the eric update - day 362: O Canada!

we couldn't thing of a better way to celebrate canada day than to actually visit our friends to the north! so we went on an adventure to campobello island in new brunswick which is just a bridge away from lubec, maine which is a relatively short drive from our homebase of machias.

depending on your perspective, the day we chose to drive to campobello island it was either fortunately or unfortunately cloaked in fog. we like fog so it was fun to see all the ships on the coastline, barely visible in the low hanging clowds.

having taken a picture of odin at the west quoddy head lighthouse - the eastern most point in the united states - we thought it was only appropriate to give him an opportunity to see the east quoddy head lighthouse, which is the most "pictured" lighthouse in new brunswick!

campbello, island is situated on the southern end of the bay of fundy which is renowned for how quickly the tide can change.

certainly, the signs near the lighthouse make it apparent that you might not want to get stranded near the shore! it's astonishing to thing about how much water it takes to raise the water level 5 feet every hour! you can only reach the lighthouse at low tide, otherwise the little spit of land that you have to cross is covered in water.

after arriving we talked with the people who were milling around watching the tide "come in" and they thought we had "maybe an hour" before the rising tide made it impossible to get back to the mainland.

they were wrong.

so, we decided slip and slide down crossing and take a picture of the east quoddy head lighthouse. it took maybe a 10 minutes to climb down the stairs, navigate the seaweed laden rocks, cross the swath of bare seashore and run up the opposing set of stairs to reach the lighthouse. we thought we had plenty of time before the tide cut off our access to the mainland, but we soon found that we had only a few minutes left before we would have been stranded due the rapidly rising tide!

not more than a half an hour after we arrive the rapidly disappearing crossing is, indeed, rapidly disappearing!

the brave family that's standing near the water is waiting to watch the tide completely cover the rocks before scrambling of the slippery seaweed covered boulders.

it doesn't take long. maybe a few minutes. and since the water is rising at a rate of 5 feet an hour it will soon completely submerge the entire area.

once a staple of fisherman throughout the down east region, salt fish is now almost impossible to find - in fact in don't think you can get in anywhere in maine.

but i finally tracked some down at the family fisheries on campobello, island! it's simply dried fish cured in salt brine that i guess is sort of like fish jerky. some might claim that you can't find it anywhere because it's nasty and somethign that only old fisherman can appreciate. but not me! i love the stuff.

in addition to finding a rare favorite food, i also enjoyed the best ( and cheapest ) plate of fried clams that i've had in my entire life in the humble family fisheries restaurant. if you're in the area you owe it to yourself to stop on by and some great seafood.