Porcupine Islands in late September

80 degree(F) days in late September!   Who can resist being outside?   Not me!

  Sunday we were up early and off to Bar Harbor to launch from the bar.  At 8:30 there were some walkers, and a few cars out testing the make-shift road exposed by the tide.

  It was a still day, perfect for exploring - and the photos say it is definitely fall.

  Just one cruise ship in the harbor, but my eyes kept being drawn to it.  Cruise ships dominate the waters off Bar Harbor in the fall.  A few lobster boats were out working, as were various tour boats.

  All alone at the Hop, except for this armada of loons.

  Not many urchin casts on the beach, usually in fall there are several.  This is a picture of the only one I saw.  Instead, there was a fair amount of trash, enough to fill a grocery bag, with an extra bottle or two to spare.

  Not many other kayaks out; two tour groups by the first two porcupine islands (Bar and Sheep) and this paddleboarder way out by Long Porcupine.

   I felt very lucky to have been able to take advantage of the warmth; that so few others were at the Porcupines with us I can ascribe only to the multitudinous choices of outdoor activities in Maine.

Summary Information: Launch Bar at the end of Bridge Street in Bar Harbor. No parking at launch: parking is available on West Street and side streets. No facilities: the information booth on Thompson Island is one options as are public toilets at the town dock.
High about 2:30 PM  Launch 8:45AM Finish 12:30PM.  8.8 miles one stop.

Eagle Lake, Acadia NP, Mount Desert Island

   Acadia National Park is an inspiring place, not just because of its great beauty but because of all the "do-ers" it attracts.  People come to Acadia not to sit and ponder, but to do; to bike, to hike and to paddle.
  Access to Eagle Lake is right off a public road, Route 233.  When we arrived, we could see the upper lot was full and about thirty cars were parked along the street sides.  So we were surprised to discover parking right by the boat launch in the smaller lake side lot.
   Most of the others were bicyclists, looking to loop the lake on grand carriage trails.  Others had longer adventures planned; one group asked us which trail headed to Jordan Pond where they planned to lunch.  (I'm not sure why they asked us, since clearly we weren't headed to Jordan Pond.  But possibly since we were pumping up our paddle boards we were a stationary target. )
   As crowded as the parking area was, you soon find privacy along the carriage trails and on the lake.

  Eagle Lake is the largest freshwater lake in the park, and the water supply for Bar Harbor.   Swimming, wind surfing, wading, and boats over 10hp aren't allowed on the lake.  It's chief draw is the backdrop of mountains.

  There were other boats on the water, a trio of kayaks and a solo kayak already out, a pair who launched behind us.  As we paddled we heard murmurs from the woods, bicyclists communicating with their group.

Taking a break along the shore.  True to Leave no Trace I've chosen a rock with no lichen, and I'm keeping my feet out of the water.  The straw gardening hat was cool but totally unsuited for paddling.  It blocked the forward view, so I wound up bending the brim back.

   The water was clear, and through there are fish in the lake, I didn't spot any.  The bottom seemed blank and nearly sterile.

   Along the east shore we found this rock shelter.  In 1885 a small hotel, the Curran House was built beside the dam on the north side of the lake.  The hotel built a small wharf from which the steamboat Wauwinnet transported guests to wharf on the east side where a railroad climbed Mount Cadillac.   Pictures of the hotel, steamboat and railroad can be found in a History of Bar Harbor Water Company pdf (the Eagle Lake story starts on page 75.)    Those pictures show no stone buildings, so my guess is the rockwork was built by the Civilian Conservation Corp (CCC) in the 1930's as an enhancement to the carriage trails.

   All in all a lovely, quiet paddle.  

A bicyclist by the dam, where Curran House once stood

  Summary:  Access off Route 233, limited parking in the lots, the roadside seemed quite full as we left.  Pit toilets.  No swimming, no wind surfing.  When we left, we kept the boards inflated, a park ranger came and parked beside us saying not a word, which was delightful because it verified that paddle boards and our parking space were allowable at the park.
   We left our boards inflated so we could check for snakes at the Ellsworth Launch on the Union River.  Midday none were found, which was not really a surprise, they'd be more likely sunning on the rocks on a cooler day or in morning or evening light.  However several eagles were having great success fishing.

 

Bass Harbor to Little Black Island - Eagles and Boats

Another weekend and another new paddling location for us!  This time on Mount Desert Island.  You'd expect Mount Desert Island, recently named a top 25 island (world-wide!), to have some pretty amazing views, and it does.  Several times along the route to Tremont Town Wharf, I was tempted to pull over and try to frame the view, especially as the road crossed Bass Harbor Marsh.  But sometimes you have to prioritize, and  we wanted to save our time and energy for  paddling. 

Bass Harbor at low tide.  ( Bass Harbor is a section of Tremont)

    Tremont Town Wharf isn't a huge launch site, it has about 30 parking spaces, and perhaps more at a back lot.  Compare that to the boats in the harbor, and we were a little surprised to see spaces were readily available even if it was 8 AM on Sunday.  I also didn't expect such a  friendly  Harbormaster.  I checked with him about launch fees, which is also a good opportunity for him to warn us if we've parked in a reserved area.  Not only was parking/launching free, but he asked where we were from, chatted awhile and wished us a pleasant trip.  It made for a stress free start.

   Bass Harbor Light, one of the most popular lights in Maine, is just around the corner.  Maybe you've seen a photo like this somewhere? 

    The house and grounds for Bass Harbor Light are a private residence for a Coast Guard member, but there is a nearby public viewing platform.  The lighthouse was built and renovated at various times between 1858 and 1902.  More information on its history can be found at the Bass Harbor Lighthouse article at wikipedia. 

   There's a bar between  the lighthouse and Great Gott island.  It was fairly calm in the morning, near low tide with a still wind.  In the afternoon, at a higher tide and more wind, the bar still wasn't a problem.  Traffic over the bar was a concern, but it tended to stick to the narrow channel marked near the bell buoys.

    I enjoyed  low-tide ocean floor viewing in the harbor and by Great Gott Island.  Mostly I saw kelp, but there was a patch of sand dollars and some bright orange sponges as well.

   More interesting was watching an active lobster boat.  Usually a working lobsterboat has a crowd of seagulls behind it, hoping to snare used bait.  This boat had usual crowd of gulls, but also two adult eagles diving for old bait, or maybe thrown-back lobsters.  This is the first time I've seen eagles tracking boats, and I'm not sure the lobsterman considered it as entertaining as we did.  We tried to get a picture, but our cameras merely recorded smaller and larger blobs against a blue sky.  You'll have to be content with this picture of the two culprits sitting on tree tops, waiting for the next lobsterboat to come by.  They may have quite a wait, since many lobsterboats take Sunday off.

We also noticed this row boat, with a dog happily serving as coxswain.

These are the salmon pens off Black Island, there are several  fish pens, owned by Cooke Aquaculture.  The netted pens have many patient seagulls on top, hoping for a net tear.   The splashes show where salmon were jumping.

We stopped on Little Black for lunch, eating under the scrutiny of four or five seals.  No fish in our lunches, but maybe they were fans of cheese puffs. Circumnavigating Little black on foot after lunch, we risked twisting our ankles, but came away with some lovely pictures.

The bar between Black and Little Black is about to disappear

Debating jumping the canyon

Looking toward Great and Little Duck

Our trip back was to the outside (eastern) side of the islands.  No surprise, the water was more active there.  We saw  quite a few ledges along the shores.  There is a second possible landing site, a public beach preserve on Great Gott Island.  It's owned by the Maine Coastal Heritage Trust, you can see more about it at the Maine Coastal Heritage Great Gott preserve website. 

When we were by, there were already boats on the beach.  Though there was more space, we didn't stop.  We didn't see any other paddle craft on our trip.

Bell buoy, lighthouse and cell tower

Harbor at high tide, still lovely!

Summary:  Launch Tremont Town Wharf, about 30 spaces, concrete all tides ramp, free.  Launch 8:30AM, low was about 8:30AM.  Finish 1 PM, one stop, about 13 miles.

Additional Notes:
Tremont Launch:  http://www.maine.gov/doc/parks/programs/boating/sites/302.html
More on the Aquaculture: http://fenceviewer.com/site/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=48050:DMR%20Schedules%20Frenchboro%20Hearing%20For%20Black%20Island%20Fish%20Farm%20Expansion&catid=39:maritime

Lamoine State Park to the Ovens, Mount Desert Island Maine

It’s hard to imagine a more peaceful location than Lamoine State Park on a still day. Not many boats remained anchored, but those that were reflected perfectly. Between the boats, a few loons swam. And off in the distance, the mountains of Acadia made a beautiful back drop.

We’d come to Lamoine State Park to enjoy the low tide. In the summer, under similar conditions, I’ve paddled between Lamoine Park and Lamoine Beach watching the ocean floor rise and fall beneath my boat. I felt like a bird on the wing. Several times we’ve gone to Lamoine State Park for snorkeling at low tide, admiring the many crabs and sea stars on view.

But with a fall sun hanging low in the sky, the underwater viewing was limited, though I did spot a few sea stars.

Meanwhile, out on the water, we kept seeing distant white spray. Hoping to spot some sea mammal, we crossed to Googins Ledge where we were a little disappointed to learn that the source of splashing was Eiders displaying for each other.

Then, since we were part way across the ¾ mile narrows, we decided to continue on and see the Ovens. The Ovens, a series of brick oven-shaped caves, are located by Sand Point on Mount Desert Island (home of famous Bar Harbor).

They’re a well known attraction and a fun destination. The Ovens are publicly owned, but the land around them is private, making kayaks one of the most convenient ways to visit them.

A rainbow of minerals have leached out of the Ovens over the years.

This arch is known as the Cathedral.

If you’d like to know more about the Ovens formation and geology, check out this article by the Maine Geological Survey. Clicking on the pictures on the Maine site brings up captions, and in one case, more pictures.

On our trip back we paddled by Lamoine Beach, quiet except for one dog walker. The wind had picked up, adding texture to the water and obscuring the bottom. On shore, seagulls struggled to open mussels, and overhead an eagle flew by.

Lamoine State Park is such a pretty, peaceful area; yet twice this summer Frenchman's Bay has been paired with "kayaker fatality". In one case, the kayaker launched from Lamoine State Park. While the exact cause of death was not published and preventative actions are subject to debate, one thing is clear; as happened with us, this is an area where folks start on one side and are soon tempted to cross to the other. Before they do, they should be sure to have the skills and equipment for a cold water rescue.

Summary: Start 10:40AM, finish 12:30PM, 5.4 miles. Low tide 11:40AM. Lamoine State Park has fees in season. Outhouses available at Lamoine State Park. Lamoine Beach, and Hadley Beach are also good launch points for the ovens. Hadley Point Beach, on Mount Desert Island is probably the closest launch site.

Long Pond, Mount Desert Island

Rounding Northern Neck

The waters off Mount Desert Island are one of my favorite places to paddle. But, with gale warnings in effect, it seemed best to stick to inland waters. Fortunately there are several possibilities on MDI. In fact, there are two ponds named “Long Pond.” We were headed for the Long Pond in Somesville. This Long Pond is five miles long; at each end is a boat ramp. Generally when I’ve driven Route 102 (aka Pretty Marsh Rd) by Long Pond, I have no chance to look around. Beside the 102 boat ramp there is a small beach and across from the beach/ramp is National Park Canoe and Kayak Rental. So my eyes are focused on the road and distracted canoe carters as well as errant children and pets. However, on the way back from Seal Cove, riding as a passenger, I happened to glance at the pond and realized how lovely it was, a narrow strip of water with mountains for a backdrop. We hoped it would be protected from the winds, and on Sunday it mostly was. I’ve read that a south wind can create a fair amount of havoc on the pond.

Some color along the western shore

The water seemed pretty tame, much tamer than we expected. Heading out from the landing, the initial cove was crowded with a variety of cottages. Some were simple cottages from the fifties, which would be at home on any lake in Maine. Others appeared significantly more likely to be summer housing for the well-heeled.

Once we’d made it around Northern Neck, much of the western shore was a part of Acadia National Park, as was tiny Rum Island.

Rum Island is to the left

With many paths criss-crossing it, Rum Island is well loved, and yet still lovely. Especially appropriate is the picture of Rum Island on Google Earth labeled “Insert Romantic Interlude Here.” I’m afraid our humble snack wasn’t quite a “Loaf of bread, a jug of wine” but there was a thou and a semi wilderness. Ah…...

We didn’t paddle all the way to the other end, but we did go as far as Duck Rock where we spied a few Acadian hikers, before we headed back to the start.

Documenting our successful paddle to Duck Rock, Beech Mountain in the distance

Afterward we drove into Bar Harbor, which was jammed with the passengers from two huge cruise ships. We watched as the schooner Mary Todd headed away from the dock, just far enough to turn around and sail into the more sheltered waters of Frenchman’s Bay.

We looked with great longing at the Porcupine Islands and the waves battering them. Fortunately, they’ll be there next paddling season as well.

Summary: Limited parking in season, portapottie.

Seal Cove MDI to McKenney Preserve

 A beautiful day and a new destination on the horizon....what more could one want?

Summary:  Launch Seal Cove, off Cove Rd. Concrete ramp and gravel beach beside ramp.  Portapotties.  High 9:00AM Launch 10:20AM, finish 1:30PM 11 Miles, one stop.

80 degrees!  80 degrees in Maine in October!  Of course we wanted to go out on the ocean.  We launched from Seal Cove initially thinking we might paddle east to Bass Harbor and back, but once on the water, in the benign conditions, Tinker Island called to us.

Out to Bakers Island

Lifesaving Station on Little Cranberry as seen from Baker

Basics:  Launch: Northeast Harbor, launch on Harbor Drive off route 198, restrooms open 8AM – 4PM.  High 2:20PM launch 9AM, finish 3PM, 13 miles, two long stops.

Under unique natural areas, Maine Delorme Atlas lists the “Dance Floor” as an off-shore pile of huge granite slabs hewn by the relentless action of the ocean.  The “Dance Floor” is not just called that, it actually used to be used as a dance floor.  A desire to see this feature first drew us to Baker Island, located south of Mount Desert Island, Maine.

I assume the custom of dancing by the ocean was started by Rusticators, folks coming to summer in Maine in the 1870’s, eager to enjoy simple outdoor pleasures.  After all, dancing on a distant island hardly meshes with the image of the practical, staid Mainer.  A charismatic young man no doubt organized the first dance, convincing his friends to forgo more logical locations and instead to row across from Little Cranberry, walk through the fields of Baker to the ocean side.  There, no doubt picnic baskets were unpacked, blankets spread out and eventually a fiddle began playing.  And tentatively, couples would dance across the uneven surface, giddy at the foolishness of it all.

To get to Baker we paddled out of Northeast Harbor, a small secure harbor packed with beautiful yachts and sailboats. 

It was a quick jump across the harbor, though a bit of a challenge, as sailboats headed out, but also in (surprising at that early hour).  Our journey to Baker Island would take us by three other islands, with relatively short crossings in between.  Along the way we passed bell buoy 10 and the Bear Island lighthouse.

 Crossings were stressful, especially Bear to Sutton and Sutton to Little Cranberry.  Lobster boats were out gathering their traps and pleasure boats and sailboats rushed through.  At each crossing we’d keep close together, twisting our heads in all the various directions.  We never had a clear crossing; there were always others boats moving through, but we’d monitor them to assure we weren’t staying in their pathways.   At times we felt like we were involved in a big game of Frogger.

As we paddled along Sutton I captured this photo of a cormorant.  Usually I see something I want to record, pull out the camera from a PFD pocket, turn it on, realize momentum has taken me past the shot I wanted, paddle back a bit, point the camera in the general direction and hope the most recent wave doesn’t blur the shot.  So I was amazed that the feathers are in focus and you can even see the eerie jade green eye.

There is a irregularly shaped bar and shallows most of the way between Little Cranberry and Baker Island, which turns gentle swells into crashing waves, but by watching ahead we were able to avoid them. 

Since we often wait until September to paddle off MDI, most of the time when we’ve made it to Baker, we’ve been on our own, but this time there were three boats anchored by the beach on the north side, two pleasure cruisers and a tour boat.  Only one person was visible though, the captain of the tour boat who was fishing off the back.

We landed on the cobble beach, pulling our boats up high and tying them to a large rock.

Before we pulled the boats above the high tide line

We followed the mown path up by the old houses.  Baker Island is partially owned by Acadia National Park and partially privately owned.  Red buildings are private buildings.

Beyond the buildings, Baker Light appears, hidden in the middle of the now forested island.  A few visitors were there chatting with a park ranger, like us they were going further, taking the narrow wood trail which started near the brick building once used to store oil for the lighthouse.

Altogether it’s about a half mile across the island, along the trail we spotted just one fairy house; tiny houses of natural material built in some special locations.  Sometimes there have been several fairy houses; I’m not sure if the builders have stayed away, or if the National Park Service discourages their presence.

I was hoping to hear more details of the Dance Floor, perhaps seeing a brave young couple trying a few steps.  Instead, as we stepped out of the woods into the bright sunlight, we just saw folks sitting and watching the waves. 

We hung out there a few minutes and then headed back, preferring instead to wander by this old cemetery on the north west side.

From Baker we went to Little Cranberry.  Unlike most islands we visit, Little Cranberry has a town on it;  Isleford, and even a small tourist area.  There is a historic museum, public restrooms, a gallery, a gift store, a pottery shop, and a lovely restaurant on the end of the dock.  These are frequented by the year ‘round and summer residents, but mostly from day visitors who come out on a scheduled ferry.

Coming in to Isleford Harbor

One visitor asked us if we’d paddled over, and then seemed amazed when we answered in the affirmative.  She called her friend over to share that we’d paddled over three miles out.  I didn’t feel right clarifying that we’d actually done about 9 miles at that point, since Isleford Harbor was about halfway back.

The trip back was much the same as going out, though there were more sailboats.  And we stopped by this arch on the north west side of Sutton; even near high tide the water was a little too low to consider passing through.

If you’re thinking of visiting Isleford or want to see folks dancing on the Dance Floor, this is a nice link.