The Land of Chocolate (Day 11: Machias to Calais-St. Stephen)

Posted by Jeff, 6/28/15

Miles: 52

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The morning was cool

So, with jackets on, we rode into Machias for breakfast. The DEST converges with Main St., so there is easy access to the tiny downtown.

For a town of just over 2,000, Machias has both a University of Maine campus and a place in American Revolution history. Machias Bay is the site of the first naval battle of the American Revolution.

Which reminds me of another interesting bit of naval trivia: the Civil War technically ended in the Bering Strait, about 150 years to the week of this writing (late June 1865). Read about it here.

Back to the present

Machias is the sensible place to stock up on supplies and food before continuing north to the apex of the East Coast Greenway. We ate breakfast at the charmingly-titled Bluebird Ranch Family Restaurant. The writing on the wall here says: order something with wild blueberries, because you are in the mecca of wild blueberries. We stocked up at a Subway (for lunch) and a nearby gas station and were on our way. It was still sinking in that we'd be in Canada before dark, if all went well.

It was 30 miles to Ayers Junction, as the DEST turned north through East Machias and its sedate neighborhoods. The scenery along the trail was much like Day 10 (in fact, some of those DEST photos in the Day 10 post were actually Day 11 -- big scandal, I know). The log shelter with snowshoes and a guestbook seemed to be archetypal Maine, and the wooden interpretive sign near Edmunds, with the DEST's history, was a nice touch, too.

All went well for the 30 miles. By midday we were at Ayers Junction, having gone 85 miles on the welcoming DEST! We ate our lunch at the trailhead.

The route from here is simple: northwest on Ayers Junction Rd., north on Charlotte Rd. through the Moosehorn National Wildlife Refuge, and north again on Baring (not Bering) St. into Calais, the triumphant endpoint for ECG travelers.

Round Lake

Charlotte Rd.

* * *

Calais

If you look at an online map of Calais, and then zoom out, you might come to two geographical conclusions. First, it doesn't look that far north after all. Maine's inland territory, capped by the vast Aroostook County, extends about 150 miles north. But, second, it is striking how far east it is. Not too far southeast, Quoddy Head State Park arguably marks the easternmost land in the United States. (Now, the most fastidious among us would maintain that, technically, it is an uninhabited island at the western end of the Aleutian chain, which is across the international date line). Near Quoddy Head SP is Lubec, the easternmost incorporated place in the U.S. Calais is the easternmost incorporated place with a population over 2,500.

So Calais sees the sunrise first. But to me it's a bigger deal that it is one of the bookends of the East Coast Greenway. Extremities have a deserved place in American lore. Prudhoe Bay, Key West, Mount McKinley, Death Valley: these places stick out (some quite literally) in dreams of traveling through our vast continent. They are natural destinations, the geographical symbol of achievement.

That said, we didn't get the impression that Calais was assertively marketing its status. The City's website does mention it on the sparse Waterfront Walkway page, but this is something that should be prominently displayed on its home page. The visitor information center didn't have ECG rack cards, so I gave them a bunch from my stash.) If I were mayor, I'd be all over that.

When we got to Calais, it was mid-afternoon. But we needed to go one step further, for chocolate beckoned us from across the border, across the St. Croix River. We eagerly got in line at the Main St. crossing. Except, there was no line, since we were on bikes.

* * *

Crossing into St. Stephen

It took a couple of minutes to explain our trip at customs. It's probably not every day that they encounter a teacher from California and an urban planner from North Carolina riding their bikes from Boston. But everything was finished in about 10 minutes and we proceeded to walk our bikes across the border right into downtown St. Stephen and the province of New Brunswick. The Land of Chocolate was under our feet!

After snapping this photo, the first thing we did was go get ice cream.

From there, it was only a few more blocks of leisurely riding to check in at the Blair House Bed & Breakfast. The Blair House ended up being a really nice place to stay. David Whittingham, the host, was about as accommodating as can be. The room was comfortable, the breakfast was fulfilling, and David even let us take over the back porch when it came time to disassemble our bikes for boxing and shipping (which ended up being a mini-adventure in and of itself).

We ate dinner at the Bistro on the Boulevard. It was the only restaurant we could find in downtown St. Stephen that seemed to have a variety of non-fried, healthy menu options -- plus a good beer menu. Not that we were being picky on this trip, as the previously-described fish 'n' chips, lobster rolls, giant breakfasts, and, above all, ice cream can attest to. But since we would spend our next few days not burning over 1,000 calories, and actually consuming hundreds of calories of chocolate, a lighter dinner menu seemed like a good change of pace.

Unfortunately, the Bistro ended up closing down soon after we left. We did our best to keep it in business.