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Middle Bay, Casco Bay, Harpswell, ME, 8.7.17


gyork

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While I certainly enjoy an extended, non-supported, multi-day see safari, I take equal pleasure in spending time along the Maine coast doing multiple day-trips from various campgrounds. I saw an opportunity for the latter, and invited many of my paddling friends to join me. I was happy that Joe and Dave agreed to partner with me on Day One, an exploration of Middle bay in Upper Casco Bay.  

We rendezvoused Sunday nite at the Frontier Café in Brunswick, a restaurant that looked pleasing enough from the Web description, and it certainly did not disappoint. We enjoyed catching up/delicious food, and planning our next day's adventure. I had planned an overly-ambitious route, in retrospect, but others in the party voiced no objections.

We met on Monday morning at H2O outfitters, Orrs Island. This kayak business shares a building with a wonderful bakery, that charged $5/car for parking, and offered the most delicious homemade blueberry muffins (wild Maine blueberries.) We launched at 9 o'clock under calm seas and bright blue skies, meandering Merriconeag Bay, following the coast line around Pott's Point. The boat traffic was light, the paddling was easy, and we rounded the southern tip of Whaleboat Island to explore the far side. We were quickly upon the campsite along the north west shore, presently occupied by a family of homesteaders, determined to spend the week relaxing and providing some maintenance to the campsite. The patriarch and spokesperson for the group grew up nearby, and has been coming to these campsites for years. We thanked him for his stewardship and set off for the beautiful Goslings.

A tethered, motorized skiff at the easternmost, reservation-only site dissuaded us from going to shore. Instead, we landed on the westerly, more popular Gosling, and were soon joined by a party of young adults and several small children, eager to explore this magical paradise. We proceeded up the inside of Lower Goose, (my favorite, with all its nook-and-cranny coves with sandy beaches) and found a vacationing family at the northwest point, enjoying a day of water skiing on a still-calm sea, a rare sight indeed. A woman on the dock was video-capturing the ?greenhorn skier, locked in the tight position of a downhill racer. We continued our clockwise trip around Upper Goose, and were met by the predicted 5 to 10 SWerlies coming at us. By this time, the tide started changing, so we were in for a little bit of slog. We hugged the eastern shore and shot for the eastern-most landing spot on the Goslings, where we enjoyed our late lunch, including 1/3 Bakery muffin.

We debated the next course of action; paddle up the Western shore of Whaleboat, where we might expect to find some lee protection, but then face a long beam crossing, or head diagonally across to the mainland where we might pick up some of the same. We chose the latter.  A bit of a slog either way to the tip of Whaleboat, and more of the same over to the mainland, around Basin Point a bit of beam seas, but no problem over to Pott's Point, after which we enjoyed a nice push back to the launch with an occasional surf from one of the swells.  Although it's sad to paddle by Dolphin Marina Restaurant without stopping as planned (late lunch), we made up for it with a capital feast at Cooks Lobster House Restaurant, the meal delayed by our (Joe and me) navigational ineptitude oh finding the entrance to this restaurant that we could clearly see across the water.  

I tried to cobble up a chart showing our route for the day, by screenshooting a NOAA chart of the area, then using the squiggly line drawing tool to approximate our route:

LowerMidBayCasco.pdf

 It pales in comparison to Joe's public link ( https://www.gaiagps.com/public/t9XFKdnVwUnoWJoDdQuO7VxV ), compiled by GAIA, a $20 App that I had turned Joe and others on to at our recent Saddleback outing. It's a fantastic App (Gaia.com) that I would recommend to others for sea kayaking, mountain climbing, or route finding in general. It works solely on the GPS properties of your phone, and is not dependent on cellular service. Turning on airplane mode further preserves battery life. You might expect 30% residual battery life (100% charged at the get-go), on average, after paddling several hours and Miles.  Joe and I had good luck recording our routes for the next few days of our trip.  Perhaps its most valuable function, IMO, is the ability to create a route, which Joe did for our Muscongus paddle.

 Parting thoughts:  

-Wished we had thought to launch from Merepoint ramp, and proceeded CCW, working with the wind.  Would've enabled us to paddle deeper up the Bay to see Crow.

-Forgot to take some pix!  

-Thoroughly enjoyed the company of my compadres, further expanding my circle of friends.

-Get GAIA for route planning and nav backup when fog-bound.  You'll play with it a bunch when new, but then put it away with your other E-toys.

Local knowledge:  

-Frontier Cafe:  hard to find but worth the trip http://www.explorefrontier.com 

-H2O Outfitters/?bakery:  easy hand-carry launch over decent mixed sand/gravel, all tides, $5/car, day

-Thomas Point Beach Campground:  Spacious, affordable (~$20/tent, car, nite) tent camping, no mossies, decent $0.25/2min showers, deserted, mostly (why?)

Edited by gyork
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