Camping in Vermont, Maine, and Campobello Island NB

[Tom&Shelly]

Shelly and I just got back from a two week trip from our base camp in Upstate NY through Molly Park State Park Vermont to Baxter State Park Maine, Herring Cove Provincial Park, Campobello Island New Brunswick Canada, Acadia National Park Maine, and Quechee Gorge State Park Vermont. We saw quite a variety of sights along the way. The start was a bit slow, but to build anticipation and excitement, I'll mention here that bears and whales were involved. Well, not at the same time; boy that would be exciting!

We had commitments in NY the morning we set out, so we spent the next day at Molly Stark State park Vermont, only 4 hours away, in the Green Mountains in southern Vermont. Nice campsite in trees



The site did not have shore power (I think that's typical of state parks in Vermont; maybe New Hampshire too.) We had a weak battery, and the trees made solar charging problematic, but it was cool enough at the time we didn't need our fan. (Not so on the way back at Quechee Gorge.) The campsite had showers close by, quarters required.

I was recovering from a slight cold (not you know what--I took a test!), so didn't do the short hike in the park to a fire tower. I hear the views are great, and hope to find out in person one of these days!

Instead, it was Saturday so we checked out a Farmer's/flea market (mostly fleas in this case), and bought a few CD's for our long drives to come. Also checked out a local used book store and found about half of the remaining Louis L'Amour books I need for my collection. So we had a grocery sack of paperbacks to haul around for the rest of the trip, though I was able to read a few and trade at subsequent book exchanges. Oh yes, for those of you into that, there is a small book exchange at Molly Stark, on the side of the Registration building.

So who was Molly Stark? She was the wife of General Stark, and she was heroic in that she "convinced" her husband he would rather be on the battlefield than home with her in beautiful Vermont. Or anyway, that's the way I read the story.

Not much to do at Molly Stark itself, but a good place to camp and see the Green Mountains.

Tom

[Tas]

Hi! So how did you like route 9? I take the bike on those roads a couple times each summer. I generally like to go westward. Route 100 north is a nice ride too.

I’ve never stopped at the flea market in Wilmington but it seems to be well attended considering the population in that area.

[Tom&Shelly]

Hi! So how did you like route 9? I take the bike on those roads a couple times each summer. I generally like to go westward. Route 100 north is a nice ride too.

I’ve never stopped at the flea market in Wilmington but it seems to be well attended considering the population in that area.

Route 9 definitely has its ups and downs! Something we noticed planning trips through New England last year is that it's much more challenging to go East/West through Vermont and New Hampshire than North/South, due to the geography of mountain ridge lines and glaciation. Later in the trip we took a section of Route 100 southwest. The Tacoma's trip route planner usually tries to talk us into heading down to the Mass Turnpike, but we've learned to slow down and enjoy the ride. A very beautiful area!

We were really looking for fresh produce when we discovered the Wilmington flea market. We'll have enough trouble packing for New Mexico this Fall in the first place, without bringing a lot of flea market finds from up here! But it is interesting to look through and see some subtle differences in the things for sale in New England, as opposed to, say, the flea market in Gallup New Mexico. For one thing, I recognize more of the older stuff from New England, where my grandparents grew up. On our way back through Vermont on this trip, we looked through an "antique barn" across from Quechee Gorge State Park and I gave into temptation and bought a 1950's vintage telephone. Very unlikely to see such a thing in Gallup, where there were few telephones in those days. A study in the subtle regional differences of our American culture!

Tom

[Tom&Shelly]

From Molly Stark SP Vermont, we made a LONG drive to Baxter SP Maine. Long (for us) was six and a half hours to the park entrance, then another hour to our campsite. Baxter is separate from the rest of Maine's state park system. It was deeded to the state by Governor Baxter along with a trust fund for maintenance. He specified that it is not to be built up, but is to remain wild. There is one dirt road (well maintained) through the park. No running water (except streams), no showers, no shore power (of course!) Here are the rules at the entrances:



Our tear was about the largest camper in the park. The rule about pets got an uncle of mine a few years ago. Went all the way up with his dog, and they wouldn't let them in. So come with knowledge. Incidentally, the organization that runs the park is the "Authority" which sounds a bit ominous. They do enforce the rules at the entrance, but otherwise leave campers on their own. It is a "pack in/pack out" park and one of the cleanest we've seen; so great credit is due to the other Baxter campers. When we got to our campsite, we found we had the entire overflow area to ourselves (except for the rabbit, and the eagle)



Glad we weren't allowed to bring our cat--the rabbit is about twice her size!

Looked great, except we noticed right away the bugs were sort of bad. Seems they had a wet spring, and even in the third week in July the black flies were out in force. I know about black flies, and more-or-less deliberately avoided Baxter (as well as the Adirondacks and similar places) in June, but didn't check the conditions this year. For the next two days, we lived in that mosquito netting! We were planning on trying some dutch oven cooking, but gave up that idea! We also tried hiking a trail from the campsite, but gave that up too, after a quarter mile. But I don't want to complain too much about the black flies. Baxter also has its share of mosquitoes, deer flies, horse flies, and no-see-ums. We decided to spend our first afternoon (after the aborted hike) driving down to see some other sites within the park South of us




Absolutely gorgeous! We also discovered one can rent canoes from some of the campsites, which, if I'd known earlier, we would have tried that day, dressed to deter the flies, of course.

The next day, we decided to explore the road up to the North entrance. Found a nice picnic table near a lake for lunch (bugs not too bad there). I wondered what the birds were until one let out a distinctive call



On our way back, we ran into some other wild life



I think one was a yearling (no pictures), and the smaller one (in both shots here) was born this Spring. We don't know where the mother was, but we stayed in the truck. We hung out for awhile and the yearling crossed the road but the young one just stayed near the road digging into a squirrel den, so finally we drove past slowly. Nothing much more we could do, though that's closer than I wanted to get (for their sake and ours). Shelly did get a video as we drove past, and if we can figure out how to get it off the phone (large file and we don't have good service where we are staying) I'll edit and post.

It was cool enough at nights that we broke out our wool blanket. Warm days, and we did have some rain. After our bear encounter, we decided to take a short hike, and it started to rain just as we set out, which kept the bugs down until the rain stopped. (I imagine the bugs must really torment those poor bears, with their bear skin, bear feet, and all.)

To summarize, the fauna prevalent at Baxter include

Black Flies
Bears
Black Flies
Eagles
Black Flies
Loons
Black Flies
Giant Rabbits
Black Flies
Deer Flies
Black Flies
Mosquitoes
Black Flies
Horse Flies

and did I mention the Black Flies? Just outside the park on our way out, we also spotted a den of red foxes.

So, will we go back to Baxter? Probably not--while a great wild place, they charge a $16 entrance fee and $50/night to camp. It is a long drive to get to, and we can find places with similar (lack of) evidence of humanity out West for free. But it is a legendary place we wanted to see, and I do recommend it. Incidentally, it is the furthest north we've had our teardrop, so far, and it did seem like the daylight lasted a little longer up there for that.

Tom

[Tom&Shelly]

Campobello turned out to be the highlight of our trip. Not real sure what we would find there when I suggested to Shelly we go; other than an international park (jointly run by the US Park Service and Canadian Park Service) preserving Franklin Roosevelt's summer home.



Even the US Park Service web site suggests only two hours to tour the park. When we got there, we took the tour, and they suggested we stay for "Tea with Eleanor" which we declined, partly because we had already booked a whale watching trip for that afternoon.

We booked with "Captain Riddle's Whale Watching Tours", and got on a tour with another family. Captain Riddle, actually Brendan Flynn, also picked up his 14 year old son and 11 year old daughter, so there were nine on the boat. We had a wonderful 3 hour afternoon!

He took us by a bald eagle nest on shore



but in case we didn't get good pictures because of the background, we also went by one out on an island



We also saw porpoises, sea lions, and, oh ya, whales



I would call this a "must do" for anyone camping on the island. There were other tours on the water from New Brunswick and Maine, but we think ours was the best venue. Some folks were in Zodiacs, some in much larger boats. We had a wonderful time talking with the other family, and with the skipper and his kids about life in a half Canadian, half US, family operating on an island where the one bridge goes to Maine, and the only other way off is a car ferry to New Brunswick. Incidentally, there are no gas stations on the island, so they have to buy US gas. During COVID they eventually were able to get waivers to travel across the border.

I'd expected a much more touristy area, but found, in fact, only two restaurants on the island open for dinner (both good). We tried poutine for the first and second times, but I won't tell you which restaurant served the better version--a matter of taste. The lady who ran the Campobello Gift House (which also sold used paperbacks for 50 cents apiece, US or Canadian $, you pick) told us more than half of the residents were Americans. She says the last batch to buy houses didn't seem to realize just how quiet the island was, and sold out after a few years. She feels the current crop has a better understanding. But, she says, people come for a few days or a week or more, and are at the used book section for something to do.

We took the time and went to see Head Harbour Lightstation on the North end of the island (also saw it from the whale watching boat)




At low tide, one can go out to the lighthouse, but we didn't time it right to do so. We also found the Mulhollean Point Lighthouse, near the bridge and only a hundred yards or so from Lubec Maine



At Rooselvelt International Park there are some hiking trials, which we didn't have time to try. If we had been there more than one full day, I expect we would have.

We stayed at Herring Cove Provincial Park. Herring Cove comes out at the wide end of the Bay of Fundy. (Someday, we'll go to the other end to see the reversing falls.)




Our camp site was clean and neat



Free showers, which, after three nights in the wilderness at Baxter, were appreciated. The shore breezes kept the bugs away, so we didn't really need the mosquito net up, it was there to dry out.

OK, so I know there is a stereotype about neat, clean Canadians, but, no joke, as we were preparing to leave on our last day, there were two park employees with a shop vac going around taking the front covers off of the shore power pedestals and vacuuming out the dirt from inside. Just sayen...

So this was the furthest East we've taken our teardrop so far, and the first time out of the US. No issues with that. Shelly even figured out how to set the Taco so it read in km/hr. I tried to get Canadian dollars at an ATM, but there was an issue with it reading my debit card. I paid for most things with my credit card, so we'll see later how much I was charged for exchange transactions. Hopefully not too much.

Oh, Campobello is on Atlantic Time; one hour earlier than Eastern Time, and for things like showing up for whale watching, that's important. Sometimes the cell phones pick up the right cell tower, sometimes not, so that time switches back and forth. I changed the clock on the teardrop. Forgot to change it back though. We didn't have any scheduled events at Acadia, so didn't notice until I happened to compare it to my phone when we were back in Vermont. It's a good camping experience if it doesn't really matter!

Tom

[Tom&Shelly]

A few minutes from the US border in Lubec Maine is the Quoddy Head Lighthouse, also a Maine state park (no camping)



I wanted to have lunch there, but none of their picnic tables were in shade, and we were beginning to catch the current national heat wave (not that we knew that at the time). The cost to us to enter was $4/person, on the honor system, which is not really worth the price, after one's been to an island and already has seen lighthouses and much ocean shore, in our opinion. but we paid anyway.

There is a one room museum in the lighthouse. In that part of Maine, there are lots of paintings, photos, and miniature lighthouses with the red/white strip pattern, based on this lighthouse.

Evidently, this is also the eastern most point in the US



Though one can walk about six feet to the right of the stone and be further east than it is.

Tom

[Tom&Shelly]

OK, Ken burns loves Acadia National Park much more that we did. It's okay, but really the attraction is a coast in Maine, of which there are a lot. The penalty is the crowds, of which, at Acadia, there are also a lot. That said, we enjoyed it.

We stayed at Schoodic Woods campground, on the Schoodic Peninsula at the eastern end of the park. No showers at the campsite, though there were flush toilets. We also had shore power, which was a surprise to us. I suppose we must have mis-remembered our reservations. Since our battery was clearly displaying a bad cell by that time, it was welcome. The eazy-up was for shade; the ocean breezes kept the bugs at bay. Nights were cool enough not to need the air conditioner.



First day, we went down the coast to the Schoodic Research Center and hiked a nature trail there, taking pictures as we went







That water tower is particularly impressive. it is a Model HK-57641 and holds 5,000 gallons. It was manufactured between 1943 and 2006 and...naw, that's complete BS. I have no idea what it is. It supports the Schoodic institute and probably supported the Navy when they were there before that. If so, I suspect it was once painted in the familiar red and white that military water towers had, to keep biplanes from flying into them.

That building (worth clicking on the picture to see the stonework btw) has a small museum and showed that the navy ran a radio ranging station from Schoodic Peninsula during the World Wars into the 1960's. Today, the Schoodic Institute supports a variety of research of the ocean and environment. I bought one of their hats (my Grand Canyon hat was getting to be too dirty), but if anyone asks, I'll tell them I took classes in school bus camper conversions.

The next day we were going to hike another trail on the peninsula, within the eastern part of the park, but just after breakfast, we got a rain shower. It looked like it might keep doing that all morning, so we decided to drive around the park, onto Mount Desert Island, to the Seal Cove Auto Museum. It was all indoors, and I didn't take any pictures, but it features automobiles up to the mid-20's. We then went to the Bass Harbor Head lighthouse, not realizing until too late, it involved waiting in traffic for a half hour for others to leave the parking lot



After that, we drove to Bar harbor and fought the park crowds (and others) and walked the downtown, and ate dinner at an over-priced restaurant on the water.

Well, I hope that doesn't discourage anyone. No doubt we could have taken the boat from Schoodic Peninsula to Bar harbor, which a ranger assured us was fun for the sake of the trip. They also run busses to points within Acadia NP that we didn't go see. But, honestly, if we go back to the upper coast of Maine, I think we'd rather go back to Campobello.

Tom

[Tom&Shelly]

Our last stop this trip was Quechee Gorge (pronounced "Kwe-chee gorge" according to an authoritative sounding bumper sticker in a gift shop). Another Vermont state park, by the time we were there the nights were warm and we ran our fan all night despite a bad cell in our battery. As always with state parks in the region, the site was fantastic



The first day was perfect hiking weather, so we went down the gorge





Of course, that's a harmless (to humans) garden snake. I think they should import a bunch to Baxter to control the black fly situation!

From the gorge, we went the other way to the dam, eating a snack on some picnic benches in between




We got back to camp by early afternoon, so got a charcoal fire going and baked some banana bread in our dutch, something we'd originally planned to do earlier in the trip. Turns out these packaged breads and muffin mixes work very well with this form of baking. (The banana bread happened to be Pilsbury's product.) At first, we were afraid we went too far leaving it in (17 coals--375 degrees) for 45 minutes, but that turned out to be perfect (can't taste the dark edges on top)



We've already bought some cinnamon and some blueberry mix for our next trip.

Our second day there was shaping up to be HOT, so we sought the air conditioned sanctuary of an "antique barn" right across US 4 from the park. Didn't buy anything that day, but a good deal on an antique telephone haunted me that evening, so we waited around until they opened the next day, and I bought it before we drove back.

For anyone interested, the bathroom/shower facility near our site in the park had a book exchange. There wasn't one at the other facility, but we found one at the entrance booth on our way out.

Overall, a wonderful trip! We might have split it up other years, but we did save some gas this way.

Tom

[KCStudly]

When I was tent camping in Baxter many years ago I didn't get to see a bear, but did see a moose in the river down along the road.

Another nice thing about the governor's codicils is that occupancy is limited. Baxter SP will never be over crowded.

Nice trip report as usual!

[Tom&Shelly]

When I was tent camping in Baxter many years ago I didn't get to see a bear, but did see a moose in the river down along the road.

Another nice thing about the governor's codicils is that occupancy is limited. Baxter SP will never be over crowded.

Nice trip report as usual!

Thank you KC.

Shelly wants to see a moose. Unlikely on our next trip (to Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Dayton), but we'll hope for the best!

Tom