Raising Maine

Fairies, fairies, fairies. They've been on my daughters' minds this summer.

It started with "Fairy Houses," a children's book written and illustrated by Tracy Kane. It's been a favorite of theirs since they read it. Then, after seeing the Children's Theater of Maine's "Fairy Houses, the Musical," based on Kane's book, we made plans to visit Mackworth Island, the "official" home of fairies and fairy houses, in Falmouth as soon as possible.Mackworth Island is connected to the mainland by a causeway at the mouth of the Presumpscot River. That means you can drive directly onto the island, which was very appealing to us since we didn't want to have to figure out the timing for a ferry. Once over the causeway, visitors check in at the main entrance (no fee) and pick up a trail brochure.

I set out on the trail with not only with my husband and daughters, but some extended family members visiting from California. And like any large group, we had the usual challenge of getting our gear out of the cars and organizing ourselves. Then of course there was taking one, then two, then all three kids to the bathroom at the trail head.

Early on the trail the kids found a trail spur that led to a shell-covered beach. While on the beach, my 6-year old discovered a dead crab and insisted on keeping it. She carried it for a long time before my husband convinced her put it away (I voted to bury it but settled for the backpack).

The kids are more adventurous than ever when it comes to touching and picking up all kinds of things on the trail. This has its benefits and its drawbacks; I'm glad they are comfortable exploring nature with all of their senses, but I have had to spend a lot of time ‚ usually the half-second before they've reached for something ‚ explaining to them the importance of trying to identify the plant/bug/whatever it is before they reach for it. There's no denying that there are some plants that can irritate skin or worse if touched. We've seen lots of these species in Maine, particularly on coastal trails, so my husband and I are working on teaching the kids how to identify poison ivy and other plants by the shape of their leaves. Also, that it is always best to ask us before they touch a plant or flower they've never seen.

This was an important lesson during our hike on Mackworth Island. The guide for the trail we were given at the trailhead had a full page of illustrations to assist hikers in identifying toxic plants in the area. It was particularly helpful and not something we see often on trail maps. There were a couple that we didn't know about and we were glad to have the information, but there was one item not mentioned in the guide that we found a lot of on this trail -- wild mushrooms.

We had learned on our hike at Wolfe's Neck Woods State Park good policy never to touch wild mushrooms. We had a park ranger explain the policy to the girls so they would believe us (they thought we were being unreasonable about not touching the "pretty" mushrooms). As it was explained to us, mushrooms can release toxins that can be harmful if they come into contact with the mouth or eyes, which happens very easily with children if they don't wash their hands immediately. And, since it's hard to identify the good species from the toxic, it's better to admire them from a distance.

With the dead crab stowed in the backpack, we continued our trek with a slightly disgruntled 6-year old. As we approached station number five on the trail, a woman passing by told us as she had just seen a fairy house not far ahead of us. My guess was that our informant had actually built the house and wanted to share it with some children. It was a very nice gesture and one which I think makes this trail so appealing for people of all ages.

After checking out the fairy house (at station number six), we found stairs that led down to the shore. This area was much rockier than our earlier ocean wading and there was some tricky footing at the base of the stairs. My 8-year old found a huge piece of seaweed between the rocks that she thought was "cool" because she hadn't seen a piece so large before. And, she discovered, it wasn't nearly as stinky as the dead crab her sister had in the backpack.

Near station number nine, the girls found a path they wanted to explore. I had put away our self-guiding tour brochure and didn't know exactly where this path led, and it turned out to be Percival Baxter's pet cemetery. My 8-year old animal lover read all the names of Baxter's Irish setters and his horse from the stone memorial and tried to figure out how old they were when they died. It was an interesting place and the kids spent a lot of time examining the stones, so this was the best spot to build their fairy house, they decided.

Building fairy houses can take as little or as much time to make as you want and my girls had elaborate plans for their construction (using natural materials they found on the island). However, just as they started, the sky began to darken with an impending thunderstorm, so we had to rush the construction. They were not happy about that.

Soon, they completed their fairy houses and we continued along the trail at a quicker pace until we came upon the "Mackworth Island Community Village" area. This is where most of the fairy houses are. If you don't know much about building a fairy house, a posted sign offers guidelines for building them.

The trail was a 1.25 mile loop, and graded, so it made for a very easy hike. And between the ocean and the fairy houses, it kept even the youngest hiker (4-years-old) in our group interested for the duration. So, even if you have never read the book, "Fairy Houses," you'll still enjoy seeing (and maybe contributing to) the sites on this easy-to-get-to enchanted island.

We believe there was some magic in the air the day we visited; it didn't start to downpour until we pulled out of the parking lot.