YOUR WEEKLY POSTCARD FROM WASHINGTON COUNTY, MAINE

Though most of our leaves are still green, some impudent maples have already begun to turn, perhaps in response to early cold temperatures, like the kind causing mist to be seen above the Machias River in Centerville. Photo by Michael Hoyt

MIGRATIONS| August 26, 2023

Yesterday was a day of migration as parents crisscrossed the state in cars stuffed with pillows, coffee makers, box fans, and notebooks. I participated in the annual event, following my son and one of his best friends to Orono, where they will soon begin their junior years at the University of Maine. Driving in the opposite direction, parents made the same trek to Machias, where incoming students also begin classes at the University of Maine at Machias on Monday. 

We all unpacked our cars on a rainy day when the high temperature barely cleared 60 degrees. 

Are we in for an early autumn?  

To send their summer off in style, last week, my son and a friend adventured to the Great Heath, a Washington County natural phenomenon I confess I had not heard of before Griffin told me their plans.

A moose stands in the Downeast region’s largest peatland, the Great Heath, an area of more than 7,000 acres located in Washington County. Photo courtesy Maine DACF

If the Great Heath is news to you, too, here’s what I’ve learned. The Great Heath eco-reserve is the largest peatland in Maine’s Downeast region and one of the largest in Maine, covering more than 7,000 acres stretching across Township 18. It extends outward along both sides of the Pleasant River, one of the last remaining U.S. rivers inhabited by the endangered Atlantic salmon.

The river is especially well-suited to canoeing.

The Great Heath is home to several rare plant species — bog bedstraw, Canada Mountain ricegrass, and Jacob’s Ladder —  as well as several unique natural communities, like a maritime huckleberry bog, a bluejoint meadow, and a domed bog ecosystem.

According to Maine’s Department of Agriculture, Conservation, & Forestry, the geologic features surrounding the Great Heath’s peatland complex are outstanding, and, for me, offer many opportunities to consult a dictionary. The west side of the peatland is bordered by an esker or a long, narrow ridge of gravel or boulders deposited by a stagnant glacier. “The Pineo Ridge, a terminal moraine of a late-glacial origin, borders the south side of the peatland and grades into a glaciomarine delta. These glacial features likely played a role in the peatland's formation,” reads the DACF’s Great Heath page. Map and vocabulary lesson courtesy DACF

If you’d like to start smaller than the Great Heath, Washington County offers other opportunities to enjoy peat bogs. I once had the good fortune to walk Lubec’s Quoddy Head Bog Trail with someone knowledgeable in bog flora and came away steeped in wonder. If you’d like to see it, the bog trail is a short 1-mile loop near the lighthouse, leading you across raised boardwalks, which make it easy to spot the carnivorous northern pitcher plant, among other peaty marvels.

With its cooler days and reduced bug populations, autumn makes a wonderful season for hiking Way Downeast, especially before deer hunting season begins in earnest in late October. However, remember that bear hunting season begins this week, and other hunting season dates vary.

If the weekend’s rain keeps you inside, too, now is a beautiful time to plan those hikes or read up on our flora (Yes, it says Acadia National Park, but it applies beautifully to Washington County, too). I’m also learning from the outdoors expertise of a local Instagram page called Downeast Nature, based in Addison.

You can follow their posts here. Click on each photo to read its informative caption.

Last week, the author shared a photo of a Canada warbler and news that the fall migration is underway, bringing flocks of songbirds to our thickets and mudflats to fatten up before setting out for points (further) south.

Autumn is a season for moving.

Plan to enjoy it.

After returning from the Great Heath, Griffin mowed this (gorgeous) front lawn to earn some more money before returning to college at UMaine, in Orono. Young people who summer or live in Washington County are privileged to work and play next to — and in — astonishing natural beauty. Photo by Sarah Craighead Dedmon

The second full episode of The Way Downeast Podcast will drop this week, and you’ll be able to hear it on our website or in popular podcast apps like Spotify, Amazon Music, Podchaser, Pocket Casts, and soon, Apple. If you haven’t heard it yet, listen to this two-minute trailer to learn what it’s all about! You can also stay in touch with the podcast through Facebook here. We have lots of exciting guests lined up to speak with us, and I can’t wait for you to meet them.