Downeast Maine Vacation

Laurie and I went on vacation in Maine over the last week. The trip had more downs than ups, but we made the best of what we could. The plan was to drive to the eastern most point in the U.S. on Monday. Tuesday I had a trip reserved to Machias Seal Island to see puffins. After the trip we had reservations at the Acadia National Park campground from Tuesday night until Saturday. We had a boat trip around the island and a "ghost walk" planned for the days in Acadia/Bar Harbor but didn't book them until we knew when we would have the best weather.

The trip to Machias Seal Island was going to be the highlight of the trip for me. The island is off the Maine/Canada cost ten miles out to sea. Thousands of Puffins, Razorbills, and Arctic Terns breed there. There is only one boat with a permit to land on the island (Bold Coast Charters). They start taking reservations on January 4th and they sell out for the year by Jan 5. The boat lands on the island and you walk out to blinds where you are watching and photographing the seabirds from three feet away. This is high on my bucket list for the whole country. I have dreamed about this trip far longer than I have been a serious birder.

My trip started ominously. We were leaving Monday morning for Maine, but Sunday night I got an email from Captain Andy saying the trip would probably be cancelled due to bad weather. We still had to make it up the coast "just in case". The trip ended up being cancelled due to high winds, rain, and eight foot seas. I did my best to not let it ruin my trip but I was crushed.

Besides rain all day Tuesday, it rained Thursday afternoon into Friday morning. Bar Harbor has a touristy "puffin cruise" to a smaller breeding colony. You can't go on the island, but I at least could have photographed puffins. We made reservations on Thursday for Friday. Although Friday was beautiful, the wind kicked up 6-10 foot waves and that trip was cancelled. I thought about going on the same trip Saturday (meaning we would get home from vacation about midnight) but the marine forecast was bad again,so we left Saturday.

Now that I got the negatives out of the way here are the highlights.

Monday we drove straight to West Quoddy Lighthouse, the eastern most point in the U.S. We hung out there for two hours before going to our campground. Besides the lighthouse, there were trails along the "classic Maine Coastline". It was a pleasant surprise.

Easternmost point in the U.S.A. marker

 After we left the lighthouse we had a 30 minute drive to our campground in Cobscook Bay State Park. Our site was right on the ocean. We were about twenty feet above the water on a bluff. The view was awesome. After we set up camp we found out my trip was cancelled.

 We packed up Tuesday morning and had a short two hour ride to Acadia/Bar Harbor. We went to Bar Harbor and got a blueberry pie slice at a favorite coffee shop. It started raining soon after. We didn't do much on Tuesday other than set up camp and take a nap. It stopped raining in the evening. We stopped at Thunder Hole where the water was surprisingly flat despite a rainy day. We went up Cadillac Mountian for a very short time. Although the weather was clearing it brought a crazy NW wind that must have been forty miles an hour on the summit.

Wednseday was going to to the best weather day of the trip and we knew it ahead of time. So we packed as much as we could into the daylight hours of the day. The hike I most wanted to do last September but ran out of time was Bubbles Pond. We parked at Jordan Pond House and walked a hiking trail to carriage road to the pond. It was a relaxing forty five minute walk. At Bubbles Pond we saw tiny baby brook trout, tadpoles and a resting female Merganser, and a loon.

Tadpole

Brook Trout Fry

The view of Bubbles Pond from our rock seats

When we left Bubbles Pond, Laurie and I went back different ways. She went back the way we came. I went over Pemetic Mountain. The distance was about the same, but I obviously went up and back down a mountain. It was the only real hike I did all vacation. The view from the top was spectacular.

From Pemetic, I could look down on the Bubble
Mountains and see the famous Bubble Rock

The hike down was really steep and had two ladders that I had to climb down into a chasm. The chasm was rushing with runoff from Tuesday's rain. It was a challenge to say the least.

 I had to be down at noon because we had tickets for a boat trip out of Northeast Harbor. There wasn't going to be any Puffins, but we would hopefully see other wildlife and scenery. The cruise was two hours and forty five minutes well spent. The boat was the Sea Princess

The first point of interest the boat passes is Bear Island Lighthouse.

 Then we pass this outcrop where seals come out to rest. There were both grey and harbor seals. This is just one small part of the rock which was probably 150 yards long

 The bird below is a Black Guillemot. They are pretty common along the coast. They are related to Puffins (sigh)

 One thing that attracted us to this particular  boat was a 45 minute stop on Little Cranberry Island. You can't really go far in 45 minutes but we got to stretch our legs and buy a soda. What I love about these little islands is you walk from one postcard to another.

After departing Little Cranberry Island the boat takes a ride into Somes Sound which was considered a fjord, the only one on the East Coast.  This picture is important. Samuel Champlain used this falls to collect fresh water for his men to resupply the ship in 1604.

 After our boat trip we took the Bar Harbor Ghost Tour. We did not see any ghosts. It was fun though

 Thursday morning the plan was to do as much fun stuff as we could before the rain started. The first place we went was Bass Harbor Light. You have almost positively seen this lighthouse in landscape calendars. I did my best to try to recreate the photos I've seen. We also saw a Bald Eagle from the lighthouse. The forth and last of the trip.

From the lighthouse we tried to do a little birding but the biting insects were fierce. I had hoped to bird on Hio Road which is a fireroad on the west side of the island. The bugs were too bad to enjoy birding. So we went a couple miles away to Ship Harbor. I hoped the ocean breeze would help with the bug problem. Being on the ocean at Ship Harbor was probably the highlight of my trip. We saw Black Guillemot and Common Eiders. What made the place special were the Harbor Porpoises we saw feeding from shore. For about fifteen minutes we watched Harbor Porpoises chase and feed on bait. They don't stay up for more than a few seconds so getting a picture was hard. 

Far away but the black spec below the arrow is a fin of a
Harbor Porpoise.

Friday morning we went to Waterfall Bridge on one of the carriage roads. I ended up going all the way to the waterfall. It was beautiful after a night of rain

A view of the fall and the road.

 We drove to Champlain Mountain where the Precipice Trail is closed off due to a family of Peregrine Falcons. There are four babies on the cliff. The National Park Service sets up a scope from 9-12 in the morning to view them. The parents usually don't stay with the young. This is one of the parents circling the cliff.

Our boat trip for 1:15 to see Puffins, Lighthouses, and Seabirds was cancelled before noon. This left us an afternoon to fill. We went back to Northeast Harbor where we got a late lunch of steak and cheese sub from a food truck. We walked around the harbor as fog was rolling in. Then we went to an Azalea Garden to kill time. 

 After we left the garden I just tried to find things to do that would "button up" the vacation. We stopped at Bubble Pond again because I wanted to check out a different view. Then we went to Thunder Hole which finally lived up to its name.

After we left Thunder Hole we went back to Bar Harbor. I decided to try the Lobster Ice Cream. I expected it to be disgusting, but I found it to be pretty good.

Saturday morning we packed up our tent which had been home for four nights.