Maine Island Trail - Day 8 - June 24th

Last night I learned that just a day earlier, two paddlers (one of whom was a guide) had died in the area I was paddling in. Had I not gotten off the water earlier this week to wait out some weather, I would have been in roughly the same place as them at roughly the same time as them. Would I have been able to help them? Would I have ended up dead too? If a guide likely much more experienced than me had made a mistake that costly, just what the hell was I doing out here? I had made it this far in one piece, but now had an unpleasant reminder of just how dangerous this could be. Needless to say, I didn't sleep well.

I got up early for once, but took my time getting on the water. I would have slept in, but the next few mornings needed to be early, so I might as well get used to it. Today was going to be a much shorter day, only a bit over 15 miles by my estimation. Over the course of the trip I had adjusted my kayak's fit to make it more bearable for 8 hours on the water at a time. Rounding petit manan point was going to be interesting though, so I abandoned comfort in the name of performance. I set off and pretty quickly wished I had left it more comfortable. My feet were sore from the footpegs less than an hour in.

As I rounded the point, I became very glad I had adjusted them. The waves were breaking in seemingly random spots, with very little warning. I was able to identify some places where they were breaking consistently, but other than dodging those areas there wasn't much I could do. I pretty much sprinted around the point. Just as I was about to get out of the larger waves, one broke over my stern, scaring the crap out of me. Unfortunately, with no eyes in the back of my head, there was no warning. A quick brace kept me upright, and I cautiously continued up into the channel ahead. I didn't calm down until I was almost a mile from the point, when I stopped on a nice sand beach to make my boat comfortable again.

Other than the point, my day was pretty uneventful. I made it to my camp by 2ish, in just over 5 hours. It had turned out to be 17 miles. The early arrival left me with plenty of time to lounge around and relax in my hammock. Just what I needed before two back to back 27 mile days to finish up the trip.

171 miles down, 54 (ish) to go.