The breakfasts each morning at Pleasant Bay B&B have been delightful. Yesterday morning we had fresh fruit for starters: grapes, watermelon, apple, raspberries, blackberries, fresh cranberry/orange muffins. She made egg soufflé for us. It was picture perfect! Neither of us have had soufflé much, but thought it was good. This morning it was blueberry crapes stuffed with cheese along with the other accouterments. The breakfasts are extremely filing and negate any desire for lunch.
Today (Tuesday the 9th) we went to Great Wass Island and did a 5 mile loop hike that consisted of 2 miles through woods and bog before reaching the ocean, then 1.5 miles along the shoreline, with the final 1.5 miles back to our starting point through the woods. This was a unique hike. It was a beautiful hike, although very slippery through the woods because it was so wet, which made for slower going. Here is a picture of one spot on the trail (yes, that is the trail). Also, you can see the glamorous outfits we wore. Since it was hunting season, we wore bright orange even in areas where no hunting was alowed (just in case). It was a bit warm, so Paul ended up pulling up his sweats a bit.
We had found a birding guide that mentioned this hike, & said to make the hike a loop we 'simply' had to walk along the coast between the two woods hikes. This is true but rather deceiving. Here is the trail marker at one point.
Yes, it shows the path going through the water. This trail is obviously better at low tide. We were able to bush-wack through those locations, though, and do the loop. Despite this, we did love the hike, and fortunately no rain the whole way, only salt spray alongside the ocean. The rain started again shortly after we finished. Afterwards we drove along the coastline doing some exploring. We ended up just south of Machias at Fort O'Brien. This is the location of the first naval battle in our nations history in 1775.
This really is a nice area. Perhaps we will snap up this little gem of a house that is for sale.
Finally, on Wednesday, no rain! Another outstanding breakfast: fresh fruit, blueberry muffins and a pepper and mushroom omelet with home fries. Joan (the B&B owner) really takes pride in her breakfasts, rightfully so as they are delicious and presented excellently. This was our last morning at Pleasant Bay Inn. This morning we walked the grounds of the Inn and took lots of pictures. She has 100 acres so there was plenty of ground to explore, however the wetness exempted probably 50 acres from exploration. We think that we got all the highlights and captured a good perspective of the farm. The innkeeper is an animal lover. In addition to her llama, geese and chickens, she has 1 dog and 3 cats. She is also pet sitting for another dog right now. All of these animals are extremely friendly.
Here is a 'painterly' style picture of the B&B farm.
This picture shows the height of the fences where they used to raise the red tail deer.
We checked out of the inn, and will be moving up to Machias for the remainder of the week. We drove from there up to the Hamilton Preserve in Lubec. The hike was absolutely fabulous. It was open fields, beach front, craggy cliffs and wooded. The hike was only 3 miles round trip, 1.5 miles in, then back along the same walk. We had a very, very exciting sighting at one point, as we went down to the coast: we came upon a porcupine. We walked right next to him and didn't even see him as we was focused on the ocean. I spotted him, standing right next to him, when he moved. My pictures feature his backside. He very casually ambered off into the brush. I think this is the 1st time I've seen a porcupine up close & in person.
Many trails have wood put down through parts that are typically wet, to keep people on the trail. These boards can be slippery. This particulary trail dealt with that issue in a creative manner: they put chicken wire over the boards. Very effective. All along the shore the waves were crashing from the wind.
At the terminus of the hike is Morton Rock (if you clicked on the Hamilton hyperlink I provided, and downloaded the map, this is where the bench is shown in the legend), which is a large rocky outcrop out into the ocean, up probable 25 feet from the water level. I mean, this is high off of the water. Paul took advantage of the shoreline view, looking back up the shore taking pictures along the craggy coast. You can see in the picture that he selected a spot with dry rocks, suggesting that the water level is safely far below and no spray was reaching here. He was there for 10 minutes or more snapping shots of the pounding waves up the coast. We were looking at one of the pictures he had taken, when all of a sudden, without warning, a huge wave came in and washed over us. Paul was soaked!! I, fortunately, was wearing my gortex jacket & pants so it just washed right off of me. Now, this wasn't just a spray, it was a wave of water. Paul was wearing fleece sweatpants & sweatshirt, and they were drenched. The water was running down from them into his hiking boots. He was actually able to shake water off of himself. We then had a very brisk walk back to the truck where Paul quickly changed into dry clothing. (Paul was never in any danger of getting washed off into the sea. We were too high for a wave to have any power; it only had wetness.)
We came back and checked into our new motel room at the Machias Motor Inn. It is a very typical 2 double bed motel room. Not at all like our room at the Inn, but we will be comfortable nonetheless. Fortunately there is a nearby Laundromat where we washed all our salted clothing, plus what was used thus far this trip. We got there just in time to get this done before their 6pm closing time. A nearby Chinese restaurant was our dinner choice and it was excellent.
While the evening ambiance was not as good as at Pleasant Bay, we were able to make hot tea in the room's microwave and were very comfortable.
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Updated July 2020