REGIONAL+ NORTHEAST HIGHLIGHTS Wildest River: Dead River, Ironically, the Dead gets its name from the dead-calm water found here before the river was dammed in 1949. Today, the Dead boosts endorphin levels with the longest stretch of continuous whitewater on the East Coast. Ride 16 miles through Class III--V rapids between the towns of Grand Falls and The Forks. 800-723-8633; www.raftmaine.com.

Best Whale-Watching Spot: Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary, Massachusetts Formed by retreating glaciers, this 842- square-mile, nutrient-rich feeding ground 25 miles east of Boston draws humpbacks, fin- backs, minkes and endangered northern right whales—so many that tours guarantee sight- ings. 800-277-6277; www.massvacation.com.

Tallest Waterfall: Taughannock Falls, New York Niagara Falls may be the biggest in volume, but Taughannock Falls near Ithaca is 33 feet Built for less taller and considered the highest, year- than $2,300 in round, single-drop waterfall in the the 1790s, Northeast. It plunges 215 feet, past rocky Portland Head cliffs that tower 400 feet above a gorge. still guards the www.nysparks.state.ny.us/parks. city from its perch on Cape Best Public Drinking Water: Elizabeth. Independence Village, Montville, Connecticut Looks like wine isn’t the only liquid that gets Best Water Town better with age. When residents of this small community fill their bottles they’re using water that’s 5,000 years old—water that Portland, Maine comes from a rock-driven well 360 feet below the earth’s surface. Water that’s so PERCHED ON A HILL, THIS WORKING PORT CITY good, it won the 2000 Great American OFFERS CLEAN AIR, A LAID-BACK CULTURE AND Water Taste Test, a competition run by the TOP ACCESS TO ALL THINGS AQUATIC National Rural Drinking Water Association, in which judges assess the taste, clarity, Portland may be small by metropolitan standards (population 64,000), but sparkle and bouquet of nature’s tonic. it’s big on liquid character. At Old Port, the trendy, revitalized cobblestone part of town, paddlers and old sea dogs share a microbrew at local water- Best Water Park: Camelbeach, ing holes—Gritty McDuff’s is a favorite—while others head to DiMillo’s, Tannersville, Pennsylvania an old car ferry-turned-floating-restaurant, for Cajun-style lobster tails. You’ll have plenty of opportunities to wet Anglers fly fish for brook and brown trout (on the ), your shorts at Camelbeach, with 22 heated troll for salmon and lake trout (on nearby Sebago Lake), and surf cast for waterslides, including the new eight-slide stripers and bluefish (out at the lighthouse on Cape Elizabeth). Kayakers Checkered Flag Challenge, which pits eight have access to miles of coastline and hundreds of islands—many just a people against each other in a race to the day’s paddle from downtown—plus the Maine Island Trail, a 325-mile finish line. The Titan— eight stories high salty waterway that links 108 islands from Portland to New Brunswick, and nearly three football fields in length—is Canada (207-761-8225, www.mita.org). the world’s largest slide of its kind. 570-629- If you’d rather stay dry, hike the Harborwalk Trail across the 1661; www.camelbeach.com. to Bug Light Park, go for a run on sandy Crescent Beach, or bike along the Best Watering Hole: Bertha’s Restaurant

7-mile, sea rose-lined Eastern Promenade Trail, an old railway bed. Locals CORBIS/RICHARD T. NOWITZ stock up on trail snacks at the year-round Portland Public Market (picture and Bar, Fells, Point, Maryland Seattle’s Pike Place set inside the East’s largest timber-framed building). Locals claim you can survive on Bertha’s

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