We just got back from a five-day trip to Maine, which was excellent. I'd never been up that way, and Jess hadn't been since she was a wee little girl, so it was an exciting prospect for both of us. We weren't disappointed in the least.
I will have to say, the drive up was very, very long. We left Thursday afternoon, after working Wednesday night, which put us just north of Boston right around rush hour. That perhaps wasn't the best time to be in the area, which set us back a half hour or so, but we were able to continue without any real issues. The problem was that it took us more than seven hours to get to Bangor, where we had booked a hotel; we were wiped out by that time, and plenty grumpy with each other. Turns out that the Sea Dog Brewery was there in town, which was great. We sampled several of their beers, taking off the edge of our gritty moods, before turning in for the night.
We were up early enough the next morning, but it was chaotic since we had to go around buying groceries and supplies, and in the end, we didn't make it to the Acadia Nat'l Park or even Mount Desert Island until after 1 pm. No matter, it was totally worth it. We drove around the area for awhile, to get a feeling for it, then found our campsite, a great little place called Bass Harbor Campground. It is way at the bottom of the island, far away from the touristy parts of Bar Harbor on the north end, and in the quiet and charming little fishing village of Bass Harbor (hence the name). We managed to get a really large tent site, and set up all of our stuff. There at the campsite, a guy named Scott was cooking and selling lobster, which was very handy for us. We ended up eating lobster every night there, two of the nights from him (we cooked lobsters ourselves one night, figuring we could save a little money, but it turned out to be more expensive, less tasty, and unnecessarily difficult). I didn't know that I loved lobster so much, but it was truly delicious.
At any rate, we did manage to get a short hike in, although we came across some rusty old ladders that were the only access to the summit, and hence didn't quite make the summit. Later in the evening, it began raining and continued into the night, and I spent most of the night cold and wet, as my tent is old and desperately needs to be sealed/waterproofed. Around 3:30 am, I got up, walked down the road about a quarter of a mile to the nearby Bass Harbor Head Lighthouse, and took pictures of it in the growing light. There never was a true sunrise that morning, with the clouds being fairly dense, but it was still a beautiful morning. We had coffee and cereal next to our morning campfire (we had a campfire each night as well, and even made s'mores), then headed out to explore Acadia. The clouds had burned off and it had turned into a beautiful, sunny day, so we drove through most of the park, starting with the large Park Loop Road, which runs partly along the gorgeous eastern seashore. We walked through the rugged peach-colored rocks for a couple of hours, then kept going along to Jordan Pond, a very nice body of water with a 3-mile, flat trail enciricling it. Mid-way, we found a trail leading off, going up to the summit of Sargent Mountain. We'd heard about the moutain from some locals, who described it as less popular (a good thing) than the famous Cadillac Mountain, but with the same view. So, we decided to head for the summit.
Now, there is something that everyone needs to understand about hiking in Acadia, and possibly Maine as a general rule. Most of the trails that we saw were short, in the 1-3 mile range, which anywhere else would be a wonderful thing, being so short. Alas, they forgot the most critical aspect of their descriptions, which would have been the atltitude gain. For example, our chosen route on Sargent Moutain was only 1.1 miles, but this is a 1300-ft mountain, and we were starting from almost sealevel. Needless to say, it was a little steep in places. I think they should put, "Summit Trail, 1.1 miles long, 1000 foot in altitude gain," or more succintly, "Summit, 1.1 miles of HELL." That would have been fair. It was worth it, anyhow, once my vision cleared and my heart rate dropped below 200. The view truly was spectacular, the mountains simply drop off into the ocean. You can see for miles from these places, and it was beautiful.
After returning to our campsite, we set about cooking our own lobsters. There is an art to it, you wouldn't think it was terribly hard, it just involves dropping the lobster in boiling water. My lobsters had nothing on the ones Scott was casually handing out for just a few dollars more than what I'd paid for these in the suppermarket (plus he provided all-you-can-eat corn and stone crabs). They were a little on the tough side, as apparently a few minutes makes all the difference when cooking lobster (Scott had a timer--cheater). It was the finest evening weatherwise that we had, it's too bad we were completely wiped out by the unexpected rigors of climbing up Sargent Mountain. We pretty much passed out in our little lawn chairs by the fire. We were even too tired to get up and watch the sunrise in the morning, which apparently was pretty spectacular.
We got a slow start, as the day quickly became cloudy and damp. We drove along the seashore of the "quiet" side of the island, which was quite nice. Despite planning on having a chill day, we eventually ended up at the start of another hike. This one was supposed to be less brutal, but again, they don't have gradual climbs in this part of Maine, it is all straight up. It started to sprinkle and eventually became a drizzle during our hike, but the walk was a great one. We ended up going three different summits, all averaging 1000 feet, which is a decent climb straight from sealevel. They didn't have the view of Sargent, but they were much more pleasant. Plus, the drizzle was made tolerable by being under trees; it wouldn't have been good to be out in the exposed landscape above the treeline, such as on Sargent Mountain. It was a very nice hike, around four miles, and was made all the better by the cool, moist air. We had a great fire that night, since I wasn't being stingy with the firewood. It lasted probably six hours, until the rains really came and doused the camp. Scott gave us two lobsters for the price of one, since we'd taught him the meaning of panus, which became the word of the day. I stayed up late, keeping the fire roaring, eating s'mores, and relaxing. Of course, last night really was wet and nasty starting around midnight. We slept well, but we woke up to find all of our stuff inside the tent wet. We didn't waste any time as a result packing up and heading out, and we were on the road before 7am. Again, it was a very long seven hours of driving. So, I should have pictures up soon of Maine. I'll be working on that shortly.
All in all, it was quite a successful trip to Maine. We got in well over 700 miles (we've allready put on 5000 miles on our new car since mid-May). We also go in eight new beer, all but one local (from Maine), and the last one was a Long Trail brew from Vermont. I haven't seen the pictures, but I am hoping they will do our trip justice, because it was really great.
I can't believe that we only have three weeks, or nine shifts left. We are quite nearly finished with this assignment. We hardly have a day left that won't be spent either working or hurrying off to see one last place in New England. However, I already feel like we are in the process of moving, and it's exciting.
Anyhow, until next time, be safe.
