Isle au Haut

[jonsprag1]

Took some friends from MDI paddlers out to Isle au Haut today---put in at Old Quarry campground, went out past Hells Half Acre, Buckle McClathery's, Wheat, Burnt and then had lunch on the Isle au Haut town dock---went back by way of Merchants, Steeves, Green and Russ---round trip 15.1 statute miles. For those of you from "away" who think the end all and be all of paddling in Maine is Bar Harbor or elsewhere on MDI, three of these guys were from there and paddle there every week--they all admitted without prompting that the paddling in the Stonington area was the best they had ever experienced. It didn't hurt that the weather was absolutly perfect.

[EEL]

Jonathan:

How would going out to Swan's starting on the Deer Isle side compare to visiting Isle Au Haut?

It would be hard to circumnavigate Isle Au Haut in a day without being a 25NM day and would need to be settled? Appears the ocean side could get a bit rowdy with few places to land.

Ed Lawson

[jonsprag1]

Funny you should mention a circumnavigation of Isle au Haut---a friend of mine and I are going to do that later this summer--the plan was to leave Old Quarry and either go around Isle au haut the first day then camp on kimball, burnt or wheat or camp on those islands then get up real early the second day and paddle around Isle au Haut and maybe camp the second night on a MITA island as well. Doing a circumnavigation of Isle au Haut in one day does involve 25 miles of paddling(at least) Its 15 miles out and back to the Island(I have measured it on my GPS) and then at least 10, if not more(according to my chart, it could well be more) miles around it. On a calm day it would be doable assuming an early start(around 7am or so) and relativly fit paddlers---if the weather is breezy (over 10--15 knots) you might want to consider a different trip, particularly if it is out of the south or north. I've never been to Swan's island but it is easily a doable trip if you put in near Neskeag or Little Deer Isle---could even be done from Old Quarry--I know people who have done it from the West side of MDI--put in a Seal Cove paddled down to Sheep Island off Old Quarry and returned.(it was a two day trip but it took them right past Swans

[gyork]

Ed, seems you and I are always planning future trips, and how to make them happen. Seems like a long day on the water to circum. Isle au Haut from Old Quarry. I'd agree with Jonathan's plan of camping 2 nites on one of the islands just N of IaH (Day 1-OQ to base camp; Day 2-circum. IaH, back to base camp; Day 3-back to OQ). With advanced planning you might get lucky to secure a campsite at Duck Harbor (~10 Nm from OQ), operated by Acadia. A fee of $25 secures your lean to for 3 nites (6 campers max). This allows 2 days of "no-go" if the weather turns bad, assuming that Day 1 was placid on your way out. As for the southern coast, my Topo shows low-lying marshy areas-Merchant Cove in Head Harbor and at the NE portion of Western Head. Th E shore looks like a long paddle. I'm planning to hike/bike the island one day next week, via the mail boat, and I'll let you know what I can find out from the locals and any direct observations.

Gary

[EEL]

> I'm planning to hike/bike

>the island one day next week, via the mail boat,

Hope you are bringing a MTB as most of the road around the island is dirt and it has some steep rises along the way. Great trip and some nice places to stop and wander as well as look. Will be kayaking in area next week. With the MITA islands and others around for camping, I would pass on Duck harbor.

Ed Lawson

[ccarlson]

There are several options for camping in close proximity to Isle Au Haut. Last time I did it, we camped on Harbor Island and did the circumnav from there, staying the second night there as well. Outside can be bumpy of course but we had pretty reasonable conditions. Swans is another trip that is best done with a nearby base camp. When I did it a couple of years ago, left from OQ and camped on Pond Island. Then did the circumnav and back for another night on Pond. That's another great trip. From Pond you can see SW Harbor on MDI and it was a bit tempting. But, we had a timetable so returned instead to OQ.

[jonsprag1]

Harbor certainly is one option---others are Burnt, Wheat, Dollivers(next to York Island on the east side of Isle au Haut) It's about a three mile paddle more or less from Harbor to IaH village Burnt and Wheat are closer and are reasonably good sites---Could also camp on Kimballs on the north end.

[beckt]

Jon - You didn't happen to hear the volley of gunfire coming off of York Is. at about 2 PM did you? It sounded like someone fired off an arsenal with many different types of artillary. We were sitting in the turnip field at about that time and I got to admit it was a little un nerving.

Otherwise it was a nice day out of Deer Isle.....

A circumnavigation is definately in the works.

[jonsprag1]

no we didn't hear anything---was that 2pm last saturday the 9th of June? We would have been between Merchant and Steeve at that time, quite a distance away with Isle au Haut in between.