Monhegan Island Hiking, Part 2 of my three day weekend

The last three days have been epic. I took the last of my three day weekends and went on three bucket list type of trips. I was up in Maine on Wednesday and Thursday. Wednesday I went birding and took a puffin cruise. Thursday I took a ferry to Monhegan Island and hiked my ass off. On Friday I went on my friend Eric's boat where we caught so many big Black Sea Bass that we were throwing back anything under 19 inches.

I am working my way backwards, going back from Friday until Wednesday so that they will be in order after they are all written top to bottom.

 After my Puffin Cruise on Wednesday night, I drove an hour to Lobster Buoy Campground. I chose this campground because it was only a 20 minute ride to the Monhegan Island Ferry that I needed to be at for 7 am.

The view from my campsite was amazing. These are just a couple of
the eight islands I could count in front of my site. Picture taken at
5:30 am before breaking camp. 

Monhegan Island is Maine's version of Block Island. They are similar in many ways. Both have steep cliffs. The islands are accessible by an hour ferry ride ferry (I know, the Block has a high speed ferry also). Both islands are bird magnets. Lastly and most importantly, walking either of these islands is like walking from one postcard to another.  One difference, Block Island was about one thousand year round residents. Monhegan has 68. My ferry ride to the island had seven passangers, and my ride home about 12.

I went to Monhegan without any expectations. If it was birdy, I'd take my time and look for birds. If it wasn't, my plan was to hike to as much of the natural wonders as I could. My ferry arrived at the island at 8 am, and it was picking me up at 4:30. I had 8.5 hours and I planned to make the best of it.

The ferry round trip cost me about $40. you take the ferry out of Port Clyde, ME. They run multiple times a day, but I wanted to spend as much time on the island as I could. Before I go any further, unfortunately, the day was overcast until about 4 pm. So my "postcard" pictures are not as nice as they could have been with a blue sky.

As luck would have it, I saw very few birds. I heard plenty but the deep spruce forest kept them hidden. I did hear multiple  Wood Thrushes, Swainson's Thrush, and Black Throated Green Warblers. I did see a Swainson's and a Redstart, but not much else except on the ocean. I figured it out pretty quickly that hiking was the better option.

It was still spring on the island, as lilacs were still in bloom

Lupine?

Buoys were decorations everywhere

A dirt road leading to my first trail
into the interior of the island

There were some rocks on the north side of the island
that seals were resting on. 

Almost all of the seals were of the Harbor variety. I did see
some grey seals swimming

A herring gull on a nest. It occurred to me, of the thousands
of gulls I've seen, I've never seen one nesting

This is Blackhead Cliff. The picture does not do it justice. It
is 160 feet from sea level to the trees and it is not climbable.
It was stunning

There is a shipwreck at the southern end of the island.

Wreckage is spread over quite a distance

Up close and personal

A view from the lighthouse

Another view from the lighthouse. The island on the
other side of that small channel is Manana

The lighthouse. The sky was just starting to clear, but...

I had to be back down to catch my ferry

The ferry dock at Port Clyde

The sky was still pretty dark back at port.