Wednesday, March 21, 2012

DOWN STONINGTON WAY

We took advantage of another beautiful day on Monday to hookup with some good friends, Glenn and Martha,  for a road trip up Rt. 1 and then down Rt. 15 to Deer Isle / Stonington. 

It wasn't long before we were leaving the mainland and crossing the Eggemoggin Reach. I've been under the bridge many times by boat, not so often by car. The center rise is striking. It's quite the climb. Fortunately there was no wind but I couldn't help but think of the Tacoma Narrows bridge as we were rounding the top.
Once we got into Stonington we drove thru the village to the end of 15 and swung back around. The tide was falling exposing the backbone of the island and leaving some interesting sights such as this unusual craft..
Once we got back into town we decided to have our picnic lunch so we settled in at the public landing to enjoy our meal and the waterfront views.



The village is such a lovely, quintessential
Maine scene with it's Main St. stores hanging over the harbor on pilings, the Opera House and old homes climbing up the ridge.

Being it March and we were there well before the flat-landers muck up the place,  it was just us and the fishermen who were busily doing their thing. Even the seagulls didn't notice that there was food there for the begging.

After lunch we did a little wandering and part of that was introducing Zed to some locals who were at the landing in their boat "Islander" and getting ready to return to Isle Au Haut.

Good guys. Maybe they sensed that we weren't from away..

The harbor was pretty active with a good number of fishing boats coming in to the working pier across the way. It's so nice to observe a true working harbor , one hasn't completely given up to the whims of the rec boaters.  We're pretty lucky to still have a fair number of working waterfronts left, especially in this part of  the state.

Speaking of working..the guy up in the rigging of the lift in this picture is definitely earning his pay!
Moving on, we wanted to find a place to hike off a bit of lunch. There is no shortage of trails to enjoy in this area but we decided on a shoreline, mile and a half loop..

The Shore Acres Preserve...

This is a very pleasant walk thru the evergreens and moss covered landscape, opening up onto Greenlaw Cove.  As you can see there are various access points to the shore along the trail.

Zed was extremely interested in all the recently, low water exposed sniffs. Now if we can only train him to dig out some of the clams that lay at the bottom of these holes..


Of more immediate concern to him was how he was going to negotiate the rugged terrain..
Our day was done except for the scenic ride back to the mainland. Leaving Deer Isle we were already planning out our next adventure.

That boat from Isle Au Haut got us thinking...


9 comments:

  1. Used to make that commute five days a week when I worked for Commercial Fisheries News, with offices above Harbor Cafe, overlooking the harbor. 63 miles each way, and Route 15 was miserable in the winter and spring, but the view from the office made up for it. Somewhere I have a pre-digital camera picture taken midway across the bridge of one of the suspension cables that had disconnected and was swinging free in the breeze!

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  2. I'm heading down there next Wed! Great weather to be out and about on the coast.

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    Replies
    1. Erin I sure hope you have nice weather..what a great area..

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  3. Have had many happy hours tooling around there on a Saturday with Gail and the kids. Stonington still has that gritty quality, doesn't it?

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    Replies
    1. Yes it does..a real substantial feeling to it..old time Maine..

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  4. Lovely trip, thanks for taking me along.
    Towns like that are true America, and true Maine.

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    Replies
    1. It's a special spot Brk Trt..I think we are very lucky that we live in New England where they are appreciated.

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