Gregg and I are back from our expedition. We successfully visited
the northernmost point in Maine at Estcourt, the Maine - New
Brunswick - Québec tri-point, and the easternmost point in Maine
(and
in the US). We did not attempt the Isles of Shoals points because we
did not have time or adequate information about the ferry service,
particularly whether our dogs could accompany us. Here is a brief
description of the points we visited. Much more, including photos,
will be posted soon.

Maine - New Brunswick - Québec tripoint: This outing made us feel
like real men. We traveled 18 miles over dirt tracks in a 4 wheel
drive pickup truck, chased a rather large bear and many deer off the
road, saw a golden eagle, used our chainsaw to cut away a tree that
had fallen across the road, bushwhacked a kilometer through rough
terrain while carrying a canoe (ultimately abandoned), and finally
made a class B skinny-dip visit - my first naked tri-point and now
I'm hooked!

Northernmost point in Maine - I should preface this by stating my
arbitrary and capricious rule that cardinal points are determined by
the furthest extent of land, not water. We stood on the northermost
point of land and took pictures of the various weird boundary
situations in Estcourt. This is an interesting place. The
international boundary runs along the east side of a road. The road
itself is in Canada but the houses are in the US. The north end of
the road curves east and ends up in the US, resulting in two houses
straddling the boundary. A thin line is painted diagonally across
the road depicting the boundary as it runs between two obelisk
monuments. The neighborhood at the end of the road consists of about
eight houses, 3 of which are in Canada, 3 in the US, and the two
straddlers. One of the houses in the US also has a store where they
sell all kinds of US cigarettes and liquor (to their highly taxed
Canadian neighbors I bet!).

Easternmost point in Maine - You can drive to within 200 meters of
this point. There is a parking lot for the Quoddy Head lighthouse.
There is a chain link fence around the perimeter of the lighthouse
yard, but this was easily circumvented for a good class B visit to an
outcrop of rock maybe 20 meters beyond the fence. Several hundred
meters offshore is Sail Rock, which is an imposing set of basalt
columns. It looks like it is dry even at high tide, so this might be
the true eastermost point in the US but I'm satisfied with the
outcrop. We considered using our canoe to check out Sail Rock but
there was no safe and nearby place to put in. The waters were calm
but evidently quite cold. Dense fog was forming just above the
surface even though the air temperature was probably in the 60's
farenheit.

More later and photos on the Corner Corner as soon as they are
available.

BJB