Acadia’s Last Outpost
On an early August morning, I waited in downtown Stonington for the mailboat to Isle au Haut with an 85L hiking bag and a cooler full of beer. A remote island miles out to sea, Isle an Haut has a longstanding reputation as a quiet summer retreat for New England’s wealthy families. Though that’s just one part of Isle au Haut’s story; I was here for a very different reason. At the southern tip of the island—far beyond where electricity and running water end—is a small outpost of Acadia with one of the Park Service’s most diminutive campgrounds: Duck Harbor. Gifted to the Park Service in the 1940s by one of Isle au Haut’s most successful lobstering families, nearly half the island is protected, managed land for hiking and exploring. Duck Harbor has five lean-tos, a few outhouses, a wood shed, a ranger station four miles away by foot, and a stately wharf for the mailboat to drop off day hikers and campers alike. I made my way through a densely packed field of raspberries, ferns, and the last whisper of burnt out sweet peas past their prime to my lean-to, nestled into a low hill surrounded by conifers and salty wind. I set up camp and hit the trails: off to explore and capture Acadia’s most far-flung outpost.
