Isle au Haut roads, trails good for bike trips Big hills add to experience

Part of what makes living in Maine interesting is the weather. Another part is the natural beauty we can find everywhere. When the weather cooperates, it makes for a wonderful display. When it doesn’t, that’s where an active imagination comes in handy. Last Saturday’s thick fog provided one of those imaginative opportunities.

A few friends and I had the good fortune of being invited by Bill Baker, owner of Old Quarry Ocean Adventures in Stonington, to join him for a trip out to Isle au Haut, part of Acadia National Park. Baker makes regular runs out to the island from his home port on Webb Cove. His 38-foot lobster boat, Nigh Duck, is licensed to carry up to 23 passengers.

Baker had contracted to ferry a party of campers to Duck Harbor where the park maintains a campground (five lean-to shelters). The group of six campers was planning to stay on the island for a few days and wanted to be dropped off, with all their dunnage, at the boat landing. Since there was going to be space left on the boat, Baker invited Karen Francoeur of Castine Kayak Adventures to come along and bring a few friends. Mark Goff, who guides for Francoeur; his wife Ann, and I jumped at the chance to explore the island.

Baker was going to do some exploring himself, since finding time in the busy summer season is impossible for such fun. It was too bad that the fog was as thick as it was. I, for one, was happy Baker had lots of instruments (radar, GPS, compass, VHF and CB radios, etc.) with which to navigate. Only by watching the radar screen was I able to tell there were islands out there. Occasionally, we’d get a glimpse of the shoreline when it was within a quarter of a mile. But for the most part you wouldn’t have called our voyage scenic. Humid, yes, but not scenic.

Our group of four took bicycles along and planned to ride the perimeter road, stopping here and there on the 53/4-mile-long island to explore and have lunch. We would meet up with Baker at the town landing later in the afternoon. It sounded like a plan.

After a brief stop at the ranger station to talk with Erica Richardson and get a copy of the official map, we headed north on the paved road, past the post office (about 8-by-10 feet in size) and the island’s only grocery store (about the size of a two-car garage).

According to Acadia National Park’s brochure, Isle au Haut (High Island) is the name French navigator Samuel Champlain gave this part of Maine in 1604. The topographic map shows Sawyer Mountain and Mount Champlain on the northern end of the island to be a little more than 500 feet high.

It wasn’t until after the American Revolution (1775-1781) that mainland inhabitants started coming to the island to fish, farm, and build boats. In the 1880s a summer community took root “attracted by the agreeable weather and idyllic scenery,” according to the park’s brochure. I’ll have to take their word for it (but I don’t doubt it since I haven’t seen an ugly island on our coast).

It was heirs of that summer community that donated portions of the island to the federal government in 1943 for inclusion with Acadia National Park. Today about half of the island is in the national park, the other half is privately owned.

There are five miles of paved road on the island, and seven miles of unpaved road, which varies from smooth crushed stone in places to rough gravel in others. If you’ve been riding your bicycle a bit, it probably isn’t a major challenge. But I’ve been lax in the biking department this year (how does zero time on the saddle sound?) and by the time I’d struggled up a few elevation changes and clambered around on a few trails, I was a pooped puppy (more like a lame old dog…).

Interlacing the island are 11 hiking trails that add up to around 18 miles total. Be sure to get the brochure because it has a map of these trails showing distances of each and estimated hiking times.

If you take the ferry out from Stonington, it’ll drop you at the town landing, about a five-mile hike to Duck Harbor where the park’s five lean-tos are located. From mid-June through early September it also stops at Duck Harbor (think five fewer miles of hiking).

Campers (May 15-Oct. 15) must get advanced reservations by phoning the park (288-3338) for a reservation request form. There is a limit of five nights’ stay from May 15 to June 14 and Sept. 15 to Oct. 14, and a maximum of three nights from June 15 to Sept. 15. There is a $25 special use permit fee that must accompany the reservation request form, but there is no additional camping fee. You’ll also have to coordinate your schedule with the ferry or with Baker – it’s a long, cold swim otherwise.

Our band of four opted to start our magical mystery tour by heading north on the paved road (kind of like eating dessert first). After a few false starts to refasten errant gear to our bikes, we were off in a cloud of mist that lent some island mystique to our trip (and fog to my glasses). Somewhere along the eastern side of the island, in the vicinity of Long Pond, a doe and what looked like her nearly mature offspring caught our attention. We stopped to chat but the conversation was a short one and the two bounded off nonchalantly.

A ways on we interrupted a small flock of turkeys crossing the dirt road. Part of the flock stayed on one side, the rest on the other, while we danced back and forth on the road trying to get a glimpse of them among the trees. It wasn’t clear for a minute or two which group was doing the sightseeing.

At the southeastern part of the island is Eastern Head, a small section of the park that is set apart from the rest by private land. A short road takes you around the eastern side of Head Harbor and a small sign near the water’s edge marks a trail to the head. We followed it for a bit and found a nice set of ledges to use for our lunch table.

Our next stop was the short Eben’s Head trail next to Duck Harbor, landing on the southwestern shore. This loop trail takes you along the shore that varies from sharp crags to round stone beaches. It’s a good place to get in an easy hike and short rest before the longest hill on your clockwise tour of the island. All I can say is that the top didn’t come soon enough. For each uphill, though, there’s a downhill (always shorter) and we practically coasted up to the road into Robinson Point.

This is where the lighthouse marks the entrance to the Isle au Haut Thorofare, and where folks with more means than I’ll ever have can stay in the lap of luxury at The Keeper’s House. We just had to drop by and check it out. Fortunately innkeeper Jeff Burke was on hand and let us take a look around the now privately owned house with its five guest rooms. Built by the U.S. Lighthouse Board in 1907, its third floor bedroom suite, The Garret, is described by Burke as a “very private expansive odd-shaped room … with water views in two directions, low ceilings and a large sitting area.”

For $300 to $375 per night (two-night minimum) you get three squares, the use of bicycles, and a wonderful piece of heaven to explore. Check out www.keepershouse.com on the Web and see for yourself how the other half lives.

From Robinson Point back to the town landing, it’s just a short ride (with one hill mean enough to have made me get off and walk). There was just enough time to stop by the island’s only grocery store to pick up a snack before re-boarding Nigh Duck for the return grope through the fog.

To get more information on Baker’s operation, check out his site on the Web at: www.oldquarry.com.

There’s a new hiking trail set to open in Surry this weekend. The Osgood Trail will be opened to the public for the first time on Sunday at noon behind the Surry Municipal building on North Bend Road. Volunteers built the Osgood trail in the past year under the guidance of the Surry Conservation Commission. After the ribbon-cutting ceremony, volunteers will lead walks on the one-mile loop and be available to answer questions.

Jeff Strout can be reached at 990-8202 or by e-mail at jstrout@bangordailynews.net.