Raven Retreat is located in the town of Steuben, Washington County, Maine. The actual village is several miles away and encompasses a school, a church, the town office, fire station, and library. The 30 acres of retreat land, and home of your host and family, is at the head of a salt water bay in a tidal cove where on a clear day we see waves breaking on outer islands about 4 miles away. The bay is home to lobster, clam, seal, eagle, and many species of sea bird. This tidal estuary of marshy beaches and rocky shore line is where we launch our boats for sea kayaking. There are fishing vessels moored about a mile from the retreat shore, some large, some small, which are active year round in their pursuits of lobster, edible muscle, shrimp, sea urchin, and fish.

Just a little farther east is the town of Milbridge with 2 gas stations, a grocer, pharmacy, 2 banks, gift shops, a florist, post office, fire house, school, library, and a famous independent movie theatre.

There are only a few traffic lights in all of Washington County, one in Machias about 45 minutes east, and 3 signals in the US/Canadian border town of Calais, about 2 hours east. The remaining coastline between the retreat base and the Canadian border offers public and private preserve as opportunity for moderately challenging biking and shoreline hiking, of which we take full advantage during retreat time.

To the west and north are very wild lands of Maine and it's many " unorganized" townships. There is a small mountain range not far away where the retreat goes to hike and bike and a wonderful little river where we do a combined kayak and bike. The entire range is public land, preserved as recreational for us and now untouched habitat for flora and fauna.

To the west and south is the famous tourist mecca of Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park, a little over an hour's drive away. Occasionally in the fall the retreat will include a hike and bike in Acadia.

A couple of useful area links -
»Downeast Guide
»Acadia Visitor