Leg 60 from midway down the east side of Coombs neck south, around Brown's and Stoddard islands and to the head of Smith Harbor. This was certainly as beautiful if not more so as any vista I've encountered so far. I sat and leaned against a boulder and gzed out at Isle A haut, twice in fact, an unheard of respite.

The rock contined to amaze me, as they have all along this eastern shore of Coombs Neck. Stunning volcanic formation are everywhere.

As the waves rolled in and receded they exposed this cluster of kelp that, at first glance, and even the second and third, seemed like a flock of seabirds bobbing up from bottom feeding.

Not to be outdone by Kirk's scat photos I took one of my own.

That's my pocket knife there in this enormous footprint. I left it in the photo so the viewer might better appreciate the size of who or whatever made it.

Browns and Stoddards islands are georgous little environments, the latter Vinalhaven's easternmost low tide extensions.

next Leg (61) headed for State Beach.

Leg 60

Leg 59, from the north end and about half way down the east side of Coombs Neck.

I've been looking forward to this vantage and it was worth waiting for. Last March Elaine and I waited here on some high land for the perigee moon and were not disappointed when, closer to the earth than at any time since 1993, it rose in breath-taking beauty over Isle A Haut. Photos of today's walk are decieving. It looks like tough going but, while the one that preceeded it, around Bluff Head, surely was, this was a pretty laid back trek. The rock formations were unlike any I'd seen elsewhere around the island but they were big and presented lots of flat surfaces to land on.

Evidence of volcanic activity has been everywhere since I began this walk two years ago but these on Coombs Neck are much more obvious and speak more dramatically to the phenominon of instant transformation, mid-swirl, from a boiling liquid to solid rock.

I plan on bringing a geologist friend to this spot to explain this vertical layering of different minerals

Here, where the rocks are exposed to a particular pattern of wind and wave, the rocks are tumbled smooth like those on Brimstone and the boulders among them have been carressed so sensuously for so long that if one of them rolled over and stretched it wouldn't be all that surprising.

Next walk, leg 60, on down the east side of Coombs neck, perhaps around Brown and Stoddert islands (depends on the tide), to Smith Harbor.