EASTERNMOST POINT IN THE USA

Cobscook Bay State Park was the perfect base camp for exploring the Eastermost Point in the United States and for getting our first look inside Canada.



MONDAY

TRAVEL DAY
YEAR #2 - STOP #39

After backing THE POD into it's new home we took off to do some sightseeing and find some lunch, with a good portion of the day left we drove into the nearby town of Lubec, ME.

“West
West Quoddy Head Light in Lubec,ME

Lubec is the easternmost town in the contiguous United States and is home to Quoddy Head State Park. Located inside the park is West Quoddy Head Light, a lighthouse built in 1858 to guide ships through the Quoddy Narrows.


“Easternmost
Easternmost Point in the contiguous United States

We started this journey in May of 2018 with a visit to the Southernmost Point in the contiguous United States located in Key West, FL and now, in July of 2019, we have visited the Easternmost Point in the contiguous United States, here at the West Quoddy Head Light, ME.

“Us
Here we are at the Easternmost Point

If you're counting, because we are, that's two corners of the United States down, and two to go!


“Frank's
Dining on the rear patio deck at Frank's this was our first view of Canada

Another point of interest today was where we ate lunch, not so much which restaurant we were at, but actually where we were at. On the back patio of Frank's Dockside Restaurant in the town of Lubec, overlooking the Quoddy Narrows, we were just a few hundred yards from Canada.

“Frank's
That's the Canadian Border Patrol Station on the left side of the FDR Bridge

If we would have went straight at the last intersection while driving here, instead of turning left to go to the restaurant, we would have gone over the F.D.R. Bridge into Canada. With our passports still back at THE POD that could have been a big problem.



TUESDAY - Today needs to be a work day for Tricia because she has deadlines to meet. Fortunately we don't need to drive into town to find a library to work from, like we did at Acadia National Park for the last two weeks. Even though here at Cobscook State Park we find ourselves without water or electricity on our campsite, we do have the two ingredients that make it possible to work from THE POD, sun and cell phone signal. True, we don't need the sun to create our own electricity, we could always run our Honda generator and burn up some propane.

The solar panels are just so more efficient and noiseless. We even pulled out our 200-watt portable panels from the back seat of ROVER and set them up in the bright daylight area of our campsite, first time we've done that in a while. The cell phone signal isn't terribly strong here (2 bars of 3G) so we got out our cell phone booster and made it totally usable for work.

If we get our work done today we might just go into Canada tomorrow for lunch and some more sightseeing on Campobello Island.



WEDNESDAY - Today we're going to find out if our brand new Passport Cards actually work! Neither Tricia or I had ever possessed a passport before, so instead of getting full blown Passport Books, which allow international travel pretty much anywhere in the world, we opted for Passport Cards which allow U.S. residents to drive, bike, or walk, into Canada and Mexico. If you want to fly in you'll need the Passport Book.

We have a few sights planned to visit today, but the first is very time sensitive. We plan on visiting the Head Harbour Lightstation on the northern tip of Campobello Island in New Brunswick. The reason this visit is so time sensitive is because you can only visit there during low tide.

You see the lightstation is on an island, and at low tide you can walk out to it on the dry ocean floor. It just sounded too cool to pass up! This is possible because here, at the bottom of the Bay of Fundy, there is a 10-11 foot difference between low and high tide. You only have a four hour window to visit the lightstation before the ocean floor once again has 10 feet of water over it.

FYI - At the northern end of the Bay of Fundy the tides change a record 53 feet, the largest tidal change anywhere in the world.

Here are a few photos of our visit!

Here is our view while waiting for the tide to recede just a little bit farther.
See the stairs on the right? That's the first of four we will have to climb upon.
Finally at the bottom on the dry ocean floor.
The stairs on the right lead up to the middle island.
A bridge that crosses a narrow channel between two islands.
Halfway there now!
One more look of where the ocean used to be before we climb up to the lightstation.
The Head Harbour Lightstation
As a bonus we saw a few Minke Whales just offshore from the lighthouse.


After our visit to the lightstation we headed out to find lunch with a view! We asked all three of the people working at the lightstation where was the best place to eat on the island and they all said the same thing, go to The Pier Waterfront Restaurant. We knew they couldn't all be wrong and they weren't!

“View
Patio view during our lunch on Campobello Island

We both had their delicious Baked Seafood Casserole, with green beans, sweet potato fries and a bread roll. The only thing better than the food was the view of the calm bay waters from the outdoor dining deck.


With lunch taken care of we still had more to see before heading back to The States. When we were eating at Frank's Dockside a few days ago we could see a small lighthouse across the water inside Canada. We just had to get a closeup look from this side before we left.

“Mulholland
Mulholland Point Light

Mulholland Point Light is currently being repaired and then will once again be accessible to the public. There is a small museum and information booth operated by volunteers and a pleasant little walking path around the base of the lighthouse.


One more stop! The southern quarter of Campobello Island is one large park, Roosevelt Campobello International Park. At the southern tip of the park is Liberty Point and from that vantage point we were able to zoom in with our camera and get a shot of West Quoddy Head Light from the Canadian shoreline.

“West
West Quoddy Head Light as seen from Canada

Well for a total of 5 hours 27 minutes today we were in Canada! I must say the Canadian Border Agent was very pleasant and asked us the normal questions about whether we were transporting any guns, alcohol, fruits, vegatables or cannabus products. With all those answers being NO we were asked where we were from and how long we planned to visit, then we were good to go.

Coming back into The States we were asked basically the same questions, but this time the agent took a look into ROVER's back seat and wanted to know what all the bins were filled with. Before I could answer he asked if we were camping and I replied YES. He walked around to the back of the truck and peered into the rear window and then slowly returned to my side window before asking where we were camping locally. I told him Cobscook Bay State Park and he then waved me through.

While he was looking in the rear window I had visions that I was going to have to empty the entire truck and submit to a search. There would be nothing to find, but it sure would be a lot of work. In the end all of the fears were for nothing and so ends our first visit to Canada!



• • • 100 MILE • • •
HIKING CHALLENGE

20.25 MILES
UNDER OUR BOOTS

A total two mile hike at the two lighthouses
brings our annual total up to 20.25 miles.




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