PHOTOS ARE ZOOMABLE

Leg 28 from the Bluff at Smith Point to Murch's smelt brook, March 10, 2010

A slice of Vinalhaven Diabase, so described by Olcutt Gates' comprehensive Geology Map, protrudes from the shore at low tide just a few feet from the distinctively different geology of the Seal Cove Formation which begins around the next bend. The map tells me each was deposited around 400 million years ago. It's the kind of information that I just can't do anything with, can't imagine or process, like the particulars of the universe.

I'm out of Perry's Creek and was in no hurry to be thus. Although I've lived her nearly all my life I've really only seen and appreciated it twice, during this walk and during a canoe excursion a few years ago. It's a sanctuary of absorbing beauty and one we will have to enjoy in perpetuity thanks to the generosity of several thoughtful benefactors and to the perserverance of the Vinalhaven Land Trust.

Two substantial brooks empty into Seal Cove from the west. Gully Brook carries rainwater and snow melt from the area around Fox Rocks. I've seen it roaring in the past, often washing out the A. W. Smith Road, but today, with snow melt in decline, it was fairly modest, very unlike Murch's Brook where this walk ends.

Oakes and Cedars seem determined to forego the more secure higher ground for the very edge of the shore, determined to cling there to a foothold. This one is so near the water it had dipped in to retrieve a little seaweed.

At the head of Seal Cove, just before I followed Murch's Brook up to the road I turned to look at the Cove's eastern shore, the next leg, just beyond this tide pool and this unusual arrangements of boulders.

Murch's Brook, emptying the big wetland between Seal Cove and Long Cove was not wanting for material and, in contrast to Gully Brook, was putting on its best face.

The next leg will not be till the end of the month since I am off now to ambulate around another island for a while - England!