4 Bikes, 3 Ferries, 2 Countries, 1 Lobster Boat to the Rescue
“How old are your children?”
“14 and 15.”
“Okay, they’ll be fine. We don’t allow little ones at the cliff edge sites. Are you light sleepers?”
“Not particularly, why do you ask?”
“Some folks find they’re kept awake at night by the whales.”
This is how my phone conversation with a very kind woman at Hole in the Wall Campground on Grand Manan began. The idea of lying awake in our tents perched on a cliff listening to whales sounded magical. We could sleep another time. I booked two nights on the cliff, part of our eight-day bikepacking adventure. A few days later I called the Grand Manan tourism office to ask a few questions and talked at length with a friendly many named Greg. He convinced me to change our reservation to three nights. If I were to change anything about this trip it would be to extend our stay on our cliff edge site indefinitely. On the day we had to leave, I’m afraid we did not look like a happily traveling family. In fact, the scene probably looked a bit like a hostage situation. I was openly sobbing as I boarded the ferry. Tears were streaming down past my sunglasses and I wasn’t bothering to wipe them away. I didn’t want to leave Grand Manan.
Day One: Our adventure began on a bright, sunny morning in late August at Cobscook Bay State Park in Dennysville, Maine. We woke early and started packing from inside our tents. Soon our bikes were loaded, our gear checked and rechecked, and we set off on a route towards Calais, Saint Stephen, and ultimately Saint Andrews. The East Coast Greenway led us on lightly traveled roads and through the Moosehorn National Wildlife Refuge as we made our way to Canada. Shortly after Saint Stephen – where we stopped at the Pita Pit, a great find! – we picked up the Saint Andrews trail, an abandoned railroad bed. But first we had to find it.
I had mapped out our route months earlier and we all carried written instructions with us. After traveling on Greenlaw Road for a few miles, our maps indicated to Turn Left onto Saint Andrews trail. However, there was nothing but dense woods on both sides of the road. We all got off our bikes and began to look around. It took a few minutes, but our younger son found a subtle opening obscured by tree branches. He parted the branches and revealed a narrow path. It led us deep into the woods, past tranquil lakes and marshes, into the lovely town of Saint Andrews. We rolled into our campsite at the end of a long day and found that it was next to a path that took us straight to the Red Herring restaurant. Delicious!
Day Two: We pedalled extra slowly on side streets through Saint Andrews, past beautiful homes and under the arch of the elegant and sprawling Algonquin Resort. Eventually we had to turn onto a main road which was (thankfully!) quiet on a Sunday. Later we were treated to several delightfully wide, freshly-paved roads, and an off-road path, the New Brunswick trail, on our way to the ferry in Blacks Harbor. It was a ninety-minute ride across the Bay of Fundy to Grand Manan.
When Swallowtail Lighthouse came into view, the boat turned towards the port and a quintessential working waterfront community was unveiled. We walked our bikes off the ferry and rode up a steep hill to the Hole in the Wall Campground. When we arrived at our home for the next three nights we were awestruck. It was indeed perched on the edge of the cliff and it was more beautiful than we had imagined. That evening, as the nearly-full moon rose up out of the ocean, we sat by the fire on the edge of the cliff and enjoyed a new dessert my husband and sons had just invented: a toasted mega marshmallow sandwiched between two Chips Ahoy cookies – patent pending.
Day Three: I woke just before dawn to the sound of whales coming up for air, found a seat on a chair-shaped rock on the cliff and watched the sun rise up from the ocean. Later my husband joined me on a slightly less-comfortable rock chair and we ate our breakfast – oatmeal eaten in the packets – and watched the first ferry of the day carve a path towards the mainland. We repeated this routine for the next two days.
Full of oatmeal and with snacks for the road, we set out to cycle the entire length of the island, 21-miles to Southwest Head, which we were told boasted beautiful cliffs. Our sons were a bit dubious about needing to see more cliffs. “Mom, look down – that’s a cliff. We can just stay here.” But they were overruled and as it turned out, they were glad we made the effort. We biked through town and all the way to the far less inhabited western side of the island. When the road ended, we left our bikes and began hiking along the Hay Point trail, which winds through a beautiful field that stretches out to the edge of the land and then drops. These 350-foot cliffs are amazing on their own, but as if part of a fairytale, a family of whales seemed to enjoy putting on a show in the cove below. It was incredible.
On our way back to the campsite that evening we dined on the deck at Post Office Pizza.
Day Four: After our blissful morning routine, we hiked along the Cliff trail to the namesake of the campground, the Hole in the Wall – an interesting rock formation that is exactly as it sounds – and then headed into town for lunch at the Odd Rainbow. From there we biked to Ingalls Head and boarded the ferry for a short ride over to White Head Island. We had three hours to explore before the last ferry left, which was plenty of time to ride down all the paved roads on this tiny island, home to about 160 people. The last road we went down turned to dirt and we followed it to a spectacular pebble beach which we had all to ourselves. We spent the rest of our time lying on the warm pebbles and skipping rocks into the crystal clear water.
Day Five: Tears clouded my view of the sunrise from my rock chair. I felt so fortunate that we had found this place. Something about it made me feel that I’d come home.
It took the entire ferry ride, but I regained my composure after being forced to leave and soon we were rolling down quiet roads towards L’etete, where we boarded another ferry to Deer Island. We followed the road along the water to the western tip of the island to arrive at our campsite – a private, wooded spot that opened up to the beach. After three mornings of tranquil sunrises on Grand Manan, we enjoyed a colorful sunset followed by a mesmerizing cloud lightning show and wild wind after dark.
Day Six: Before I began planning this trip I had been warned that the ferry between Deer Island and Campobello Island was unreliable. Days before our trip I learned it was not running at all. So, I hatched a plan. I contacted a local whale watch tour company and asked if they would be willing to pick us up on Deer Island, take us for a tour, and drop us off on Campobello Island. They said yes. Brilliant! It was the perfect plan, and that’s what we thought as we sat on the fishing wharf next to our fully-loaded bikes waiting for our ride. Two hours later, we learned that no one was coming. The boat had broken down.
All was quiet on the wharf as our situation started to sink in. We were faced with retracing our steps, taking the ferry to L’etete, and pedaling 90 hilly miles on the mainland to Lubec and across the bridge to our campsite on Campobello. As we were coming to terms with this reality, a man with a pickup truck pulled into the wharf. He had just returned from vacation and had stopped in to check the oil in his boat and make sure it was ready to go the next day. “Hop in,” he said. We were overwhelmed with relief. As we piled our bikes and bags into his lobster boat his wife and granddaughter joined us and we all took a ride together. It was a sweet ride across the bay.
On Campobello Island we took a less-traveled path to our campground (a paved road that turned into dirt, that turned into a trail, that turned into a stream bed). After pushing our bikes through the deep interior of the island, we found our campsite, facing the beach. In the distance, Grand Manan stood on the horizon. I felt grateful that it was still within sight. That evening we walked up the hill to the Herring Cove Country Club, splurged on a delicious meal and toasted to the kind and generous fisherman who saved our day.
Days Seven and Eight: We spent the next two days exploring Campobello Island, the Roosevelt cottage, and the surrounding carriage trails in the Roosevelt Campobello International Park. On our last day, I took one more long look at the profile of Grand Manan and blinked back tears as I turned my back to the ocean and headed west towards Lubec.
Nuts and Bolts:
Day 1: Cobscook Bay State Park to Saint Andrews. 53 miles.
Day 2: Saint Andrews to Blacks Harbor – ferry to Grand Manan. 40 miles
Day 3: Explore Grand Manan – Southwest Head. 42 miles
Day 4: Explore Grand Manan – ferry to White Head Island. 25 miles
Day 5: Grand Manan to Deer Island – ferry to Blacks Harbor, bike to L’etete, ferry to Deer Island. 42 miles
Day 6: Deer Island to Campobello Island. 12 miles
Day 7: Explore Campobello Island – FDR cottage and carriage trails. 10 miles
Day 8: Campobello Island to Lubec to Cobscook Bay State Park. 23 miles
sarah hunter 