The Places Between 11
Old Ferry Lane, Kittery
Next to state lines and between rolling hills sits a small mudflat revealed at low tide. Its neighbors are charming houses with high property taxes and a river that flows with the sea. I parked on a patch of grass tangential to the street and crossed the pavement to the curving, cement stairs that descended to the launching area of Old Ferry Lane in Kittery. Someone—a local, I assumed—left their kayaks just north of the mud. The street was quiet and so was the river with the sun stretching across its surface. Sometimes, when I drive past a place, I am gobsmacked with its fleeting beauty. I was fortunate that I was able to stop and take a picture at this one.
Continuing through Kittery, I made my way over to the beach. I heard high praise about Seapoint Beach, but perhaps I visited at the wrong time or otherwise became spoiled by all the other beaches I’ve seen because I found the ground to be more covered in seaweed than sand. A hop and a skip down the shoreline took me to Seapoint, a rocky outlet dotted with seagrass and lost lobster traps. The outlet divides Seapoint Beach from Crescent Beach, which had clearer shores when compared to its neighbor. The beaches epitomize the work I’ve been doing to document Maine’s public access sites. When confronted with the question, does Maine have a public water access problem? I point to Crescent Beach. Accessible only by passing through two other sites after walking down several streets with resident-only parking, the beach is only suitable for the most dedicated and able-bodied visitors.
On the topic of access, I swung by Barter’s Creek on Crockett Neck road in Kittery to find another local spot worthy of launching a kayak into the water. Graffiti decorated the rocks next to a small turnout. A trail ran a short distance through the woods, connecting to the picnic and playground area of Fort McClary State Historic Site. I visited during late fall, and I imagine the area would be much busier during the summer months. For the most part, I was alone wandering through the woods, save for the occasional passerby who stopped to use the facility’s bathroom.
Another quiet beach with better access than Crescent is Sandy Point Beach, over an hour’s drive north in Yarmouth. The trail that wrapped around the parking lot was a nice spot to breathe in fresh air or exercise a dog, but visitors needed to be careful not to get too close to the eroding bluffs. The path down the beach was uneven, and my hand hovered over the metal railing on the way down, but the beach itself was lovely. An older woman sat on the sand with her lunch, the soft ground made for quiet footsteps as I walked around, looking South West to the shade of the Sandy Point bridge and the North East to the rocky view of the trail overhead.
