By Everett Potter

There are somewhere between 3,168 and 4,600 islands lying off the coast of Maine. As for that disparity in numbers, is an island still an island if it’s submerged at high tide? It depends on who you’re talking to.

Some Maine islands are wooded, and some are boulders that look like bald pates, and most fall somewhere in between. They have rocky shores and perhaps a sliver of sand that makes it easy to dip your toes into the usually freezing waters of the Gulf of Maine.

What they have in common is the difficulty one has in reaching most of them. It might require a slow drive up a busy Route 1, followed by a long, twisting drive out on a narrow peninsula to make a ferry that only goes once or twice a day. Or the ability to paddle a kayak and deal with tides and fog and sore muscles on the Maine Island Trail, since most of them have no ferry connections.

The easiest way to get a taste of Maine island life is to simply drive to Yarmouth, which lies just north of Portland, and take a convenient ferry into Casco Bay and out to the Chebeague Island Inn

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