In the L
With Doug
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Stonington Maine In the L With Doug |
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The far right coast, on the upper edge is a beautiful place to live. There aren’t very many people, and it is pretty easy to not keep up with the Jones’s. And there are drives to take that take your breath away. The coast of Maine just after a Canadian high has blown in sparkles. Then is the perfect time to go cruising.
Coastal cruising usually means that a sailor is talking. And that is true—this coast is one of the best in the world for a cruising sailor. But there are Land Yachts, you know. A ’65 Chrysler is one of the better land yachts. One bright Sunday, she and I went down east to Stonington, on Deer Isle.
First I must cross the Penobscot River at the Narrows. The new bridge is spectacular, as you can see from the west side parking area. The old bridge was spectacular, but not cared for, and began to fall apart. The new bridge was built in one quick hurry, and came in ahead of schedule and under budget.
On the other side of the river is the Blue Hill Peninsula, with hundreds of acres of blueberry barrens, and a few villages with not very many people. On the southeast corner of this peninsula sits Naskeag—a fisherman’s harbor, down where Blue Hill bay meets the Eggemoggin Reach. There’s not much fishing on Sundays, so the L could sit on the town wharf and add to the view of the bay, the islands, the reach, and a few fishing boats.
But to get to Stonington, I had to cross the Deer Isle Bridge, a suspension bridge built in the 1930’s. Its design is strange, and there really is a real hump at the top. It moves a fair amount in a breeze, and trucks need to space themselves. I crossed it before stopping to get a picture.
Stonington has always been both a fishing town and a granite town. One island nearby the village still quarries some granite; most of the town buildings are built on granite foundations.
Those ledges you see behind the Chrysler out in the harbor are all granite domes, and they extend south to Isle a Haut—part of Acadia National Park.
Indeed all the islands in these photos are granite domes that aren’t submerged.
The drive back to Northport wends its way up Caterpillar Hill, and the last photos were taken from the crest, looking back down the peninsula to the Eggemoggin Reach—that water you see; one of the best cruising grounds in the world—for boats.
Come visit. We'll go cruising, and maybe stop at Ida's Diner for chili.