Page 11 - 2012_winter_issue

rails to trails u winter.12 9
O
The
Down
East
Sunrise
Trail
By Seth Levy
Photos byMichael Eudenbach/Aurora Select ter’s Glow
Of all the images Maine conjures—
the woodsmen, the lobster, the rocky
coast—one of the least common
may be the most apt: the rising sun.
Maine’s coast sees the country’s frst
rays of sunshine. Even our license
plates announce that Maine is “Where
America’s Day Begins.”
Come summer, endless rows of
vehicles with local and out-of-state car
tags follow that sunrise corridor along
the coast, heading north to Mount
Desert Island, home of the famed
Acadia National Park. In Maine’s nauti-
cal heyday, incoming ships had the pre-
vailing wind at their backs as they sailed
downwind and east from Boston. Tis
narrow band of coast, extending from
the Penobscot River to Machias Bay,
earned its “Down East” designation
from nautical slang and has attracted
tourists since choppy waters mattered
more than high gas prices.