Saturday, July 23rd
The weather remains the same, as does our location. Even here upriver, we get bouts of fog, occasional rain and even gusty winds. Chester the dockmaster, who has a lot of experience cruising this coast and lives near the ocean, only half-jokingly forbade us from leaving before Monday. The rest of the boats are still here, despite their own hopes for an earlier departure. Another sailboat anchored farther downstream and dinghied up here for a visit and to use the facilities.
With the use of Chester’s car we were able to get some shopping done in Sherbrooke, about 17 miles away. This is the site of old Sherbrooke Village, a living history village along the lines of Old Sturbridge Village in Massachusetts. We’d actually been here before, by car, on a family vacation.
Since we didn’t want to monopolize the car, we skipped the main part of the village, but at Chester’s suggestion, we visited the sawmill and stamp mill.
This included a short path through the forest, with lots of local plant species identified, along with a stop at a re-created lumberman’s camp and a quiet lake.
The forest here (I can’t call it “woods”) is absolutely impenetrable. It looks like mostly new coniferous growth but it gives some idea of what the natives and first European settlers must have seen. Taking the interpretive path, it was amazing to see how many different species, some I’d never seen and many I never even heard of, grow here. There must have been 15 or 20 species of berry alone, most of which would be edible.