Exile #2, Exile #4 and I went for a chilly walk on the beach this afternoon.
We were greeted by an enthusiastic puppy with - as her owner described it - selective hearing, but we didn’t see much else. We decided to return via the woods of Ferry Beach State Park to avoid the worst of the wind. It was quiet there too.
It was good to get out of the house and stretch our legs after a rainy stay-at-home day yesterday.
With rain in the forecast for today, we planned a drive around the bay to Eastport - the easternmost city in the US (Lubec being a mere town), but since the rain hadn't started and it was otherwise pretty clear unlike the misty morning recently we stopped down the road to witness the tide come rapidly in over the South Lubec Sand Bar.
Here are a couple of videos (actual speed!):
After I had retreated from the disappearing sand bar
After that, we headed to Eastport as planned. It was the final day of their pirate festival and although I suspect we were a bit early in the day for too much pirate action, we enjoyed our visit - including the pirates, street art, the port and a Wabanaki art exhibit on loan from nearby New Brunswick.
Ye Ole Hookers
Uncle Sam caring for a bird
The Roosevelt house on Campobello across the bay
Tiny car ferry
Having got that far, we decided to drive another thirty minutes to Calais ("CAL-us"), a true border town with just a fairly narrow river crossing separating it from St. Stephen, New Brunswick. We visited a small museum at the visitors center and had a tasty lunch.
Selfie with a moose at the museum
On the way home we stopped at a couple of spots in the Moosehorn National Wildlife Refuge and drove the 4.4 mile auto tour on some challenging roads.
Yes, this blind is really at this jaunty angle. The viewing windows are angled to suit wildlife enthusiasts of all heights
We spent a very peaceful hour or sitting looking into the misty cove listening to waves and birds (and occasionally seeing one through the mist). We also watched the tide rising wavelessly over the beach below us. One by one the large rocks we could see were swallowed as the tide came in. Quite an odd experience is without waves to distract from it.
After that, we had a walk down into Lubec to visit the farmers’ market where the owner of our apartment has a stall.
In the afternoon, we visited Roque Bluffs State Park - which once again has quite a variety of habitats in a fairly compact area. Here are some images.
Roque Bluffs Beach
Simpson Pond
Warm Wind (2011) by Kazumi Hoshino
Amazing how big this tree has grown from such an unideal start in life
Pond Cove
Our best guess was that this was in some way related to blueberry harvesting (there were lowbush blueberries nearby) but we really had no idea
Two more nature preserves today. Boot Head was another small network of trails featuring woodland, a pebble beach, cliffs and a bog. Again, I’ll save the nature sightings for another day, but here are some general pictures from our visit:
We were surprised by this area of marsh plants perched atop the coastal cliffs
The bog
In the afternoon, we visited Red Point Nature Preserve - part of the Cobscook Shores park system. Wide gravel paths made a change from tripping over roots on narrow woodland trails for the first part of our visit. Later we got onto some woodland trails including another tidal path. Unlike the Head Point path from Wednesday where we were warned that once cut-off, wading and swimming were extremely dangerous and the wait if stranded on the island would be eight hours, here the path is only briefly impassable at high tide. In any case, when we were there there was no peril at all.
The causeway to Red Island
These screened-porch "pavilions" would be luxurious for a picnic during buggy seasons.
Returning safely - approximately 7 hours before high tide
