Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Down East in October


Last week I set sail with two of my roommates on Coastal Route 1 for the eastern-most part of the United States: Down East Maine. We packed up Dan's car with our surfboards, sleeping bags and an old Eureka Camping tent from my College's outing club and headed due east.

Ranging from Belfast to Quoddy Head, the Down East region is the most unexplored coastline in the East because it's simply a pain the ass to get to. It is three hours from Portland, six hours from Boston and ten hours from New York.

For two days, we cruised up Route 1, following the coastline and making trips down gravel roads in search of views.

A wind turbine nestled in a corn field.

By night we squatted on empty plots of land such as this subdivision. Early morning fog near Winter Harbor.

An outhouse in Quoddy Head State Park.

One of our squatting campsites in a housing development near Bar Harbor.

Tweedledum and Tweedledee.

Tucker overlooking the Atlantic.

At night my -20° F rated sleeping bag made the temperatures in the low 30's feel cozy and inviting and my wool socks and jacket kept me warm in the early morning coastal haze. After 400 miles of driving on and around Route 1, we finally crossed the border over a small cove in the Bay of Fundy and began the second leg of our trip.

Here are some more links,
Down East in October (Picasa).

8 comments:

Unknown said...

I love the fog picture. It reminds me of a scene from Where The Wild Things Are!

Michael O'Neill Burns said...

any luck in finding surf?

Foster Huntington said...

We found some surf in nova scotia, I am posting about it tomorrow,
foster

tons of land said...

that's a great trip. a buddy and i did something similar years ago. after living in maine most of our lives we realized there was so much of the state we hadn't seen north of bar harbor, so we packed up his truck and hit all the backroads on our way up to fort kent, and then down through the allagash on logging roads. quite a trip. same time of the year so it was chilly cold sleeping in the back of his truck.

hey, i saw numerous pics of you this week on various sites at the alex carelton/ LL bean shindig in nyc. that must have been a blast.

ROXY MARJ said...

I am jealous of your life! :( and desperately missing the east coast right now as well!

Foster Huntington said...

The LL bean event was amazing. I am really excited about Alex's work on the line,
Foster

Anonymous said...

that photo of early morning fog with the uprooted tree is great.

Nathan Williams said...

these camp spots look amazing, unreal

i really have enjoyed all your outdoor photos