Maine’s Bold Coast Preserve in Cutler provides gorgeous vistas to wow visitors

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CUTLER – A lobster boat drones in the distance as we enter the spruce-fir forest on the first leg of the Bold Coast Trail.

The lobsterman is still pulling his traps almost an hour later when we step out of the woods onto rocky cliffs 100 feet above the Grand Manan Channel.

Ocean surrounds us on three sides.

Grand Manan Island juts out of the water to our left. On the right, granite cliffs follow the coastline before sweeping back out to sea at Black Point Cove.

This is the Bold Coast Trail in the Cutler Coast Management Unit, a 2,190-acre wildland with 41/2 miles of stunning ocean frontage, freshwater marshes, raised peatlands, blueberry barrens and forests.

Purchased for public use by the Land for Maine’s Future program in 1989 and managed by the Maine Bureau of Parks and Lands, the Cutler unit is home to three hiking trails. All lead to the cliffs that tower above the channel and the Bay of Fundy.

With 26-foot tides, Fundy’s deep waters provide habitat for finback, minke and North Atlantic right whales. The bay also lays claim to the largest groups of harbor porpoises in waters south of Newfoundland.

But, on this morning in late April, the lobsterman is the only living thing in sight.

That solitude could also be the case in high summer, according to my guide.

“We’re getting more well-known, but you can still hit here when no one else is around,” said Lynn Bradbury.

Bradbury lives in Lubec and has been the Quoddy Regional Land Trust steward of the Bold Coast Trail for four years. Her job is to keep 10 miles of path open for walkers and that means free of branches, the occasional fallen tree, and tiny balsam fir sprouts that could quickly grow into forest.

Patches of snow are still in the woods and we have limited time, so we’ve taken the shortest of the Bold Coast treks – 11/2 miles out to the ocean and back by the same route.

It’s an easy walk on the floor of the woods, picking our way over roots and stopping occasionally so Bradbury can clear away blowdowns from the last of the winter storms.

Wooden walkways, constructed by AmeriCorps workers, cross over old cedar swamps and occasional stones provide steps in softer earth.

We stop to examine a moose print. The large mammals wander through the unit as do bear and deer, Bradbury said.

The trail is a world apart. The morning sun filters through the trees. Time slows. We’re in the woods with the ocean waiting ahead.

Halfway to the cliffs, the Inland trail snakes off to our right. That, said Bradbury, is a 5-mile loop, taking hikers to the cobble beach at Black Point Cove, where a walk along the cliffs will lead them back to the promontory that is our destination.

For hikers who are looking for more of a trek or those who want to camp, the Inland Trail also leads to Fairy Head and three primitive camp sites.

Campfires are prohibited and toilet facilities are primitive, but those – including families – who have stayed the night are enthusiastic about the experience, she said.

Entries in the guest book indicate that people are enthusiastic about the entire trail.

“Friends told us we MUST hike here,” wrote one visitor. “They were right.”

“We hiked the full 10 miles or so of the Bold Coast in Cutler, meeting one young man who had just had an encounter with a moose,” wrote another. “It was grand.”

The rave reviews are not confined to the Bold Coast Trail.

The Cutler trail is just one of 14 hikes described in detail in the 44-page “Cobscook Trails,” a guide to walking around Cobscook Bay and the Bold Coast.

The guest book reviews of those hikes include phrases such as “unsurpassed beauty,” “hidden jewel” and “magnificent – can’t wait to come back.”

And if the sights and experiences elicit enthusiasm, the trail guide that describes them appears to be just as appreciated.

“Thank you for your terrific booklet which describes the trails so well,” wrote one reader. “Because we were not at all familiar with the area, we really appreciated the maps in addition to clear trail descriptions. I especially liked the information about the flora and fauna highlighted and listed in easy reference form.”

Bradbury said the book is in such high demand that she had to stop keeping reference copies in the information booth at the parking lot on Route 191.

“People kept taking them,” she said.

Cobscook Trails was developed by a group of private and public conservation organizations, including the Quoddy Regional Land Trust, The Nature Conservancy, Maine Coast Heritage Trust, Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, the Maine Department of Conservation, the Maine Bureau of Parks and Lands, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Moosehorn National Wildlife Refuge.

The guide is available in gift stores, motels and campgrounds throughout eastern Washington County or can be ordered through the Quoddy Regional Land Trust, P.O. Box 49, Whiting 04691. The land trust’s phone number is (207) 733-5509.