A Winter’s Snowshoe around Sears Island

 

Sears Island is a priceless piece of Maine's natural and cultural heritage. Standing at the head of beautiful Penobscot Bay, it has provided sustenance and recreation to its area citizens for

thousands of years. In addition, it offers stunning land and seascapes and provides critical habitat for numerous plant and animal species – both land and marine.   Text and picture above from www.friendsofsearsisland.com. 

From downtown Searsport continue traveling north on Rt 1 approximately 2 miles turning right onto Sears Island Rd. At the end of Sears Island Rd you cross the causeway and there's parking available on the side of the road. There's a barricade so that vehicles can't go onto the island.  There is a map of the Island with trails marked on it on the barricade. After you walk through the barricade if you walk maybe a hundred yards you'll see the staircase down to the beach on the left hand side. Down the stairs you turn right on the beach and go a couple of hundred yards where the Homestead trail starts.

 

The first two shots are taken from the trail as we started out. You can see the wind had taken most of the snow from upper branches and only coats one side of the trees.

Jay always goes faster than me because he doesn't stop as often to gawk. There is a shot of me at the field just before the old farmstead foundation, and then one as I go towards the foundation.

The beautiful old maple is in the backyard of where the old farm and barn stood, it probably shaded people and animals once upon a time.

The sign shots are at the top of the 2/3 mile trail. From this point you can turn left and follow the service road to the loop trail and the blue trail but the snow was picking up and so we looped down the trail back to the beach. We were out a little over an hour.

Sears Island is a great place to snowshoe in the winter.  Pictures and text by McCormack Economy.  For more information about Sears Island visit www.friendsofsearsisland.com.