25 August 2023 to 29 August 2023 - Lisbon, NH to Lubec, ME
We took 3 days to travel up to the northeast of Maine. One overnight stay was at a very nice campground, the other was awful. We got a spot that had been carved out of a larger site and were very close to our neighbor. Add to that a BOIL WATER notice that prevented us hooking our water hose to the trailer made that night stay not pleasant. I was anticipating that the Sunset campground in Lubec, our home base for a couple days while we visited the area, would be pretty rustic. It turned out to be quite nice with a beautiful view of the inlet. We had a grass site which was pretty chewed up with deep muddy ruts from a previous user. The soil was saturated, and Russ used our 4-wheel drive capability for the first time this trip to keep us from slipping and sliding as we pulled into our site. We entered New Brunswick, Canada to visit the Roosevelt Campobello International Park on Campobello Island and toured the local area on another day. Maine has a different beauty than New Hampshire or Vermont. The trees are not as lush, but the coastline is beautiful. Still no moose or bear sightings.
Sunset from our campsite at Lubec, Maine. This campground claims to be the easternmost campsite in the United States. We had beautiful weather until the morning we left. We had to dodge raindrops to hook up.
This international park is a joint venture between Canada and the U.S. It was spearheaded by Eleanor Roosevelt to ensure that the island (or at least most of it) would be saved for future generations to enjoy. The birchbark canoe was constructed by a Passamaquoddy friend of FDR who is said to have taught him how to canoe.
FDR spent most of his childhood summers on Campobello Island, and when he married, his family came to the island every summer until his children were grown. After he contracted polio, he stopped staying, but Eleanor visited often. As a family, they would arrive in June and stay through mid to late September.
The Roosevelt "cottage" had 14 bedrooms and lots of space for the family and their friends to spread out. Lots of entertaining went on here.
The Roosevelts had lots of help to take care of the cottage. The amenities were not as modern as their home in Hyde Park, so they had to "rough" it. But they did have running water (gravity fed).
The children were homeschooled, so they didn't get off for the summer. They still had lots of time to explore the island and roam free.
The view from their back porch. Eleanor used a megaphone to call out to her children when it was time to come in. People in the village across the water claimed they could hear her calls. When FDR was secretary of the Navy, he sailed to the island on a Navy ship and insisted on personally navigating it through the dangerous waters so it could be moored right by his home.
When FDR was growing up here, he learned to sail and navigate the bays and inlets and their tide changes. That small pokey rock was one of his favorite places to explore as a child. We think those wire basket things are oyster beds, but we are not sure.
FDR's father had several carriage roads constructed so that they could more easily explore their property. Now you can drive these gravel roads and visit some of the island's highlights.
Russ taking a rest on a boardwalk that passed through a bog to the coastline. It was interesting to see all the different plants that grow in a bog.
The soil is very poor, so the trees are stunted and not as glorious as the ones in Vermont and New Hampshire.
One of the fruits that grow in the wild in the bog. Looks like a cranberry to me.
We had beautiful views of the bays and inlets.
Dulse, a type of red seaweed, grows in this area. It is harvested, dried and sold as edible seaweed (apparently very popular.)
Lighthouses are abundant since the coastline is so irregular. I don't think any are manned anymore and most are not operational. They have been replaced by GPS on the ships. Some have been turned into shops, museums, and even bed and breakfast places.
We think this is the carcass of an old dock.
Downtown Lubec. A VERY small village with a few shops and restaurants. We had a delicious fish and chip dinner at a diner near the wharf.
The tide was going out the day we visited Lubec. Tide changes are pretty high, I think up to around 15 feet. This is at the beginning of the Bay of Fundy, which has the largest tide changes in the world.
When the tide is fully out, lots of seagrass is exposed. It covers the rocks like a bad wig.
I wonder how many people need to be rescued each year? The tide comes in very fast.
Lost of people take advantage of the low tide to go clamming. I hope he got back up on dry land in a timely manner.
I think the bird was hoping for a handout.
We saw this lighthouse at full tide and also when the tide was almost fully out (see below.) You could probably walk or wade to it then. It is known as the SparkPlug and is the light for the Lubec Channel.
A nautical map showing existing lighthouses on Campobello and nearby Maine.
West Quoddy Head Lighthouse is on the easternmost point in the U.S. It has a museum where the lightkeeper and his family used to live. Interesting insight into the life of a lightkeeper. The lighthouse was not open for tours because of some repairs that needed to be made.
Example of some of the noisemakers that were used over the decades. This is a foghorn and the device on the left is a kind of whistle.
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