Way, way Down East

[Dreamer]

Not all that much further than a stones throw from the most easterly point in the continental US the state has a little piece of public land with a few trails and a handful of campsites. I’d wanted to visit, the weather was looking pretty good for early spring and key, the bugs were not up. Arrived mid morning and headed off along the interior trail towards the far corner on the coast.

A little over five miles later I was out of the trees on the rocky shore. I explored around a bit a found a few nice little grassy spots in the lee to relax. The light breeze coming in over the chill water was enough to make me glad my campsite was back a little into the shelter of the forest.

My second campsite was only a couple miles north up the coast so I had plenty of time to take it slow. The tides there are upwards of 16ft from high to low, more than a foot every half hour. A monotone first in the nation sunrise on day one but number two did a little more.

I again had not far to go and again went slow. A couple more miles up the coast then on through the trees and back out.

This took place May 10 -12 2023. I took pictures with an iPhone 13 Pro. I used two major new gear items. A Z-Packs backpack and a shorty Neo-Air X-Lite. Loved the pack, hipbelt fit and function very good. Liked the pad a lot also, though as an active side sleeper I had some trouble keeping on the bottom of it, no as bad on the second night. I think I’ll adapt.

 

[kwc]

We have hiked there … it’s a beautiful place.

 

[regehr]

nice! the eastern USA doesn't get all that much love on this site but there a lot of great terrain out there

 

[Titans]

Nice! It looks calm and peaceful and you beat the bugs. Thanks for sharing and welcome back to the mainland!

 

[John Morrow]

Wonderful, a little piece of heaven! By bugs do you mean black flies, skeeters, or both @Titans ?

 

[Titans]

Wonderful, a little piece of heaven! By bugs do you mean black flies, skeeters, or both @Titans ?

@John Morrow : All of them, starting in May with Black Flies (now really bad in the Adirondacks according to my source), followed by mosquitoes and the ones that never truly give up before they get a slice of you: deer flies!

But come August it’s all good! No bugs.
Maine could have a slightly different schedule than the Adirondacks. @Dreamer would know!

 

[kwc]

@John Morrow : All of them, starting in May with Black Flies (now really bad in the Adirondacks according to my source), followed by mosquitoes and the ones that never truly give up before they get a slice of you: deer flies!

But come August it’s all good! No bugs.
Maine could have a slightly different schedule than the Adirondacks. @Dreamer would know!

In our recent experiences, black flies are out and buzzing around in the Adirondacks but not biting. Yet. There have been a couple nights where the temperature has been below 32 degrees in the Adirondacks so that may have slowed them down a bit. There were no bugs on my hike yesterday until I got to the lake but the black flies were minimal. What I did notice was a large hatch of dragonflies … they were everywhere near the water but buzzing very close to the ground. Several were near me on the rocks and were clearly trying to dry out their wings.

 

[OldBill]

Great photos, as usual. Nice area and bet it's a lot less crowded that Acadia. I've only done Katahdin and part of 100 mile Wilderness. Hadn't considered coast. Glad the bugs weren't bad. Usually avoid northern NE from Mother's to Father's day just not to deal with black flies.

 

[Dreamer]

Thanks for enjoying.

@kwc I’m not surprised you’ve been there, you do seem to get out a lot.

@regehr there are definitely some unique and beautiful places to visit here out East but it ain’t the West. That piece of land is just something like 5 miles long by 2 miles wide and I think the only opportunity for backpacking on around 3500 miles of Maine coast. I’m headed west right now.

@Titans it was very peaceful and relaxing, helped me get motivated to reach escape velocity.

@John Morrow bugs in Maine…let me put it this way. The bug season is so bad around my woodsy cabin home that I started going to the Winds in July to get away from them (only kinda kidding). There is no relief at my place in August, still tons of skeeters and the deer flies really ramp up. If I’m there, often I have to wear a head net, long sleeves and gloves to do anything in the woods much of the summer. They are extremely location variable. I don’t really know what they might exactly be up to there on the Cutler Coast, but I’m fine with not finding out. I can add from hard won personal experience that if you’re going to do the Attean Pond loop it is best to avoid black fly season.

@OldBill I try with the pics, thanks. Saw two couples in 50 hrs out, one of them 10 minutes from the end. It was early season midweek.


edit: so I tried to go back and edit the trip report (a couple pictures are out of order) and I click the edit button and it just reloads the page. I had no problem editing this post. Anybody have any ideas what’s up?

 

[regehr]

@John Morrow bugs in Maine…let me put it this way. The bug season is so bad around my woodsy cabin home that I started going to the Winds in July to get away from them (only kinda kidding). There is no relief at my place in August, still tons of skeeters and the deer flies really ramp up. If I’m there, often I have to wear a head net, long sleeves and gloves to do anything in the woods much of the summer. They are extremely location variable. I don’t really know what they might exactly be up to there on the Cutler Coast, but I’m fine with not finding out. I can add from hard won personal experience that if you’re going to do the Attean Pond loop it is best to avoid black fly season.

yeah... I react pretty badly to bug bites and am always a little terrified to be in the wilderness in the east and midwest in summer. I know we have ticks in Utah but I've not yet managed to pick one up in 23 years here, including a whole lot of off-trail hiking.

 

[Dreamer]

always a little terrified to be in the wilderness in the east and midwest in summer. I know we have ticks in Utah….

Yeah, right, smart.
OMG……the freaking ticks!!! I‘ve picked up at least twenty in the last month and a half at my place. Thankfully only one Lyme infested deer tick, the rest all non diseased dog ticks. Still not nice. Honestly, they (the Lyme variety) are one of my top excuses for spending the summer hiking out in the West and lead me to seriously consider selling out. Winter ticks are killing off the moose.

 

[Titans]

Yeah, right, smart.
OMG……the freaking ticks!!! I‘ve picked up at least twenty in the last month and a half at my place. Thankfully only one Lyme infested deer tick, the rest all non diseased dog ticks. Still not nice. Honestly, they (the Lyme variety) are one of my top excuses for spending the summer hiking out in the West and lead me to seriously consider selling out. Winter ticks are killing off the moose.

Ticks: Since we watched our neighbor get super sick from a tick infested with Anaplasmosis (similar to Lyme) we now spray clothing with Permethrin (trigger sprayer not aerosol) . We use it on socks, lower part of pants, shoes, gloves: it works great against the ticks. It works so great I forgot to mention ticks to @John Morrow . Many hunters treat all of their hunting clothing. It lasts through several rounds of washing/laundry . (If that’s something are you interested in be careful to not expose any cats to the wet spray).

 

[John Morrow]

In 1987 I worked for the AMC as the roving shelter caretaker along the Pemi: Franconia to Crawford AT stretch. I definitely remember a black fly "season" with a disctnct and somewhat abrupt ending. After that, I don't remember skeeters as much. My memory was it got real pleasant after, perhaps, mid-July?

 

[OldBill]

Sprayed the floor and base of our tent with Permethrin for a Big Bend trip. Woke up to see a black widow spider about a foot from my face. Luckily, dead. Stuff works. Just have to make certain to spay outside surfaces and allow to dry thoroughly. In CT the tick population is exploding.