2026-08-02 Naha Trip with Karen & Stacey

My daughter Karen had her longtime friend Stacey in town for about a week, and they wanted to do an overnighter "at a dock." So, I planned a trip to one of my favorite docks, at the Naha. These USFS docks are "first come, first served" so you cannot reserve them. You don't know until you get there whether there will be room to tie up at the dock.

We had a slight delay in leaving the harbor. The Army Corp of Engineers are working on replacing the floating breakwater at my harbor, Bar Harbor North. They have been working for a few weeks. They have 2 large work barges with massive cranes on them as well as a few smaller work boats of various sizes. They move the barges around as they work on different parts of the project.

The fairway out of my slip was blocked as they were just in the process of lowering a massive concrete block anchor in that area. We had to wait about 30 minutes before we were cleared to exit.

I don't know when they are scheduled to complete the project but we can see progress as sections of the new floating breakwater are set into place.

Here is a map snippet from my Garmin InReach that shows our track out and back for this trip.

The red mark down at the bottom was our starting point. The area circled in blue up at the top is the Naha area. On the way back we stopped briefly at the Guard Islands light house and that is marked with a blue star.

It's about 26 nm one way to get from my slip in Bar Harbor out to the Naha.

We got there around 11 AM and were fortunate that there were no other boats at the dock, so we got our pick of places to tie up.

Here is the obligatory shot of Faraway at her second home, the Naha USFS dock.

Once we got the boat secured, we gathered up some supplies and walked up the trail a short way to the picnic shelter to enjoy our lunch up there.

Over the years many a family picnic has been held here.

Here's a short video of the area.

After lunch I loaded up my day pack and took a hike up the trail for a few hours. I've been up this trail dozens of times over the past 4 decades, but I still enjoy walking up there and seeing whatever there is to see.

Here is the official USFS trail sign, the same trail sign that has been there since my first visit here in 1978. I'm glad that they decided to keep the original sign when they renovated the trail last summer.

Roosevelt Lagoon - it is a "lagoon" not a "lake" because fresh water flows in from the inlet but salt water flows in and out depending on the tide.

The "Bearing Tree." Apparently these are used by surveyors to accurately and permanently mark a known location.

Roosevelt Lagoon from different vantage points.

"Bear Bread," a fungus that grows on the trees in this area.

This is a small footbridge that crosses a small stream. Note the 4 big posts that are on the corners. They are there to hold it in place.

Now note how high the foot bridge is above the little stream.

Here are some shots of this same footbridge in January of the same year. It had been pushed out of position by the force of the water in the "little stream." Imagine how much rain we would have had to have to raise the level of the stream high enough to move the footbridge.

I thought this was interesting. Apparently someone long ago wrapped a cable around this tree in order to use it as an anchor point to tie off a line. As the years passed the tree grew a burl that completely encases the cable.

A few of the local residents that I met along the trail...

I'm not smart enough to know if this is a frog or a toad, but he was surely a cutie.

I don't know what this stuff is called, but it intrigued me. So wispy and light, almost like thread.

Being officially old now I have to stop for breaks along the trail, frequently. On one of my sit down breaks I noticed this little guy on my day pack.

I wonder of inch worms eat leaves?

That evening I set up my fire pit on the dock and we had a nice fire there. Karen & Stacey cooked "brats" and also of course some S'Mores.

We had a very quiet night there at the dock. In the morning we did not linger long before pulling out and heading for home.

On the way home we passed a site where an old friend of mine had built an off-grid home. He called it "Freedom Point" and he lived there with his wife for a very long time. But age catches up to all of us and he eventually sold it and moved south. Now I see it is for sale again.

Karen and Stacey wanted to see the Guard Island lighthouse up close, so on the way back we altered course a little and went out there for a closer look. This used to be a manned lighthouse. The light keeper and his family lived in a small house that was on the island. But now of course it is automated as I suspect all lighthouses are nowadays. I read a book written by a woman who lived here as a child because her father was the light keeper.

From here it is just a short run back to the harbor. This time we made it back into our slip with no delays caused by the construction project.