Hermit Island Part 1

A short 6 hour drive from our place in Vermont, 1 hour North of Portland, and about 15 miles away from Bath, is a little camping paradise called Hermit Island.  Privately owned, this island with a mixture of old birch and soft wood trees, waving grass, moss covered bedrock, and lovely beaches has been cut up into a mixture of tent-friendly camp sites.  No generators, radios, or other noise makers are allowed, and the better camp sites felt completely isolated from anyone else.  

If you're lucky, when you arrive the welcoming committee will walk ahead of you all the way to your camp site.  

We set up tent, changed into our swim suits, and headed to the beach.  

It was maybe a 150 yard walk to the beach, around the fresh water pond full of water lilies and very vocal bull frogs.  The kids brought a snack.

The beach, closest to our camp site and the one we spent the most time at, was lovely.  

Happy girl.

A girl and her farm boy.  Don't worry, he's got it.

Think they're having a good summer?

Uncle William getting the fire ready at the Coughlin-Ertle campsite, where dinner was hosted for all the friends and family that were camping together.

Excellent burgers and potato salad, served in a quiet little glen as the sun set.

Strange limb coming out of a birch tree.  Made for great photo ops and child-tree-climbing lessons.

One of my favorite things this summer is the time these kids are spending with their family up here.  We see the aunties, uncles, and grandparents all over the place, and the kids are entirely comfortable running off, hopping in laps, or spending sleep overs without a second thought.

That hoodie is getting a bit small, and now Caspian has decided he loves it, with the hood up.  

Beautiful sunset mixed with thunder clouds that all missed the island.  We slept relatively well, the three of us, in our tent on the last surviving air mattress.