In an effort to find something Down East that we hadn’t done before, the BF stumbled upon the Maine Coastal Islands National Wildlife Refuge, specifically the Petit Manan Point section in Steuben. It was definitely the best part of our weekend. (And I say that despite the fact that we were nearly eaten alive by bugs. We’re definitely not going back in the summer without improved bug protection.)
The really cool thing, is we were the only people there. We took the Birch Point Trail, which is four miles round trip, and leads out of the blueberry barrens in the center of the point, through the forest, to some coves on the shore.
The trail is in great shape – it goes over a fair amount of water, and they’ve put in some nice wooden bridges. There are also strategically placed Adirondack chairs in a number of particularly scenic places.
The highlight of the walk for us though, was when we got the full on “you’re clearly here to eat my babies so I’m going to play injured and lead you away from the nest” treatment from what appeared to be a ring necked partridge. We dutifully followed her up the path until she disappeared, went a bit further, and then turned around and waited. Lo and behold, we were out of sight, so she sauntered back down the trail, since she was now clearly safe.
We’re definitely going back – we’d like to walk through again when we’re not having to run away from every bit of standing water, for fear of being eaten alive.