Acadia National Park, ME

Saturday Sept 12- Our plan today is to hike Acadia Mountain, which is about 670 feet, but what makes it different from the Beehive is that it isn’t straight up. We had in mind to go up the side of Acadia, down the other side and walk/stoll along Valley Gorge trail which follows Somes Sound Fjord. That’s supposed to be the best place around here to spot eagles, which I would definitely love to do! After that little break, we would cut over St. Sauveur Mtn and back down to the parking lot. Going up Acadia was great. Just enough challenge without tiring us too much. The woods and rocks here remind me so much of the area where I grew up. We used to pack up a lunch and rock climb near my house, where there were acres of woods and rocks. Intermingled with the boulders were blueberry bushes, and we would pick them when it was the right time of year. This area is very similar to that, with the same type of rocks and scrubby bushes…. So, up Acadia we go. The views at the top were incredible. I have a video, but don’t think I have the bandwith to upload it. We ate lunch when we got to the top. Once we went down the other side, our plan started to fall apart a little. Instead of a path to stroll along the fjord, the Valley Gorge trail was just as much work as it was going up Acadia. So much for our little break before climbing St. Sauveur. We did take our time, stopping frequently to scan for eagles. We never did see one, but I did get a picture of an Osprey. When we got home I googled to find out what an eagle sounds like so I will be able to recognize the call better next time. St. Sauveur is about 750 ft, so in all we ascended and descended about 1500 ft, about 5 miles ….doesn’t seem like much but we were tired- it took us about 5 hours in all. I think next time we will buy the detailed hiking trails map so we’ll have a better idea of the terrain. I was glad we went up Acadia, since the view at the top of St. Sauveur was nonexistent. It was tree covered, with no view at all. Sunday we spent regrouping- did some shopping and laundry and in general took it easy. Today we felt ready for another challenge, so we biked some of the carriage roads in the park. We noticed today that the colors on the trees seem to be changing daily. I would say that everything was pretty green when we got here, and now you can definitely see that some of the leaves have started to turn. It made for very pretty scenery while we rode. In all we biked about 12 miles- and since I haven’t been on a bike in about 15 years or more, I felt pretty good about it. We’ll see what we feel like tomorrow! We stopped to eat along the way, and stopped to chat with other bikers several times. There is a restaurant on the water called the Jordon Pond House. They are known for their popovers. Of course we had to stop in- Paul had the popover, I had a brownie sundae. He said the peach ice cream was some of the best he has ever had, I say the hot fudge was some of the best I have ever had. It was worth the calories, for sure. We dropped the bikes off in Bar Harbor and walked the shore a bit looking for sea glass, without much luck. There is an island right off the coast that you can walk to at low tide. Our plan is to do that tomorrow, if the weather holds.

Acadia National Park, ME

September 10, Traveling from Portland ME to Acadia, we decided to take the scenic route- Rte 1, which pretty much follows along the ocean. Along the coast of Maine there are a lot of small, picturesque towns with small harbors. They were too small to accommodate the Everest, so we didn’t stop. Instead, we stopped at Moose Point State Park, which is right on the water, walked around for a bit, and had lunch. We stopped later at Fort Point State park just to stop for a bit. If I had had my camera out I would have been able to get a picture of a fox. September 11th, we started the day by watching a history channel special about Sept 11. After an hour or so we shut it off. I was feeling sucked in- it’s the type of show that once you start watching, it goes on all day. Very interesting information, but too much. We had read literature about Acadia last night, and I had made a preliminary list of what looked interesting to us, but we decided to start off by heading to the visitor center to get oriented. I am glad we did. We got the map of hiking trails and general information about the park. More importantly, we watched one of those short videos that showcases the park. Ordinarily I don’t like those videos but the Ranger suggested we watch it, so we did. Interesting to find out that Acadia is the only National Park that is solely made up of donated lands. In the early 1900s, several wealthy individuals started buying up land in order to turn it over to the government. John Rockefeller Jr. donated and built miles of carriage roads in the park, with the stipulation that no motorized vehicles be allowed on them. We plan to rent bikes for a day to tour some of the carriage roads- I want to rent a bicycle built for two, but when I suggested it, Paul looked at me sideways…. The most important thing the movie pointed out is that Acadia is not a park of “superlatives”. There is nothing here that is the “best, biggest, loudest….” or anything “est”. Its pointless to run around looking for “the” thing to do. This is more of a place to be absorbed and experienced. My friend Sue said it too…the park looks like all of the rest of the Maine coast, its all beautiful. That realigned my thinking back to where it needed to be. The whole point of this trip is to absorb and experience things, not to run from one thing to another. After spending the last week eating, sitting and eating, I was anxious to get moving again, so I picked a trail to hike that was in the “strenuous” section of the trail guide. We drove up Cadillac Mountain first, which is the highest point on the east coast. The View was AMAZING. Impossible to capture it in a picture. Maybe someday I will learn how to stitch pictures together to form a panoramic, but not now. There was a Hawk Watch set up, so we talked to the ranger for a bit, but he said the wind was wrong to see hawks that day. It needs to be a Northwest wind. Maybe we’ll go back another day, but I am more interested in going through the fiord where eagles are routinely spotted. So, it’s on to Beehive trail. Now, had I thought about the shape of a beehive, or actually looked up at Beehive trail, I would not have climbed it. I am really glad I didn’t look because right now I really feel like I accomplished something! The pictures will give an idea of what it was like…but it was, at times, straight up. No guardrail, only rocks, an iron handhold, or a pathway about 3 feet wide, sometimes less. Twice I had to stop and regroup mentally. I was ok looking down if I looked off into the distance, but not if I looked straight down. Once we got to the top, the view was worth it!! When we got to the bottom and looked around, Paul pointed out a "hill" and I said there was no way I would climb that one-the one we had just done was high enough. He laughed because he was pointing out Beehive and I had already climbed it... Today my muscles want something that isn’t a hill- so we’ll see whats out there!

The end of Gloucester, the beginning of Maine

Sadly we have left Gloucester and our friends and family. We did spend Saturday on Misery Island, with our friends, and had a fabulous time. We got there before lunch, took the inflatable over to the island and walked around the island for a couple of hours. The weather was perfect- warm enough to actually go in for a quick dip several times, which was a treat, since I haven't been in the ocean all summer, and I love the salt water. We collected a fair amount of sea glass, but you can never have enough! Mark, Roseann and Jack are great friends to spend time with. It felt like old times except we didn't have our own boat (Paul doesn't see the downside in that!!). After barbequing dinner, more friends showed up- the Coults family. We haven't seen them in years, so their teenage daughters had changed dramatically! We finished the day in a very traditional way for us. When we lived in MA, we would spend many summer weekends at Misery Island. After dinner on Saturday it was our custom to take the inflatables and go in to the town of Manchester, about a half hour ride, and get an Ice cream at the local ice cream store. A great finish to a great day. Sunday was a "regrouping day" for us- we did our laundry and errands and some cleaning. Monday we had more friends come for the afternoon and we spent the evening getting ready so we could leave early in the AM. On to Portland ME..... Yesterday we met up with an old friend that I used to work with, and his wife. We had lunch at Demillo's, a floating restaurant in Portland, and were lucky enough with the weather that we could sit outside and watch the boats... Portland is a beautiful city with a lot of history, shopping and great restaurants. My friend Pete has a cottage on nearby Peaks Island, (winter population:1000, summer population: 6000 or more). We took a 20 minute ferry ride over there, and walked up the hill to the cottage. Both Pete and his wife's family have had cottages on the island for generations. It reminded me a lot of my grandmothers house; its on a cute, dirt road, its an older house, and creaky and has so many antiques and so much character! Of course, Pete is most proud of the updates, but I really enjoyed the feeling I had of a connection with the past. As is typical for this coast, there was a military presence on the island at one time, and some of the structures are still standing, or have been incorporated into houses. There are so many deer on the island that people have been allowed to hunt them to bring the number down to something reasonable. We walked most of the island this morning and then left Pete and Cathy this afternoon to head back to the "ranch" to check on the cat. Tomorrow we head to Acadia!