Janet’s Webpage

6.22.2007-6.26.2007

Since SO gets a bit nervous about flying, we’ve never traveled far together. This year I decided to spend my birthday at Acadia National Park and SO joined me with some reserve. Thankfully the plane ride to and from Bangor was uneventful, and there isn’t much to say about the journey. I reserved the Bar Harbor Inn for our 5 days 4 nights stay. The inn is one of the largest hotels in town and provided an excellent meal package at its dinning room.
I’m still not sure why I’ve chosen to go to Maine for vacation. I believe what happened was that I flipped through the travel book Pam gave me and Acadia caught my attention since summer was noted as a good time to visit. I hardly read the entry in “1,000 Places” or the travel guide I bought before setting off. Consequently, I had no idea on what to do upon arrival.

[Click here for map of Acadia] After breakfast on the first day, we set off to an offshore island we saw while sitting in the dinning room. The island, Bar Island, is only accessible at low tides (which we found out was around noon from the morning news paper.) It was a short hike to the peak and we passed a field of wild Lupine.

Next we went on the Carriage Roads. The Carriage Roads are built by the Rockefellers and are still well maintained. SO suggested going off the roads and onto a hiking path, and that’s how we hiked up Bald Peak (974 ft) and Parkman Mt. (941 ft) in sweater and dress shoes.

The next day, we tried to be a little more prepared and went to downtown Bar Harbor to purchase proper hiking shoes. The salesman was very helpful and suggested that we should try the Beehive, which is inside the park and across from Sand Beach.
Entering the park costs $20 and you get the pass for 7 days. The paid part consists of the Park Look Road, which is a 27 mile one way road surrounding a good portion of Acadia. Sand Beach was easy enough to find, and from the parking lot we could see tiny figures gripping onto cliff rocks near the top of the mountain.

We took the west route up the Beehive (520 ft). The view from the top is gorgeous. You get a good view of Sand Beach as well as the shores surrounding the island. The numerous hills surrounding are all the deepest green. Being close enough, we could just make out each individual tree that combined into forests that plastered the sides of mountains.

We couldn’t climb down Beehive from the east side, since my fear of heights came out full force when I saw the steep drop, so we went back down the same route and continued to hike to the Bowl. The Bowl is a small body of water surrounded by the mountains on all sides. Next we climbed up Champlain Mt. (1058 ft). Coming down from Champlain, we found the Precipice trail blocked from the landslide in 2006 and we had to hike 2 miles of Park Loop Road to get back to our car.

SO asked what’s so special about Acadia, and I think it should be known for the climbable mountains. We quickly established a daily routine for the remainder of the trip. Each morning, we wake up around 9AM, have breakfast at the inn and set out to hike and climb until dinner time. Then we come back to our room and watch whatever that’s on TV like any bored vacationers.
We wanted to climb Cadillac Mountain (1530 ft). It’s the highest mountain in the park and the only one that has a road for cars to drive to the summit. After driving up there, we changed our minds. The peak was packed with cars and people. So instead, we started with South Bubble (766 ft) on the third day.

South Bubble hosts Bubble Rock, a strange boulder that hangs on the cliff of the mountain. While deciding where to go next, we met a couple who took their pair of Yorkies to the mountain peak. Each Yorkie is around 4 lbs and sat quietly in the baby chest pack the couples were wearing.

It took a while, but we eventually made it to the top of Sargent Mt. (1373 ft). Not too many visitors there. Then we took an easy hike to Penobscot Mt. (1194 ft) which is right next to Sargent. Climbing is always interesting. The hills are either completely covered with pines or with birches. Sometimes you walk through shaded roads with slight incline, sometimes you climb up old landslides, and sometimes you walk on the bald spots of the mountains where nothing grew. All the trails are perfectly marked with blue rectangles and it’s almost impossible to get lost.
After coming down Penobscot, we walked around Jordan Pond and went back to the hotel for my birthday dinner