Maine: Chebeague Island

All you need is one great inn.

Walking Inn: Chebeague Island Inn
Location: Casco Bay, Maine
Type: Coastal, Island
Distance: Various round-the-island and hops to other island walks.
Duration: Two-? days
Difficulty: Easy
Season: May to October.
Highlights:  Scrumptious food, sweeping porch, friendly ghost at the Inn, rambles on beaches and island paths.Maine's Chebeague Island Inn's menu,  front porch and beds are all worth walking (or paddling) to. And it’s a great base camp for round-the-island walks, or island-hopping treks around Portland's Casco Bay.

From the porch, the sunset views over Casco Bay are unparalleled. If the fog rolls in, head inside to the enormous Great Room and warm yourself by the stone fireplace in overstuffed chairs, where your favorite cocktail is available day or night... “Dinner,” one of the long time island residents told me, “is back!” Judging by the extensive menu of fresh greens, locally raised venison, duck, and grass-fed beef, I’d have to agree.

Upstairs are 21 guest rooms appointed with Maine-made wrought iron Queen beds, Montauk Italian hand-stitched linens, Cuddledown comforters, and heavenly lemon verbena room amenities from L’Occitane in Paris. Many have ocean views while others look out over spectacular gardens. The bathrooms – some private, some shared – are gleaming white tiled sanctuaries. Depending on the day or the direction of the wind, Charlie the Ghost might make an appearance by rattling the wind chimes or creaking open a door.

Here’s my advice: bring nothing but your sneakers, a hat, a bathing suit and your wallet. Walk the perimeter, take in the coastal views and centuries’ old history, stop into the local Historic Society, play golf, or just sit on the Chebeague Island Inn porch after lunch and take a nap.

Maine’s Cheabeague Island Inn's menu, front porch and beds are worth walking (or paddling) to. And it’s a great base camp for round-the-island walks, or island-hopping treks around Casco Bay.

I hadn’t been back to Chebeague Island since my daughter’s fourth grade field trip. In 1999 the coves were laden with starfish, and we’d unearthed secret shell mounds left by Native Americans in the 18^th century.  We’d spent the night camping out on the floor of the school house, cozy in sleeping bags and surrounded by crayon scenes of island life hanging from the corkboard and windows.  Our entertainment arrived during the pancake supper we produced in the school’s small but well equipped kitchen. He was a young lobsterman fresh off his boat in rubber boots and seaweed smell, with tales to tell about the one that got away.  “He was yay big,” he said, stretching tanned forearms wide. “His claws were like fists!”  He balled up his hands and showed them to the room like trophies.  “He’s still out there. Maybe you’ll find him tomorrow on the beach.”  One boy shrunk back as a girl in braids said, “No way am I swimming!”   

Recently I decided to go back to Chebeague to reclaim a few memories and to visit with Casey Prentice, the new owner of the Chebeague Island Inn who’s been reviving the place. Early in the morning Al Schmid, the photographer, and I drove to the satellite lot in order to board the bus that would drive us to the Chebeague Island Ferry. There are just a handful of coveted parking spaces at the ferry dock off Cousins Island in Yarmouth, and these are reserved for long time Chebeague residents.  I handed our elderly driver a twenty, and asked for change for the parking fare. “Oh jeez,” he said peering at me under a USMC ball cap with a Toys for Tots patch on the side. “Whyn’t you pay on your way back. I left my wallet on the kitchen table this morning.”

“That’s alright?” I asked, the city in me questioning the process.

“Sure. That’s the way we do things around here.” Glancing at our fancy camera equipment, he asked “Where you folks from?”

“Just over there,” I said, pointing across the road. “Couple miles.”  We both laughed. “But I was born near Boston.”

“Well that explains it,” he declared. 

Our driver’s name was Bud. The refitted school bus painted cobalt blue rambled across Route One and over toward the Cousin’s Island section of Yarmouth. The road out there is narrow and bumpy with pretty turn-of-the-century summer cottages turned into year round homes. A lady sat in front of us with her curly haired dog. Next to her was a garden basket filled with eggs, a couple of grapefruit, a loaf of bread, and a new pair of shears. She’d just been to the mainland to do her shopping. Behind us on the bus was another dog whose brown snout was out the window. His owner was reading Barrons and wearing expensive loafers with no socks. And if you’ve ever read Barbara Cooney’s Classic “Miss Rumphius,” about an island-dwelling old lady who made her Maine world more beautiful by flinging lupine seeds from her pocket – well she was on the bus too. Her straw hair was knotted up in a bun, and she sat tiny and pleased on her way back to Chebeague.

The 15 minute ferry ride back and forth from Yarmouth to Chebeague hauls students to high school, islanders working in Portland, mail, summer residents, and others back home. There are loads of groceries, dogs on leashes, and on this morning, a pot-bellied pig dressed in a bonnet and blanket and cuddled into a stroller. Daisy is the official mascot for the Pig Out on Reading program and she was making an appearance that morning at the island elementary school. From the bow we could see the Chebeague Island Inn on the knoll overlooking the Atlantic Ocean.

At five miles long, Chebeague is the largest of a chain of 300 islands in southern Maine’s Casco Bay. The 300+- year round residents maintain an elementary school but continue to send their high school to school on the mainland. Native Americans once paddled canoes to Chebeague during the summer months to fish. Originally settled in 1730 by farmers who cleared the land, Chebeague’s fields were fertilized back then by lobster shells and innards which were a plentiful alternative to cow manure. Later on the island provided safe harbor to numerous stone sloops hauling granite down the eastern seaboard. 

Al and I strolled up the hill from the Chebeague wharf to meet the Inn’s new owner, Casey Prentice, a 23-year-old Middlebury graduate with a boatload of enthusiasm for the task at hand. “Basically,” he offered, “the economy tanked in ’09. My dream job working on a green real estate project went belly-up. Desperation,” he added, “is a stinky cologne.” When he found out the Inn was for sale he convinced his parents to purchase the Inn, making Casey its general manager.

Since January he’s overseen everything there like a well-seasoned Admiral. The beautiful and historic bones remain, and Casey has hired local notable craftsmen to flesh out the rest. Gregg Lipton, a Cumberland resident, is an award-winning chair designer whose bar stools grace the famous Grammercy Tavern in New York City. The Inn’s dining room chairs are rich chocolate leather braced by black wood. Don Nida, an island resident who restored the bar, added a shiny copper rail wrapping the cherry counter. The effect is serious Wall Street pub.  There are six beers on tap behind the counter including two mushroom ales and a famed Portland ale, and the bar is completely stocked.

I asked Casey for a peek at the menu. Imagine waking to smoked salmon with Gribiche and toast points, or Chebeague Island Inn Eggs Benedict topped with crispy pancetta and thyme Hollandaise. After a brisk walk around their nine-hole golf course fronting the ocean, you might enjoy lunch on the porch. Try their Caesar salad with grilled salmon skewers in a garlicky lemon dressing, or Bang Island Mussels with Dijon, horseradish, white wine and house made fries.  The Sunset Landing menu contains hors d’oeuvres to enjoy on the porch. It’s a popular place to be on a summer afternoon with a bottle of chilled wine. Their famed Lobster Corn Dogs wrapped in warm cornbread and drizzled with sun dried tomato aioli is a house favorite. The Scallop Ceviche, Duck Tenderloin Skewers with root vegetable slaw, and Maine oysters on the Half Shell with green peppercorn Mignonette are equally in demand. The sunset views over Casco Bay are unparalleled.  If the fog rolls in, head inside to the enormous Great Room and warm yourself by the stone fireplace in overstuffed chairs, where your favorite cocktail is available day or night.

“Dinner,” one of the long time island residents told me, “is back!” Judging by the extensive menu of fresh greens, locally raised venison, duck, and grass-fed beef, I’d have to agree.   Their chef has worked at some of Maine’s finest restaurants including the famed White Barn Inn, and Portland’s Fore Street.  I wanted to try the Venison Carpaccio made with a white truffle gribiche, and the Coriander Scented Lemon Curd but we had miles to go before catching the ferry back to the mainland.

 Upstairs are 21 guest rooms uniquely appointed with Maine-made wrought iron Queen beds, Montauk Italian hand-stitched linens, Cuddledown comforters, and heavenly lemon verbena room amenities from L’Occitane in Paris. Many have ocean views while others look out over spectacular gardens. The overall effect is sumptuous.  The bathrooms – some private, some shared – are gleaming white tiled sanctuaries. Depending on the day or the direction of the wind, Charlie the Ghost might make an appearance by rattling the wind chimes or creaking open a door. Legend has it he lived in room 304 in the 1920s.

Casey wants to return the Inn to its original splendor, and to create a go-to destination for weddings, company outings, and family vacations. He’s collaborating with lobstermen to provide the quintessential Maine experience for guests who wish to catch their own dinner and have it cooked by the Inn’s chef. He’s thinking about airport shuttles to Portland’s Jetport, and a private ferry service. Leaving the Inn to continue our walking tour of the island, I wished I’d sampled some of the white asparagus soup or decadent maple syrup crème brulee. Next visit.

My stomach growled as Al and I wandered down the road taking in the scenery. The only cars we encountered were clunkers adorned with flower pots and a thirty year old Jeep sitting in someone’s front lawn. No license plates required on the island. If people drive, it’s only back and forth to the ferry with provisions.

The latter half of the 19^th century brought rusticators from Canada and Boston, some of whose ancestors live on the island today. Many more like Don Souchek, whom I met while he was mowing his front lawn, summered on Chebeague for years, arriving with his family in the fifties and sixties from Iowa, or Michigan.  He liked it so much he eventually became permanent, buying a handsome Victorian “winter house” in 1987, where he and his wife Joyce live from October-April. Each May, they move 500 yards down the single-lane road to their summer cottage, a tidy red shingled home with an ocean view. “Thought I knew what communities were about until I moved out here,” Don told me, stopping his tractor to chat. “Storms. Winters. People pull together out here. They help each other out.”  A yellow chain tree was in resplendent full bloom on his front lawn, making winter seem impossible.

       We met  Kevin Wentworth, one of the ferry boat captains who was playing outside with his toddler twins. “What do you love about this place?” I asked him.  He threw his strawberry blond daughter over his shoulder and grinned.

“For starters, I have the best job I know. It’s a big family here. My shift (on the ferry) is 6am to 6pm. I have a ten-minute walk to work, 15-minute ride over and back, off for an hour and a half, come home and play with the kids. My wife, she’s 7^th generation Chebeague. Her people come up from Pennsylvania and New York in the summer. We love it here. It’s quiet. Only 300-350 full time residents. Explodes to around 4000 in the summer.” We left Kevin to give his kids a sandwich.

On the way down to Hamilton Beach, a sliver-moon white sand beach with deep blue water, I spied a license plate on a pick-up truck that summed up our Chebeague walking trip. RELAX 2.  I wanted to stay there on the sand a while, inhaling the salty air and faint whiff of beach roses, listening to the terns and gulls overhead. I heard a lobster horn honking to someone in a nearby skiff. Dinner at the Inn. Maybe a week-end soon back on Chebeague. I jammed the promise of return into my backpack.

Here’s my advice: bring nothing but your sneakers, a hat, a bathing suit and your wallet. Walk the perimeter, take in the coastal views and centuries’ old history, stop into the local Historic Society, play golf, or just sit on the Chebeague Island Inn porch after lunch and take a nap.

RELAX 2.  

CASCO BAY ISLAND HOPPING

More Nights, More Islands, More Inns, More Walks.

If you have more than a day, consider “island hopping” in Casco Bay, starting your journey on the Casco  Bay Lines in the morning from Portland (rather than Cousins Island in Yarmouth). First stop on the inner bay route is Peak’s Island. If you missed breakfast, walk straight off the Forest City Landing and up the road to grab some of the famous cinnamon buns at the general store. Peaks Island has cars, and plenty of year round residents, a small Inn, and a handful of lunch places. You could easily spend an entire day biking or walking around the island, and there are plenty of beaches to roam. 

Little Diamond Island, just a stone’s throw from Peak’s, has five year round residents; nice place to bunk a kayak, but not much to see there. Stay at the Inn on Peaks the first night (or more) and from there, the ferry can take you to Great Diamond, right next door, which is also car-free and has 77 year round residents. There’s a wonderful spot to have lunch right on the cove. 

Then hop back on the ferry (or paddle your kayak) and go out past Long Island, Great Chebeague, and Cliff Island – just a bit farther out in Casco Bay, complete the ferry route. (Depending on the schedule, you may have to return to Portland to get the right boat for Chebeague.)  Regardless of whether you’ve chosen the inner bay route or the “downbay” trip, there is something for everyone on each of the islands in Casco Bay.

 A few links you might find helpful if you’re heading out to the island: 

Maine Tourism: www.visitmaine.com
Portland and Casco Bay Tourism: www.visitportland.com
Town of Chebeague, with links to island happenings: www.chebeague.org

ChebeagueTransportation Company, aka “the ferry” from Cousin’s Island, Yarmouth to Chebeague: www.chebeaguetrans.com

The Casco Bay Ferry Line website includes brief but useful information for everything you’ll need on Chebeague Island – or any of its sister islands served by the Casco Bay Ferry system: www.cascobaylines.com
Chebeague Island Inn: www.chebeagueislandinn.com.
Inn on Peaks: www.innonpeaks.com

Talie Ward Harris is WeekendWalk.com's Northern New England editor; Al Schmid (photographs) lives in Cumberland, Maine with his wife and three children, and photographs people and places when he's not selling books for a living. You can find him at his website here.

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