[Journal entry for August 22 2007]. After lunch, Dallas and I paddled our Winderness Systems Northstar tandem kayak Duck to Eagle Island, launching from the public ramp at the end of Route 123 in Harpswell, Maine. We passed Potts Point, and watched for a few minutes a group of kids (most of whom were our relatives) play on the rocks. They were constructing a driftwood shelter or fort consisting of old boards and branches propped up against a steep-sided rock outcrop, all draped with seaweed. I snapped several photos of them. We then headed directly towards Eagle Island, which is due south of Potts Point. We passed the ledge and sand bar that is between Upper Flag and Haskell Islands. The bar seemed higher than I had remembered it, protruding six feet or so out of the water. We passed the east side of Eagle Island and circled around to the southern tip. This side faces open water, and although the day was calm, smooth ocean swells were coasting by, and breaking on the rock ledges that surround the island. I snapped some pictures while Dallas stabilized the boat. The channel on the west side is a bit tricky, owing to some ledges. Swells were breaking on them, throwing up some foam. We pulled ashore at a pebble beach on the north end of the island, just past the island's main dock, a large wooden structure that juts out into the bay, and which is gives large boats access to the island. We met the ranger there - a woman that I have met several times before, though I forget her name - and paid our $3 per person entry fee. I then walked the island's pleasant, but short trail system. which passed beneath the island's tall trees, affording access to several excellent viewpoints. Eagle is unusually high for a Casco Bay island, and some of the vistas are quite dramatic. They look down over the sea, towards ledges and breaking waves and the other islands of Casco Bay, beyond. The tower on Little Mark island is visible, as is the more distant one on Halfway Rock. The trail passes a small garden, planted with flowering shrubs and annuals, that is said to have been originally planted by Josephine Peary back in the early 1900's. After walking the island's perimeter, I paid a short visit to Admiral Robert Peary's house, which is now a museum. It is set on a high point at the north end of the island. Its windows offer a nice view of Haskell Island and Harpswell Neck, beyond. The living room has a nice fireplace, as well as bookcases, stuffed birds and glass cases with their eggs. It's a beautiful house, yet one that must have been quite isolated and confining during Maine's long winters (and expecially during a heavy gale). After finishing my tour of the house, I walked briefly out onto the dock, and watched the range, in a skiff, attend to other newly-arrived visitors in the boats. Dallas and I then dragged Duck back out onto the water, and paddled straight back to harpswell. One and three quarters hours, perhaps an hour of which was paddling.