Backpacking along the Cutler Coast in Downeast MAINE!

This is the best anniversary ever. We have amazing views, delicious desserts, the sun is setting. For the last couple weeks we've been experiencing New England for the first time. We visited charming cities, ate delicious fall treats, conquered the highest peak in Vermont, explored the Northeast Kingdom, watched the leaves change, and hiked and road tripped through New Hampshire's White Mountains. And for the final part of our fall New England road trip we've headed to Maine where we're going to be spending the next couple weeks hiking, exploring towns, and soaking up as much of the coast as we can. We have officially made it to Maine. We have wanted to come here for so long and it feels so good to finally be here. We have a handful of adventures planned along the coast of Maine and first up we are starting in down east Maine at a place called Cutler Coast Public Reserve Land which is over 12,000 acres of land that goes along the coastline and through forests. Our goal is to backpack the coastal trail tomorrow but we're headed to the trailhead right now because one we're sleeping there tonight and two to see if there will be any campsites available tomorrow. So to camp along the Cutler Coast you have to camp in a designated campsite and there are five of them total and so to see if there are actually some available so you don't lug all your stuff out there and then you can't get one they had this log book and you can see who's out there camping right now and how long they'll be there and it looks like there's one, two, three people out there. So assuming that no one beats us on the trail in the morning we should be able to get a spot. We don't know which one we're going to be able to get at this point so it'll be a surprise but we're gonna pack up hit the hay and hit the trail early in the morning. The coastal trail that we're backpacking is 4.8 miles one way and it starts out in the forest and then will take us along the coast and we're hoping to get one of the earlier campsites along the trail that way we can set up camp and then day hike the rest of the trail with lighter packs but since we have no idea which campsites are taken and which ones are open we'll just see what happens. Gorgeous. Wow. Check that out. The coastline is just so rocky and there's all these kind of pine trees evergreen trees it just gives us such like Pacific Northwest vibes you just hear the the roaring of the waves hitting the rocks. We just did the math and it has been since March 2020 that we've been at the Atlantic Ocean so a year and a half or so wow this is going to be a gorgeous backpacking trip. Once you get to the coast on the trail it gets very up and down and very rugged but you get these views probably every 10-20 seconds it's just amazing and if you take a big breath you just get that salty ocean air it's really nice. We have now run into two groups that were backpacking last night that have left which is good because that means we know two campsites are open but one camped at the second campsite and the others camped at one of the further ones it's called like Fairy Loop or something Fairy Point I believe and they said they thought that area was the best but that means we have to hike almost to the end so I don't know we're just gonna see which ones we come across and if we really like it we'll stay and if not we'll keep going. As we finally started to reach the campsites we began to feel a little bit like Goldilocks and the Three Bears. The first campsite Black Point Cove seemed a bit too small the second campsite Long Point had amazing views and was huge but wasn't very secluded so we continued on hoping that we'd find one that was just right. We have made it to the first campsite at Fairy Head and check out these views. It is amazing so to get to this spot it's actually kind of cool so the trail at this point is just rock right along the ocean but then there's this little staircase you can take up and a little side trail to get to this spot so it's very very secluded. Yeah we've got all these nice little spots to hang out here to see out into the water so we could have a picnic here or we can go back down to the rocks and it is just very expansive so perfect for a dinner tonight and the sunrise in the morning. Yeah those those strangers didn't steer us wrong. That's right if you're out there thanks for the tip. Also another fun or gross feature depending on how you want to look at it at all the campsites along this trail is each one has a toilet. What you cannot see at this angle is that the sides is just like a a wire a see-through wire so you can see everything that's in the toilet but yeah I don't know we'll see if we use this or if we just do it the good old fashion nature way. I will say the second site's toilet had the best view of the three that we've seen. It was sitting right on top perched above the the beach down below. That'd be a perfect spot to do your business. Since we didn't hike the entire coastal trail to get to our spot for the night we're gonna go check out the rest of it. Doesn't look like there's that much more to the trail before it meets up with the inland trail and we did want to mention you can do this hike as a day hike you can go just part of the way you can go as far as we went you can do this whole loop or you can backpack it like we did but there are a lot of options so that way if you don't want to do that many miles you can still explore this area. Fun fact today is our seven-year wedding anniversary. We got married October 12 2014 10 12 14 so it's super easy to remember and we figured on this special backpacking trip we gotta bring a special meal a backpacker pantry pad thai so maybe a dehydrated pad thai but we had this on our wind river range backpacking trip for the first time and thought it was so really good and i've no joke been excited to eat this for days even when we've had non-dehydrated food i've been like really excited for the pad thai so it's gonna be good yeah we also brought some anniversary desserts we are so pumped about these we got these from a spot called wild oats in brunswick maine we went there a couple days ago to pick these up and it was the coolest place they have so many baked goods they have these pre-made like dinners you can buy you can get fresh sandwiches soups there's so many different things there and what was awesome is they have a ton of vegan gluten-free desserts which is what both of these are i i cheat a lot on that diet on camera but i am trying to be better so i'm very excited that these won't make me feel sick so first up we have a blueberry coffee cake and if you didn't know blueberry is the state fruit of maine so we thought that is perfect fitting for this little trip here our first adventure in maine and this thing looks delectable oh look at all the blueberries in there all right we'll just like try to get a piece off whoa look at that bam the flavor on this is amazing you get a lot of blueberry in there the top there's like i guess a drizzle of oh my gosh there's like a drizzle of i don't even know what you see like the the frosting on there i will say it is a little dry and i'm gonna blame it on it being a few days old but again the flavor is so good and this is a spice cake cupcake so our wedding cake was pumpkin and it was i still dream about it seven years later it was so dang good and this is the closest thing we could find this is supposed to have a lot of the same spices that pumpkin goods would have and it smells spicy and delicious how do i even eat this uh-oh i see it on your nose that is still pretty moist on the inside has such a nice spicy flavor oh oh wow that is delicious we tried so hard to keep this thing in one piece on the way out here this is the best anniversary ever we have amazing views delicious desserts the sun is setting best seven years ever we have hit the trail and we're headed back to the van as we mentioned yesterday there is an inland trail you can take and some people do this hike as a loop and take that trail on the way back but we read that it's not super scenic it's just very forested and some of the wooden boards they have laid down are all rotted so a lot of people suggested just go back the coastal way which sounds like an awesome idea anyway because then we get one last glimpse at these coastal views it's the middle of october and it seems like maine is holding on to the last threads of summer with a death grip it's like mid 70s which we hear is you know unseasonably warm for this area of the country so with that and the humidity and this rugged trail we are sweating it on the way back to the van the route we did ended up being 10 miles and it was actually our first time ever backpacking on the coast and it was so much tougher than we thought it would be we thought oh it's the coast it's flatter than mountains that should be pretty easy but nope it was very very hard but nothing beats the sound of falling asleep and waking up to the waves just crashing on all the rocks we got to hear lobster boats out at work and we hardly saw any people so it was just a very very magical experience we just made it to cottonwood camping in rv park which is where we'll be staying for the next few nights we're really low on power and we're really low on water and we really wanted a place to just hunker down and get a lot of work done over the next few days so we booked a few days here which is only 35 a night and includes power and water which we thought was a really good deal so we'll spend a few days working here and then we'll head to the national park that we've been so pumped to go to for so long acadia national park you think perfect spot is anywhere i just go anywhere oh no you're lucky you can go potty anywhere and someone else picks it up for me supposed to be nine breaths eight nine not nine catherine breaths it takes me like 50 i'm stuck