A weekend up the Maine coast

ExploringNH

Explorer
I recently had a free weekend and decided to take an impromptu trip up the Maine coast. Recently I've been trying to focus on inexpensive weekend trips and this one can certainly qualify. I'm lucky to live in an area where I have so many things to see and do within a couple hour drive of my house. This trip ventured no more than 2 hours away from my house at any point and even though I've been living in this area for my whole life, I think it was my first time seeing 95% of the places we went.

This trip had no itinerary and no pre-planning. We knew we would head out Saturday morning and return Monday afternoon. That's about it. We packed food for the weekend and hit the road. Our first plan was to head to Ogunquit Maine to Perkins Cove. I knew there were supposed to be some walking trails and that it was supposed to be a pretty small and quaint summer town. The official census lists Ogunquit at something like 1500 residents. In the summer this place packs up like crazy and by winter, I would venture a guess to say that 30 people remain in town. The area is 100% tourist driven and I'm excited to return here to do this same trip in winter. This was peak tourist season so I knew that finding a campground or room would be impossible. We had all day to find a good spot to discreet camp so I wasn't too worried. This area looked like it could work well, so we kept it in mind. We found a spot to park in a $10/3hour lot (OUCH). If we wanted to, we could have parked a bit out of town and walked the 1 mile into town, but we decided it was best to just pay. Being a tourist town, this is pretty much par for the course.

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At this point we were only about a half an hour from home but were seeing this area for the first time. New Hampshire has 13 miles of rocky coast and Maine has 228 miles. Quite the difference and a lot of coast to explore.

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I knew that there were several sailboat tours heading out of Perkins Cove and I wanted to take one. I love sailing and any chance to get out on the ocean is always a good time. We hooked up with the owner of the Silverlining, a 42' sloop built in 1939. It was originally designed as a racing boat to race across the Atlantic. The owner bought the boat back in 1982 for $5000 and as you can probably imagine, for that price, it needed pretty much every inch of it repaired or replaced. The restoration work was amazing and it was my first time on a boat this old. Prior to this I've only sailed on boats less than 10 years old. Quite the difference. The boat held 6 people plus captain and deck hand.

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ExploringNH

Explorer
It was obvious that sunblock was necessary for sailing and before the trip I asked T if she packed any. She assured me that she did. What I didn't confirm, and what I will make sure to confirm in the future, was if it was loaded with glitter or not. Her sunblock was a "Shimmer Effect" and it works well! I was so gold and shiny. The photos didn't capture it all that well, which is good, but it was definitely noticeable in person and I felt fabulous. From now on, I will pack my own sunblock.

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After the sailing trip we walked around a bit before heading a little further up north. The coastal roads were absolutely packed with tourists (and I can't say much because I was one of them). We wanted to stay off of the highway and main roads and stick with a coastal route on small roads. This worked well for leaving towns but anytime the route neared a popular town near a highway exit, it was stop and go traffic. We gave up on this plan and compromised on Route 1. It is a somewhat coastal route but really not exciting. There was almost no traffic on it and it wasn't a major highway so it worked out alright. At this point we figured we would shoot up north some more to get away from the main tourist spots.

At this point we were getting hungry and T wanted seafood. We were a little ways out from the coastal towns with the good seafood but we saw on the map that Maine's Best Seafood Restaurant (or something similar) was coming up. It was about 1pm and we expected the place to be pretty busy, even if we were somewhat out of the populated areas. We were wrong.

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We were the only ones there. The food was pretty decent but the place was definitely run down. The saving grace was an amazing ice cream place right next door. At some point we were in Kennebunk. I think this was earlier in the day, but I'll toss the photo here because I can't remember. We also passed the Delorme headquarters in Yarmouth Maine. I've spent an enormous amount of time with my head buried in a Delorme atlas and gazetteer for trips through various states. Whenever I move somewhere new or take a trip to a new state I always pick one up. I have a pretty big stack of them and my NH ones get worn out every couple of years. They make some laminated ones now which would be awesome. You can draw all over the pages and wipe away when the trip is over.

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From there we took a look at the map and figured that we would try to find a spot to camp further north. We decided on Bath Maine as a reasonable goal town for the day. We decided to check out any campgrounds in the area for the sole reason of wanting to chill next to a campfire at night. We found a couple with spots available and settled on Chewonki Campground in Wiscasset Maine. Originally our plan was to discreet camp but the temptation of a fire canceled that plan. With a destination in mind less than an hour away and a lot of daylight left, we decided to head out to find a good hiking spot. With limited mountains in the area, and this being a coastal trip, we decided to try to find an area with trails in the Midcoast region of Maine. This area is loaded with peninsulas and islands and offers a pretty incredible landscape. Our plan worked out well and we found the Hamilton Sanctuary.

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T found some blackberries and proceeded to eat them all like a starved bear. This was definitely not a well traveled area and we didn't see anyone else out on the trails. The paths were well maintained and very cool. Some spots were lined with trees and it felt like walking through a tunnel. The views of the water were nice as well. We didn't see much for birds but we were there at the wrong time of day for that.

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ExploringNH

Explorer
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Once back in the truck we found that an inchworm had made itself at home. I decided to liberate him back to the outdoors. T was not interested as keeping him as a pet.

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At this point it was getting close to dusk and we decided to head to the campground. The place was incredible, definitely one of the nicest campgrounds I have been to. The spots were very far from each other and we didn't hear any other campers all night, even though the place only had three spots left when we arrived. I think we ended up with the second best spot on the property. The best spot was already taken by a family in a Tacoma. I really like the ease of setting up with the Excursion. Park, pull out food, done. The bed is already made in the back and there is nothing really to do.

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After all the excitement and talk of a fire, I didn't get a photo of it, but it was worth it. We ended up tossing some steak, potatoes, and veggies into some tinfoil and set it in the fire next to some corn on the cob. It turned out awesome, even though it doesn't look like much in the photos. The corn on the cob was the best I've had all season. This is a cheap and easy no-cleanup meal. No pans to wash and no need to break out propane or anything. Simple and easy. Toss it onto paper plates and throw them int he fire when done for no cleanup. I used to carry a nice propane lantern for night time but I don't anymore. It was big and took up a lot of space, not to mention the mantles that would burn out and the glass dome that had potential for breaking. I've since switched to a little $2 LED flashlight set on top of my water container. It works well for me and takes up far less space. The big thing for me is ease of setting up camp. I hate spending an hour setting up and breaking down everything. My whole setup right now takes seconds. I'm out here to relax and enjoy myself, not spend hours setting up expensive gear. We retired to bed shortly after dinner to watch a movie on the laptop. We chose the movie Silver Lining Playbook to kind of complete the theme for the day with the Silverlinings sailboat. I think I ended up falling asleep for most of it.

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ExploringNH

Explorer
The next morning we again didn't have any place specific to be so we slept in a little bit and then made some omelettes on the propane stove. I rarely get a "before" photo of my food as I am too interested in eating it and never remember until I'm halfway through. It was very tasty and cleanup on this meal is pretty easy as well. I don't have a fridge for the truck yet so we were making due with a cooler. I can't stand dealing with the ice, water, etc that comes with a cooler and can't wait to have a fridge again.

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After breakfast and showers we took off for a drive, not really knowing where to. We wanted to grab a coffee and figured we would look at the map while we sat. Plans changed when we passed a sign for Reid State Park. We made a split second decision and turned right. I figured there would be coffee on the way but the road instantly turned to a backwoods drive. 20 minutes or so later and we arrived at Reid Park, with no coffee. Oh well.

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The area was really cool. The rocks were very neat to see. Veins of limestone and mica were running through the granite and the erosion and contrast between where the water had rounded off all of the rock to the areas where wind had carved them out was very cool.

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We made a quick lunch at the truck in the parking lot and then T got a call from her mom. I knew it would be a long talk and entirely in loud angry Spanish. I decided to crawl into the back and take a quick nap while they yelled at each other about nothing for an eternity. The joys of having a bed in the back of the truck! After I was woken up from my nap we decided to head towards Brunswick Maine for that morning coffee (even though it was now about 1pm). The coffee was billed as "hand poured" and very fancy. A guy literally took hot water in a kettle and poured it over the coffee beans/filter into the cups. Fancy alright. They make a machine that does that for a lot less than $10/hr.

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We then walked around Brunswick which was a neat little town. It's home of Bowdoin College. I love the architecture of a lot of the old New England colleges and this one was no exception.

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topofpalomar

Enthusiast
Nice report. We want to travel up that way in the future so this is very helpful for future planning. Thanks.
 
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ExploringNH

Explorer
From there we took off to Bath Maine, an area rich in boat history. We didn't tour around too much (it's a pretty small town) but it is a nice area with lots of history to explore. We did see the boatyard which had the newest Navy warship. It is the USS Zumwalt and was pretty incredible to see in person. Unfortunately, it is very hard to get close to it without breaking a ton of laws, which I was not interested in doing. Here is a photo from CNN taken from inside the yard. The bridge in the background is pretty much the best place that I saw to view it from.:

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Heading into Bath with a view of the yard:

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This was a good spot for camping for the night. There was actually a big RV that was parked in the same area a little further up. We took his lead. I almost pulled all the way to the edge of this concrete slab. I'm glad I didn't. After getting out of the truck and walking to the edge to look around, I noticed that the last 4' of the slab was actually only about 6" thick and was just an overhang. That could have been bad. We parked right on the edge of land. That night it was crazy hot and muggy and it rained so no photos.

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The next day we decided to finish up heading south and stopped at Fort Foster in Kittery Maine. It's a huge park with a ton of walking trails. This fort dates tot he late 1800s as a defense for the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard. I don't remember the exact history but I believe the fort was outfitted with a bunch of old equipment right at the time of some serious technological advances. Because of this, the fort was never really used as it was pretty outdated and unnecessary right from the start. The coastal area in front of the fort was laced with mines for ships and I think that was the only real defense. The fort was then turned over for use as a military recreation area or something like that before being bought by the town of Kittery for a park.

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ExploringNH

Explorer
And that's it for the trip. It was a great time and right in the backyard. Total cost was low with the most expensive item being the campground fee for that one night. This is a trip that I can't wait to do again in the winter.

Last shot from Ft Foster:

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Random shots from somewhere along the trip.

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precision powder

Backwoods Explorer
I have lived here my whole life and never explored that area much, maybe now I will have to.



If you want to go on another weekend (well 3 days) trip let me know. I have a trip up here in Maine planned for the 26-28th. Should bring you to some places most people never see. Also should be pretty inexpensive, fuel being the only real cost. Camping will be free everywhere we go.
 
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Wilbah

Adventurer
Great trip thanks for posting it. If you (or anyone else) is in the area north of Kennebunkport a nice trail/ lunch spot is the Audubon Sanctuary near Biddeford Pool. You go past the pool and through the small community of Robin's Nest to the end. It has a small trail around the peninsula and you can look out at the Gulf of Maine on one side an Saco Bay on the other. Great for kids as its fairly level and lots of rocks to climb on etc. And great pounding surf on the Gulf of Maine side for lunch with a libation. :)

http://maineaudubon.org/find-us/east-point-sanctuary/

I have never stayed at hermitisland.com (south of Bath) but it looks like it has some great spots right on the ocean.
 

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