The Bold Coast

Last October, my roommate and I decided to travel to Maine for a weekend backpacking excursion featuring a hike along the Bold Coast. The Bold Coast is a ten-mile loop hike that consists of five miles of Maine's picturesque coastline and five miles of its rugged forest. This hike provided amazing coastal views, and we also happened to catch the weather at the perfect time, with endless sunshine and a comfortable high in the low 60s.

This hike was about six hours away from Vermont, so it was a bit of a drive. We drove four hours on Friday evening and stayed over in Bangor, Maine. While in the hotel room, we read a review about the Bold Coast hike (probably something we should have done way before) and realized that since there were only five campsites available, people would camp out at the trailhead the night before in order to get a head start. This, of course, sent us into a bit of a panic, and we decided to get up early to leave the hotel by 5:30 am in hopes of getting to the trailhead before 8 am. We did get to the trail before 8 am, even though we stopped for Dunkin on the way (a necessity). At the trailhead, we saw about ten cars, a couple of which were camping vans! Once again, we started to get a bit antsy that we were too late. However, based on the trail logs, a book signed at the beginning of the trail, it seems like there was a chance we would be able to get a site! With that hope, we started on the trail.

To say this hike was beautiful is an understatement! After about a mile and a half in the woods, we broke out on the rocky coast with views of the alluring deep blue Atlantic Ocean. It was a radiant sunny day, and even if we did not get a campsite, just being out on the hike was enough at that point. The rest of the hike saw us navigating along the coast, which consisted of a lot of up the cliff, then down to the beach, then back up a cliff. It was not a very strenuous hike, but it definitely posed some challenges. At one point, we got lost and started wandering around the woods, but we were able to find our way back to the trail. We saw a few people hiking back to the parking lot after staying out Friday night, and they told us that we were the first people they had seen hiking in. This gave us more hope that there would be campsites available! 

One of the people we saw told us that campsite two would be the best option as it is high up on a rocky ledge, which provides a view of the ocean. That camp location seemed like a no-brainer, and when we discovered that no one else was up there, we triumphantly made it ours! We set up camp and then ate lunch as the day was approaching noon. Typically, on a backpacking trip, we do not spend this much time hanging out at the campsite, so we were at a bit of a loss on what to do! Luckily, I had my camera and walked around taking some photos. After taking some photos, I ended up lying in the sun on the rocks, just out of the wind. The weather was in the mid-sixties, and I was wearing black rain pants and a black puffy, so I was toasty warm just lying there. For some time, I read a book, but eventually I ended up taking a great nap, which definitely falls in the top ten naps of all time for me.

Eventually, a couple more people joined our site, but it was big enough that it did not matter. We were able to watch a great sunset, eat dinner, and then head to sleep. The next day was a cloudy, cooler day with rain projected, so we packed up camp and headed back to the parking lot via the woods path. While walking through the woods, the forest felt enchanted as if in a fairytale, we were constantly on the lookout for a moose, which we did not see … unfortunately. 

Once back at the parking lot, we found out the easternmost spot in the US was only thirty minutes away, so we obviously had to go check that out. It was very underwhelming but still cool to see. After that, we headed to Freeport, Maine, where we stayed for the night at a local campsite. On the way to Freeport, we passed many blueberry fields that were bright red from being in the fall season, which was very cool! We did some outlet shopping, most importantly at the L.L.Bean outlet, as Freeport is where that company started. We were pretty beat after that, so we got dinner and then headed to camp. 

The next day, we just headed back to Vermont. I highly recommend this hike to almost anyone. It is incredibly beautiful and an accessible hike for most skill levels. It is probably really popular in the summer, but if you don’t mind some milder temps, the fall is a great time to go!

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