1. Bold Coast Charter Company
City: Cutler, ME
Category: Parks & Recreation
Telephone: (207) 259-4484
Address: P.O. Box 364
Description: The hamlet of Cutler is one of the finest Maine communities you’re ever going to find, a few houses and some fishing boats sitting on the Little River way Down East. One of these boats belongs to Captain Andrew Patterson, who offers cruises out to see the puffins of Machias Seal Island, the largest colony of the cute bird on the coast of Maine. Patterson makes the trip to the island on the Barbara Frost, a lobster boat, on a daily basis from May through August. He shoves off at 7 or 8 a.m. for the five-hour round-trip, and reservations are recommended. (Call the night before to find out what time the trip will commence.) The cost is $80 per person.
2. Cutler Coast Public Reserved Land
City: Cutler, ME
Category: Parks & Recreation
Telephone: (207) 827-1818
Address: Route 191
Description: Though it’s a much quieter place than the rest of Maine, the Bold Coast of Washington County is still fairly well settled along the shore. Large tracts of undeveloped land are increasingly rare. But there is one stretch of wild woods that traces cliffs for close to 5 miles that was preserved by the state and turned into a public land. The parcel is one of the largest undeveloped expanses remaining on the East Coast. You’ll find it hard to believe that the Cutler Coast Unit isn’t crawling with people when you stand atop one of its high cliffs overlooking Grand Manan Channel with the picture-perfect isles of the Canadian Maritimes floating offshore. A loop trail cuts across the roughly rectangular, 12,000-acre parcel and then follows the shore for more than 4 miles, hugging the cliffs, climbing through forests of spruce and fir, meandering through meadows, and passing all sorts of secret pocket beaches that you’ll vow to return to. At the far end of the unit are three primitive campsites on headlands overlooking the sea. The views are truly spectacular.