New England Deep Cuts: Vinalhaven
Enter the island home of Maine's lobstering fleet
Is anyone else slightly exhausted by the way coastal Maine has turned into this aspirational totem for so many New Englanders? Don’t get me wrong. Sometimes there’s nothing sweeter than pushing a lobster roll into your face as the briny sea breeze caresses your nostrils and the old salt at the nearest picnic table adjusts his suspenders, brooding against a violet dusk. But when people confuse this for Maine living, that’s when the Maine Coast starts losing its luster. Route 1, Maine’s seaside roadway, is a seemingly endless parade of crustacean joints and hotels that are just upscale enough to make you feel like a Bush heir summering at the Kennebunkport compound. Spend enough time along this strip with the sunburnt crowds and you’ll eventually become numb to Maine’s timeless pleasures. You’ll need a system reset.
So this week, we’re going to visit a lesser known realm of Midcoast Maine that offers a fuller, hairier, and more real portrait of “Maine living”—a place so removed from the coastal tourism circuit that all those balsam firs and lobster buoys will feel as new as they did the first time you entered Maine. We’re traveling to the island of Vinalhaven.
Located in Penobscot Bay, Vinalhaven is 168 square miles of mossy forests, barnacle-encrusted rocks, sleepy ponds, and cottages that have seen decades of typhoons and sunsets. Oh, and it’s also the home base for one of Maine’s largest lobstering fleets! Since the end of the granite quarrying era, lobster has been the lifeblood of Vinalhaven’s economy and when you approach the island village of Carver’s Harbor on the ferry from Rockland, the first thing you’ll notice is the sheer number of lobster boats moored in the harbor. The second thing you’ll see as the ferry gets closer is the dock of the island fishery, where lobsterfolk are schlepping hefty traps, after coming in from a long morning on the water. My dad was so captivated by the lobstering that he’s spent these last few years visiting the island regularly and profiling the lobster men and women of Vinalhaven with portrait photographs and interviews. The scale of it all is really breathtaking.
While summer tourism has become more of an economic pillar in recent years, this island community is still a lobstering town. Don’t come here expecting anybody to roll out the red carpet for you (don’t go anywhere expecting that) but do arrive ready to chat with the person ringing up your bag of gummy frogs or scanning your ferry tickets, and you’ll find that Vinalhaven has a generous salt-of-the-earth deposit. Traveling here is an act of cohabiting with the island’s year round residents—eating where they eat on a Friday night, swimming where they swim on a broiling afternoon, etc. My family has been visiting Vinalhaven for over 20 years, and what’s remarkable about the place is how quickly you start to feel less like a consumptive tourist and more like a curious house guest, snooping around the island. When you eventually do indulge with a classic Maine treat like a lobster roll, it somehow tastes much better.
GETTING TO VINALHAVEN
Since Vinalhaven is an island, getting there can be a little more complicated than just jumping into your car and heading for I-95. Several ferries for the island depart from the Rockland terminal each day (here’s the 2022 schedule) and this is where you’ll have to make a crucial decision—take your car to the island, bring a bike, or get by on foot. Leaving your car in the overnight lot at the terminal ($12 per day) could save you money and this way, you can walk right onto the ferry. But the whole question really depends on how long you’re planning to stay on Vinalhaven and how much of the island landscape you plan to explore while you’re there. (We’ll get to that in a sec.)
For a day trip or a short overnight trip of 1-3 nights, you can get by just fine with walking and/or biking. There’s a grocery store in Carver’s Harbor, choice restaurants, and many of the lodging options are within a mile of town. But if you’re planning on embedding in the island for a week or more, you’ll want a car for the ease of getting around and the option of bringing your own food (the local grocery store prices can be a little steep, which is pretty common for island towns.) Should you choose to drive, you can book ferry reservations for a premium, or you can try your luck with standby slots. To boost your standby odds, get to Rockland by 9am, enter the car queue, and plan to wait at least a few hours. The return journey to the mainland will also involve lining up your car with others if you don’t make a reservation beforehand.
HIKE HERE
Any island powered by an extractive industry risks becoming scenically corroded, and the Vinalhaven Land Trust has done heroic work ensuring that great swaths of “VH” remain rugged and wild. The island features more than 20 hiking preserves that can be pre-emptively explored with the Land Trust’s own Vinalhaven trails app (and the colorful, detailed maps available here at the Land Trust website.) A few of the trails are within a mile of Carver’s Harbor, while others require a lengthier journey to the island’s northern reaches. Here are a couple that really knocked my wool socks off:
Lane’s Island Preserve: Grab scones from Good Things Coffee House and walk from the village down Water Street and Atlantic Avenue over a seaweed festooned bridge to reach Lane’s Island (a literal island on the south edge of Vinalhaven). You’ll arrive at this wildflowery meadow overlooking a secluded cove and from here, a series of trails dart in and out of coastal scrub and rosa rugosa, a vividly pink rose native to East Asia. Eventually, you’ll find yourself atop a rocky overlook with killer views of the harbor and the mainland. Near the meadow, there’s also a stone obelisk that serves as a memorial marker for Captain Lane, the sea captain for whom the island was named. His little family cemetery is nestled amid the coastal greenery here.
The Basin Preserve: About 2 miles from town, The Basin is a tidal embayment that’s perfect for kayaking, and it’s surrounded by some of the mossiest woods I’ve found outside of Middle Earth. The Basin Preserve offers several trails that depart from four different trail heads and range from half a mile to 2-3 miles round trip. My personal favorite is The Basin Trail, which ascends through corridors of moss to a viewing platform with a panoramic overlook of The Basin, before descending to the water’s edge and crossing several wooden footbridges. There’s also a side path to this weird old pond where somebody installed a diving board many moons ago. It’s not really a sanctioned swimming hole, so wade into the water here at your own risk.
Tip Toe Mountain: This one requires going the distance, on your bike or in your car, but it’s worth it. A stony trilogy of “mountains” at the north end of the island, the Tip Toes (little, medium, big) involve scrambling up rocks and skirting clifftop ledges as you enjoy views of the seascape and the nearby islands to the north of Vinalhaven. The closest neighbor is North Haven, a smaller, tonier island where rich people and the occasional celebrity can be observed in summer. I once saw Oliver Platt there at Calderwood Hall—a scrumptious pizza joint that will pick you up by boat from a dock at the north end of Vinalhaven for a fee (you have to call them ahead to set this up.)
EAT HERE
Vinalhaven’s small but savory restaurant circuit seems to ebb and flow like the tides themselves. There are stalwart favorites like Greet’s Eats, a food truck parked beside the fishery that serves heaping Downeast Magazine-awarded lobster rolls and salads to lines of ravenous patrons. The Surfside, also located near the fishery, is where the lobster crews head each morning to fuel up with coffee, pancakes, and eggs before beginning their grueling day of hauling traps. And the most bounteous penny candy counter in Maine might just be tucked away in Go Fish, an irresistible toy store in the center of town. Some of the gummy goods here are priced as low as 1 penny each, and if you ask for 17 sour watermelons, they will literally count out 17 sour melons and add them to your paper bag. For dinner, make a reservation at Dot and Millie’s and tuck into elevated comfort food like wild mushroom ravioli and short rib with sofrito. Or just pick up a saucy pie from the Pizza Pitt (yes, that’s the correct spelling) rip it to shreds on the rocks near the ferry terminal, offer a nub of crust to the gulls, and savor the sunset before heading over to Vinalhaven Candy Co. for big-ass ice cream cones.
SWIM HERE
I mentioned swimming earlier and no, I’m not just talking about the frigid waters of the North Atlantic. Vinalhaven’s quarrying era saw scoopfuls of stone culled from the island, and two of those old quarries have since been reinvented as swimming holes. Both are located within two miles of Carver’s Harbor. Lawson’s Quarry has spacious ledges for sunbathing and easy access to the deep quarry waters via stone steps with railings. But Booth’s Quarry escalates the offerings with a 15 foot ledge from which you can plunge into the depths before scrambling back up the cliffside and doing it again. There used to be a third quarry swimming hole near Lawson’s that was the island’s unofficial nude beach. Alas, a change in ownership ended the party during the last decade. That’s the beauty and the curse of Maine, where more than 90% of the woods are privately owned. The current owner of the former nudist quarry might be a joyless curmudgeon, and the next owner could be a hedonist with an egalitarian spirit.
SLEEP HERE
There are basically two options for overnight lodging on Vinalhaven: The Tidewater (a harborside inn long-run by the Crossman family) and rental cottages throughout the island. HomeAway used to be the most fruitful platform for booking rentals but it’s since been subsumed by VRBO. Airbnb has some listings too, and a couple of rental groups such as Vinalhaven Island Rentals and Vinalhaven Vacation Rentals are worth a gander too. But you could also make Vinalhaven a day trip, especially if you jump on the first morning ferry leaving Rockland. (If you do this, it probably makes the most sense to leave your car on the mainland.) You’ll be able to roam the island from mid-morning to late afternoon, and odds are you will have picked up enough scents and sounds to necessitate a return journey to VH as fast as the winds will propel you.
oh man, really penny candy, that might solve all my problems!