Ideas for a week in Maine?

[Cataboo]

Thanks Tokie & Indysteel.

Indysteel,

Try getting camp sites for the end of Isle Au Haut:
http://www.nps.gov/acad/planyourvisit/duckharbor.htm

Basically, you can only get there by boat, and it's gorgeous down there. I think the campsites fill up fast - so you have to put in a request on April 1st. You can take the ferry if you don't want to paddle (the ferry might even be able to take a kayak with you). If you were paddling from Stonington, it's probably about an 8-10 mile paddle. There's only 5 campsites down there and a gorgeous little bay... And given that it is a "long" paddle to get there, you really won't see all that many people. If you do want fresh lobsters, when you're kayaking around Maine or near the shore, you can just hail a lobster boat & buy one directly from them (have a pot to cook one in)

The Maine Island Trail association does a really nice job of speaking with the landowners of various islands around Maine and negotiating their use by kayakers or sailors (sailboats)... Most of the islands are completely empty, and there's just something incredibly cool about paddling up and having an island all to yourself. The caveat is that the inner islands, which are typically very sheltered and only a 2 mile paddle tend to be the ones that everyone goes to, to camp... so if you paddle like 6 miles out, the number of people you see drops dramatically. It's somewhat silly given that a slow paddling speed is like 3 miles per hour and is really not all that much work. But if you stay in the inner islands, you'll be protected from current & winds. One worry about kayaking in Maine is that there are a lot of little lobster boats puttering about... and that's fine, but if a fog rolls in, a lobster boat has a hard time seeing a kayak. In that case, you want a VHF radio so you can announce where you are & when you're crossing a channel.

I do know people who have set up bike shuttles - put in with their kayak at one spot, paddle for a week getting up to where they've left their bikes - and then biked back to get their car. But mostly I've been pretty happy just paddling around Maine. Almost anything that I can see on a bike, I can see in a car... I can't see what I see kayaking any other way. Which is probably why I kayak tour a lot and don't bike tour a lot.

I know that Old Quarry Campground that I linked to above for Tokie is an outfitter & does do tours. I ran into a couple tours when I was paddling around the Deer island archipelago, and they really do manage to get a bunch of people who don't know how to kayak to go on a nice tour of the islands & camping on them. Old quarry campground does have a house that you can rent, and their campsites are fairly plush - hot showers and wooden decks to pitch your tents on. so even if you wanted to just stay at Old Quarry, rent kayaks or do daily tours... you'd be fine. There's a lot of interesting islands to see close by - abandoned quarry islands with fresh water swimming, old machinery, what not. Old quarry campground can give you a list of the islands and what's on them, and if you join the Maine Island Trail association (MITA) they send you a book with a blurb on all the islands, what's on them, where you can land, and what you can do.

You'll probably see a ton of kayak outfitters when you're up there, I'm just mentioning the ones that I had some interaction with.

Another outfitter on Mount Desert island is:
http://www.carpediemkayaking.com/
I was up there when they were having a kayaking symposium (my friend was attending it & I just paddled around while he took lessons) & they did do a good job of it. The national park service on Mount Desert does rent kayaks on one of the lakes/ponds... It might be on the Great Long Pond. The great long pond is like 8 miles long... But it's mostly protected, so you'd be safe enough.

The other thing to worry about is the water temp... It might get up into the early 60's by september (I know last year they said they had their highest water temps ever)... But it's still not a water temp you want to be in for a long time. So if you have a wetsuit or something like that, it would be a bit safer - if you rent a kayak or go on a tour, I'm sure they can provide you with something.

If you've never ever kayaked, I'd say go on a guided tour. Kayaking is easy, but it can be deceptively easy - learning all the rescues and rolls, etc. and what to do if a storm or whatever blows up is the hard part. But many of people kayak for years without knowing or needing all that stuff... If you have a guide, you'll at least know that they know what to do if things go wrong for whatever reason.

I met the owner of Lincoln Canoe & Kayak when I popped into their store & he's emailed me a few times - they do tours & instruction as well:
http://www.canoesandkayaks.com/outdoor_center.html