Maine - Day 14 - Castine & Stonington

Greenlaw's RV Park, Stonington
Tuesday, 14 August 2018

today's route

Today was a day of fishing villages and coastline and bridges.  All very picturesque.  I only drove 85 miles, but it felt much longer because the roads were often bumpy and always very twisty/turny with no shoulders and untrimmed growing things.  Still very picturesque.

While I was in the Bucksport area I went over to Fort Knox.  I knew I'd be crossing the Penobscot Narrows but had no idea what the bridge would be like.

Those cables run down the center of the bridge with a lane for traffic on either side.  It was surprisingly harrowing.

Ft. Knox was an American fort for fending off the British for, among other things, building a fort down the river in Castine (more on this later).  Here's a link for Ft. Knox, in case you're interested.  fortknox/

As I passed through Bucksport, I noticed a cemetery fronting on Rt. 1 with a very large monument to someone named Buck.  I didn't stop to look but I saw an information sign nearby and am guessing that's the Buck who established a port - hence Bucksport.

I had several sights in mind when I went to Castine, none of which I found, but did find other points of interest instead.

looking downriver from town

I'd hoped to find Dyce Head Lighthouse, which has an interesting history lighthousefriends.com but apparently made a wrong turn, in my usual way, and ran out of road before I found it.

looking upriver from town

I'd also hoped I'd pass Ft. George FortGeorge on my way to the lighthouse but, alas, no fort along with no lighthouse.  Clearly I was on the wrong road.  This fort was built and held by the British until a while after the Revoluntionary War.

What I found instead was residential and downtown Castine and its waterfront.  There were historical signs all over town - the entire town of Castine is in the National Register of Historic Places - and chatty people everywhere and it was all very charming.  I loved it and wished I could stay several days.

Correction:  I must have been really tired when I mentioned the Maine license plates earlier this month because there is of course nothing like a cardinal on them.  Instead, it's a Black-capped Chickadee, the state bird.

After Castine I drove down towards Deer Isle, making a detour on the way to Brooklin.  As far as I can tell, Brooklin's claim to fame is it being the home of WoodenBoat Magazine, well-known in certain quarters.  It's also home to a lot of boatbuilders, as you can imagine.

Brooklin General Store

I left Brooklin and drove back to Rt. 15, which goes all the way down both Little Deer Isle and Deer Isle to Stonington on the tip.  Turns out there's another spectacular bridge onto the islands.

the bridge to Little Deer Isle

Yes, that's fog.  What isn't clear is that the bridge goes up quite a way before it comes down again and is very narrow.  I'm not a fan of heights but, very fortunately, I had to focus all my attention on that narrow road and the oncoming traffic and couldn't look down if I'd wanted to.

The fog was more or less there all day as I came down the Penobscot Bay, getting denser as the day went on.  I can hear what I'm pretty sure is a fog horn right now, the campground being not far from the water.

Lest anyone think, as I did, that these islands are fairly flat, I can report that there are a number of fairly steep hills here - the highway department didn't bother with signs, but I'm getting to be a sort of connoisseur and am fairly sure they were at least 7% grade.  Count me surprised.

Oddly, I'd been thinking just this morning that I hadn't seen any chipmunks in quite a while, and this afternoon one ran across the road right in front of me.  I think they play "chicken" because they seem to do this often.

Before I turned off Rt. 15 to the campground I drove on into Stonington.  I'd heard it was still a lobstering town, and it probably is, based on the number of men I saw wearing rubber boots like mine from my fishing days and based on the number of working boats I saw.  But it's also very much a tourist town now, with tourists clogging the roadways and sidewalks.  Not so great for me but I supposed it's good for the town.  Pretty little town.

Stonington harbor (with fog)

Stonington and Deer Isle are another places I think I'd like to come back to, preferably in September or October when there are fewer tourists.