TRIP #5, 2014--Yucky Mucky!

Yucky Mucky!
We were exploring by 8:15 a.m. as an older Chevy zipped past. "I guess he's late for work," I said, as we watched the car disappear over the rise.
"That's what you'd call a Maine-iac," answered Andy, grinning.
It was 37 degrees when we left the motel, but the bright sun warmed Little Red, even without turning on much heat.  We cruised along U.S. Route #1 in sweatshirt comfort.  Without the hardwoods just yellowing and pines lining both sides of the road, it was hard to imagine we were traveling at 50 m.p.h. on U.S. #1 with nary a car in sight.

From Shackford Head State
Park we could see Campobello.

Andy had planned out routes to Eastport, a town on the north side of Cobscook Bay.  "It seems funny," I told him, "that we are north of Campobello Island, which would be outside the U.S., but here we are still in the U.S."  We headed toward Shackford Head State Park.  Without passports we wouldn't be crossing into Canada.
"Shackford Head sounded like a really good place to hike," said Andy. "I give Maine a lot of credit.  It's a poor state and they are preserving land, especially shoreline."  We parked in the gravel lot and studied the trails. There were no pamphlets. Red blaze to blue to yellow to red would take us all the way around the peninsula.  We set out on the Ship Point Trail for the 3.4-mile loop hike.
Beware of red Fire Ants, warned a couple signs as we entered the trail.  "Don't worry," said Andy.  "No self-respecting Fire Ant would be out in this temperature."  It was probably in the 40's.

Low tide uncovered rock outcroppings and mud flats.

"You mean if you don't sit down on his ant hill or fallen tree house," I added. From Schooner Trail we had beautiful views of Cobscook Bay.  Just as we approached one point, two eagles took off across the water.  I could see the white feathers on their heads and under their tails.  Here the 173-foot rocky headlands rose above pocket beaches and protected coves.  From the rocky outcroppings along the trail we could see what we thought were salmon farms in the ocean.  "They are here because the tide has such a good flow," said Andy.  "It cleans out the beds consistently." The sea gulls must have thought so too.  They made all kinds of noise in the distance. We learned later that we had seen Atlantic Salmon aquaculture farming sites.

Fish flourish in farms that are
cleaned by the extreme tidal flow.
 

Overlook Trail followed connecting paths through the woods and back to the far side of the peninsula. Shackford Head Trail took us back to the main parking lot on Cobscook Bay to complete the 3.4-mile loop.  We could hear the tide rushing out.  "See the flow?" pointed out Andy.  It sounded like a river of water rushing to the sea, and we could see tiny white cap waves of current as the receding water was pulled outward.  "The Bay of Fundy has the highest tides in the world," said Andy, "and we're not all that far south of the Bay of Fundy."
The Shackford Head Trail showed signs of recent storm damage with trees down everywhere.  "It looks like Tara's backyard with all the blow down from Super Storm Sandy," said Andy.

The S.L. Wadsworth building houses
the oldest chandlery shop in the U.S.

In Eastport, Maine we browsed in a couple gift shops and walked out along the main pier.  "This town is doing better than Lubec," said Andy, even though I noticed quite a few storefronts that were empty.  "It looks like they are trying to restore the old town," he added.  S.L. Wadsworth was still in business selling hardware. The sign outside marked the building as a National Historic Site, the oldest chandlery shop in the United States.

The fisherman statue dominates the
harbor in downtown Eastport.

Just across from Wadsworth's was a huge statue of a fisherman, painted in bright colors.  A plaque explained the much larger-than-life-size figure had been constructed in 2001 for the FOX-TV series Murder in Small Town X.  Angel Juarbe Jr. had won the $250,000 prize for best reality show, but the New York City fireman was killed in 2001, when the World Trade Center collapsed.  The fisherman statue was dedicated to Juarbe and refinished in 2005.Our next stop was Saint Croix Island, Maine's International Historic Site.  The park commemorates not only the location of one of the earliest European settlements on the North Atlantic Coast, but its harsh lessons that led to a more successful French settlement at Port Royal, establishing a French presence that endures today.  Here in July of 1604, Pierre Dugua, Sieur de Mons, chose a small island in the middle of the St. Croix River for a French settlement.  Dugua, Samuel Champlain and 78 men had sailed from Havre-de-Grace, France with their flagship La Bonne Renommee to pursue the lucrative fur trade and hopefully discover a Northwest Passage to the Orient.  In exchange for Dugua's promise to claim land for the king, convert the natives to Christianity, cultivate and settle the territory and explore and seek out precious metals, King Henri IV granted Dugua a trading monopoly and the title of lieutenant-general of Acadie.

Life size bronze statues tell the story of
life in Pierre Dugua's Saint Croix
Island community of 1604-1605.

Champlain, a map maker and chronicler, drew up the plan for the settlement.  The men, at the mercy of black flies, built a fortification, a storehouse, a dwelling for nobleman Dugua and then their own homes.  They constructed an oven and a hand mill to grind wheat, planted vegetables and grain, harvested shellfish, and fished for alewife and bass.   Passamaquoddy Indians served as guides for the coastal explorations led by Champlain, and he probably tried to convert them in the small chapel built by the French at the foot of the island.

Visitors to the Maine Historic Site see St. Croix Island across
the bay, but the actual town site is only reached from Canada.

Expecting a temperate winter with the same latitude as France, Dugua and his settlers were ill prepared for the severity of North America. The river froze, the tides heaved cakes of ice too treacherous to cross, and the citizens of Saint Croix Island were trapped--cut off from fresh water, game and wood fuel.  Cider froze in the barrels and had to be issued by the pound.  By spring 35 men had died, but the Passamaquoddy brought game for the survivors to trade for bread.  In June, Dugua's ships returned from France with more men and supplies.  But the colonists had learned some valuable lessons.  They dismantled the structures and moved everything of value to Port Royal.  Hence, the colony that pre-dated Jamestown (1607) ceased to exist as an American settlement, and the French laid claims in Canada.
"They have been doing a lot to spruce up Calais," said Andy, when we were back on the road.  It was 56 degrees at 12:30 p.m.
Right across the river was Canada, but we weren't going there.  I had asked the park ranger in the Saint Croix Island Visitor Center.  "I wouldn't if I were you," she advised.  "You'd have no trouble going over to Campobello Island, but they could give you a very hard time coming back.  I wouldn't chance it."  We took her advice.

Tide is low as we gaze from the
viewpoints of the Sipp Bay Preserve.

It took some sleuthing to find Burby Road and the Sipp Bay Preserve after Andy checked his map and I watched for road signs.  But we found the 92 acres with excellent views of East Bay and Sipp Bay.  Another property of the Maine Coast Heritage Trust, this parcel seemed newer and less developed.  We followed the one-mile trail through woods of white pine and red oak around the peninsula and ventured out on the tidal flats.  A large tidal range causes very strong currents with extreme flow, but the tide was still going out.
Thank goodness for lots of moss in the woods to clean off the yucky tidal muck!  Originally part of Knowlton's Dairy Farm and used for pasture, the area is frequented now by commercial fishermen, families, school groups, artists and recreational paddlers.  The pamphlet said the region is important to the Passamaquoddy Tribe as ancestral camping and hunting grounds while accessing the bountiful fishing grounds by canoe in Sipp Bay and East Bay.

Thick green moss and
white and grey lichens
carpet the forest floor in
Cobscook Bay State Park.

Cobscook Bay State Park charged admission, so we chose the public access boat ramp.  Quite by surprise we found the blue blaze, 1.3-mile nature trail that led to the park and back in a loop.  "I like walking on the soft moss," said Andy.  In spite of one tremendous climb, the trail followed the shoreline through heavily wooded terrain.  On the return leg we caught views of the ocean inlet through the trees.  A floating dock surrounded by mud flats rested on beds of mussels.  "The tide is just changing," noticed Andy.  "These lobster boats are just starting to turn in."

Wild roses form a sea break along
Mowry Beach Trail.

Klondike Mountain, a protected area managed by the Downeast Coastal Conservancy, included spectacular views of the surrounding area.  A one-mile trail started in an open field that was sprinkled with gnarled apple trees, skirted the water, climbed 150 feet to the bald summit of Klondike Mountain and returned through forested land.  By 4 p.m. I was photographing my own shadow at the top.

Back in Lubec we notice the lighthouse across the bay,
but this one is Canadian so we can only admire from a distance.

Mowry Beach, another Downeast Coastal Conservancy area situated in Lubec behind the sewage treatment plant and the consolidated school, was immaculate at low tide.  We walked the boardwalk for .4 mile and noticed the wild roses past bloom. The huge bushes were loaded with brilliant red fruit called rose hips.  Sea gulls picked for crabs far out in the mud flats. Yucky mucky, I said to myself, but there wasn't a piece of trash on the beach... just seaweed and shells.  "This shows that these people care about their environment," said Andy.  "Their livelihood depends on it."
Muddy, yes, but the beach and mud flats at low tide were anything but yucky!