On Friday the
20th, we began the vacation day with a walk out to Bar Island. Bar Island is the island immediately north of
Bar Harbor that is reachable via a sand bar at low tide. Low tide was at 5:46 AM, so the timing was
perfect to take a walk out there and catch sunrise from the bar. From the island we saw the first rays of light
hitting Bar Harbor. Once again it was a clear
morning. We chatted with a man from
North Carolina who was out on the bar also enjoying the sunrise.
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| Sunrise, as seen from the bar leading to Bar Island |
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| Bar Harbor from Bar Island |
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| Leesa on the bar |
Once back in Bar
Harbor, we paid our 2nd visit to Jeannie's Great Maine Breakfast. The town was much less crowded on Friday than
it was on Tuesday morning. Perhaps there
were less people from cruise ships milling about. In any case, we had another great breakfast
and then got out of town.
We headed over
to the quiet west side of the island on Route 102 to the hamlet of Pretty Marsh
where we followed Bartlett’s Landing Road to the boat launch for Bartlett
Narrows. This would be our launch spot
for the morning. I had launched here
perhaps 8 years ago with my son. On that
day we saw harbor seals during our paddle.
After we
launched today, we paddled north to the top of the narrows. We should have paddled north to the Hub, or
past Green Island to the Ledge, but I couldn’t recall at the time where we had
the best chance of finding seals.
Instead, we
turned and paddled southward past our launch spot until we came to John
Island. We circled the island and found
a nice spot to land on the north side. I
wasn’t sure if the island was private or public, but there were no signs
visible from the water.
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| Our landing spot on John Island |
As we scampered up onto the island, I found a sign indicating that the island was owned by the State and it is administered by the Maine Island Trail Association (MITA). Camping is allowed.
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| Lots of good information here. The sign was tucked away on the interior of the island |
John Island is a
small island and MITA suggests that it be used by 2 only people at a time,
occupying 1 tent. There is a nice grassy
spot on the south center of the island, suitable for camping. The island is mostly scrub with 3 trees at
the northeast end. There are no coves,
but there are a couple rocky knolls to sit and enjoy the view and the water. It was warming up nicely, and I took a moment
to put on some sunscreen.
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| A nice spot to camp |
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| SE corner of John Island |
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| John Island from the south |
From John
Island, we continued paddling south to Folly Island. At Folly, we saw a sign indicating that the
island was open, but for day use only.
We paddled around the island, but didn’t get out of the boats.
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| Folly Island Sign |
From the water, the only part of the island that looked inviting was the southwest corner, where there was a small meadow and some spruce trees.
We headed north
at this point to return to the launch.
On the way back we hugged the eastern side of Bartlett Island and we
circled around the small Birch Island.
No signs were sign and we stayed in the boats. It looked thick with trees.
Back at the
launch, we loaded the boats and went back to Seawall Campground, where we were
staying. We cooked some dinner and then
decided to go back in the boats rather than do an evening hike.
This time we
launched from Seal Cove, which is a few miles south of Bartlett’s Landing. It was 5 PM when we were launching, so we
really only had time for a sunset paddle.
We left the cove and turned northward, working our way around Reed
Point. It was now the evening low tide,
so as we approached Moose Island it was connected to shore by a sandbar. Moose Island appeared to be privately owned,
although there weren’t any No Trespassing signs.
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| Nice house on the mainland side of the bar to Moose Island |
We paddled around the westerly side of the island admiring a couple of coves and sandy pocket beaches. We reached the north end of the island, but then it was time to turn around and get back to Seal Cove by dark. We had another fine sunset at our backs as we paddled back to the car. We also had a full moon at night after the sun went down.
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| Moose Island |
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| Leesa racing the sunset |
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| Perfect end to another day |
Another campfire at the campground and we were done for the day.
Paddle Stats:
Bartlett Narrows
Paddle
Distance: 6.2 miles
Paddle
Time: 2hours, 45 minutes, (including
stops)
Moose Island
Paddle
Distance: 4.4 miles
Paddle
Time: 1 hour, 30 minutes
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| The Bartlett Narrows from Bartlett Landing |
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| Moose Island from Seal Cove |
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