the effort.”
{yawn}
Two and a half hours later, we stumbled out of the woods, bedraggled, tired, bitten right through our clothes (well, just me), and thirsty. Once again, I ran to the dock, stripped down to my bathing suit, and jumped in the water to cool off and sooth my bug bites.
{oh look. more beauty…}
All I could think about was changing our website address to www.ConwayHikers.NOT. I thought it was funny. Okay. It was definitely beautiful. But at one point, I went to raise my camera to take a picture of a stunning scene, complete with the requisite rocks, majestic shoreline, soaring birds, vast ocean, and azure sky, and thought, “Oh, why bother? It’s like the 50th gorgeous view we’ve had in the last 2 hours.” I cracked myself up with that one. Only after almost a month in Maine could views like this start to seem hum-drum!
we found a perfectly good lobster buoy on the beach! Wonder how it got there?…
The water here, due to the extreme tides, was FREEZING! We only lasted about 15 minutes and then had to get out and bundle up in sweaters and socks. We had Porter Chicken, which is breaded chicken cutlets (Porter’s favorite. Thus the name.) The kids had been asking to do sleepovers with us, so Reese and I slept in one cabin and all the boys jammed into one of the aft cabins. It was fun to snuggle with them and fall right asleep listening to their little kid breathing and then wake up looking at their angelic faces in the morning (after getting kicked in the ribs since they end up sleeping sideways).
we saw this coast guard ship installing new buoys. they are so big!