“I am desirous to go and discover Frog Rock,” my buddy stated with a sly smile. I waited to see if he was severe. He was.
Having spent seven years residing right here, there are few issues that shock me. However going to see a large rock formed over time and ultimately named “Frog” appeared intriguing, to say the least.
Our journey started one sunny afternoon in September earlier than the pandemic modified life for good. My buddy had needed to do that journey for years, however, like a lot in life, this one morsel of time simply appeared to be omitted in pursuit of different, extra essential, gadgets on the checklist. He and his spouse would spend a few weeks each summer season at their cottage in Starboard. Throughout their visits my buddy at all times shared a few “do you know” kind tales. By the top of their keep I’d know somewhat bit extra in regards to the Down East space the place we reside. Their subsequent visits and our conversations would at all times be an schooling for me. Frog Rock was a kind of classes.
He and his spouse arrived to select me up. We sat within the automobile on the backside of the driveway. My buddy may hardly include his pleasure. He started exhibiting me a file — sure, a file — he compiled with varied articles, notes and maps all about this geological oddity. We sat there as I perused his notes which oozed intent to seek out this massive, frog-shaped rock, now in Technicolor, having been painted a while in the past and situated someplace in Washington County.
This stone anomaly sits in an space inside the fabled blueberry barrens working for miles via and round Cherryfield, Columbia and Deblois. Bisecting the barrens is the baseline street, which is a narrative unto itself. In brief, the 5.4 mile-long Epping Baseline Street was the final of seven “baselines”— a wonderfully straight surveyed line utilized by the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey to assist map the North Atlantic and East Coast within the nineteenth century.
Touring into the barrens is like stepping onto one other planet. There are moments when you may simply find yourself stepping into circles. Throughout our journey, at instances, it did appear as if we have been misplaced and would by no means discover what we have been searching for or, for that matter, our means out as soon as we completed.
After we discovered it, we walked proper up, positioned our palms on the coloured stone and — seeing the dimensions and girth of the rock — fell into quiet. The rock resembles a frog enjoyable in a inexperienced area that for our go to glistened within the gentle with bits of blue and hints of deep scarlet because the barrens have been starting to sleep with autumn’s arrival. Calm invaded us, and life at that second got here to a screeching halt. It was a bizarre but joyous feeling, to be with buddies seeing one thing for the very first time.
I noticed greater than what I got here to see. Whereas taking within the huge expanse occupied by the barrens, I couldn’t assist however marvel how on earth did this rock come to relaxation proper right here on this very spot? With an imaginative thoughts, the creation of the world might be gleaned from an informal stroll via the barrens. Traces of glacial nudges, misplaced lakes and primordial dew abound.
Residing life Down East is one lengthy journey, if you concentrate on it. The trail can lead you most wherever, bodily and spiritually. There may be boundless magnificence in every single place. All you need to do is take the time to see it and understand what appears particular and strange to the customer is house for us. We’re given the chance daily to see and expertise some very particular issues: vibrant colours from timber and floor, seashores of multi-colored stones and granite; blooming fog, loopy tides, one-of-a-kind sunrises which are the very first to be seen within the U.S.; fishing boats that depart and return daily like clockwork; haunting sea smoke, lighthouses flashing smiles — and on this specific day an enormous rock formed like a frog, wearing colours that complement, with a slight smirk working from cheek to cheek. Do frogs even have cheeks?
After we packed all the pieces up and took one final glimpse of the barrens in all their glory and stated our personal private goodbye to “the rock,” there was a silence shared between the three of us — every of us taking within the second, processing it in our personal distinctive means earlier than turning away to go again to our personal lives, having now crossed off one other “to-do.”
My buddy settled in behind the steering wheel and, with a click on of his seatbelt, turned to me.
“Subsequent 12 months, let’s discover Snake Rock,” he stated.
