Tucked away off of Maine’s coast is Deer Isle- a small isle with the towns of Deer Isle and Stonington. On our way back from a backpacking trip in Cutler, Maine, my boyfriend and I decided to stay at Deer Isle Hostel for a night. We arrived past dinner time, where they hold a nightly communal dinner. Guests are encouraged to either provide one of the ingredients (there is a weekly menu and they list ingredients they need), or help with the cooking and cleaning. Dennis, who co-owns and built the homestead with his wife Anneli, gave us a short but informative tour of his property upon arrival. Exhausted from our backpacking trip (it was rainy with a thousand mosquitos), we had a comfortable sleep in one of their private cabins. You can also stay in the main building in dorm rooms.

In the morning I took a shower in their outdoor shower, which is heated via an active compost pile. The water reached up to 115 F which was pretty cool! Then we rented kayaks from Old Quarry Ocean Adventures in Stonington, and went out for what ended up being a 5 hour kayak around the Stonington archipelago. It was an absolutely beautiful day, so beautiful in fact that I got a rather intense and odd looking sunburn on my legs from sitting in the kayak. We were given a map of the archipelago but we somehow got a little lost still. Our kayak rentals were supposed to be for 4 hours but we ended up coming back an hour late.