Perry Creek Mooring
Perry Creek offers those into the "Sail and Hike" type of exploration great views and a wonderful
opportunity to explore the far reaches of Vinalhaven. MYC maintains a mooring there for members.
The mooring is very close to N44 06.871, W068 52.082, or just below the first "r"
in "Perry Ck" in chart at the bottom of this page.
Perry Creek
by Ben Ellison
It was an ironic surprise to find a beautiful hand painted trail map affixed to a tree (1) right above a stony shore that's just right for hauling out a dinghy and hiking Vinalhaven's lovely Perry Creek Conservation Area (PCCA). You see I'd gone to quite a bit of trouble to arrive at that spot with a trail map already in hand.
Anchor-and-hike aficionados like me learn to be preparedsince trail information is often in a distant parking lot. In this case I knew that maps are available in the PCCA parking lots (P), and at the VLT office in Carver's Harbor at the other end of Vinalhaven (in Skoog Park, just west of the ferry terminal, 863-2543). VLT doesn't have a web site, and, come to think of it, no land trust in Maine makes its trail maps conveniently downloadable.
The truth is that all the trusts seem at least somewhat hesitant about promoting their public preserves. The worry is that too much information too freely available will attract too many people, that an overused preserve is no longer preserved. Well, friends, another obvious factor in this formula is how we users use these special places. The VLT's main guidelines for the PCCA are pretty typical but worth repeating: stay on the trails, no fires or night time use, carry out whatever you bring in, and, above all, leave everything the way you found it. It's simple really, but hopefully good visitor practices will eventually encourage the trusts to be more optimistic in their long views.
In the meantime, I'm happy to report that the hordes have not yet found Perry Creek. On a fine August day we met only one other party while hiking the three mile southern loopwhich includes wonderful open vistas from Fox Rocks (2), plus access to more vistas in the town's separate Middle Mountain Park (3). Note that inner Perry Creek has less water than this particular chart shows, but it is a nice dinghy trip on the right tide.
Note too that this is a good general area to combine anchor-and-hike with dock-and-dine; there's a small public landing just west of the ferry dock in North Haven (4), not to mention the Casino (207-867-4696) and J.O. Brown's (207-867-4621), and all are just a few steps from either Coopers Landing café (207-867-2060) or the Coal Wharf (dinners only, often booked solid, but good; 207-867-4739). Finally, thanks to VLT, there are a couple of more hikable preserves along the north shore of Vinalhavenone at Polly Cove, and one in Seal Bay, south of Burnt Island.
This Gunkholing with Gizmo column originally appeared in issue 89 of Maine Boat, Homes & Harbors (www.maineboats.com) and is reprinted with permission of the author. Ben Ellison also writes for Sail and Power & Motoryacht magazines, and edits the marine electronics blog www.panbo.com. E-mail Ben (bene@benetech.net) about little known Maine restaurants, parks, and the like that he can visit aboard the M/V Gizmo.
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