Maine, Part IV

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Like I said in my last Maine post, see Acadia. Go for a day or three and say you did it. Then boogie north as fast as you can. (Or maybe go slowly and stop at the farmstands and every scenic lookout like we do.) Because the state parks up here in the most easterly reaches of the US are every bit as gorgeous and dramatic and breathtaking as Acadia—and far less crowded. We stayed in Lubec, at the mouth of the Bay of Fundy. (Fun fact: highest tide variance in the world here. The high-water marks regularly stand 15-20 feet above us and entire beaches disappear and reappear in half-day intervals.) We stood in the most eastern part of the US, ironically called West Quoddy Head, and hiked the coastal trail where granite cliffs jut 120 feet out of the sea. We hiked through a peat bog so green and spongey that all noise damped into nothing. We clattered across beaches with rocks tumbled round like fossilized eggs and watched seals bob across the water. This is the Maine you’ve been looking for. 

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We spent a whole afternoon at a local bar, where the locals came and went, telling us stories of living in town and heading out to sea. They’re fishermen mostly and the local seafood place gets the crab off the pier less than 100 feet from the kitchen. But then there’s passers-through like Miracle and myself. We met people from Key Largo and California and a roofer from New York, who played the bagpipes for us before he left. This is how local bars should be. 

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Most everyone says it is damn near impossible to enter Canada right now—with one exception. There’s a set of breakers that extends 50 feet into the harbor of Lubec. About halfway out a white stone triangle marker stands on a base of crumbling concrete and exposed rebar. That is the international boundary, a local with the most fabulous white mustache told us. You can walk out there and say you’ve been to Canada. So, everyone, after some of the freshest seafood you could want, Miracle and I went to Canada for about two minutes. (And yes, I fully expect that I will now be detained for publicly admitting this.) 

For our next trick, we will try to enter into Canada proper…