Acadia National Park

Wow. Acadia National Park is beautiful. Not the spectacular mountains like the Rockies, but absolutely Maine coastline gorgeous. We anchored in a quiet little cove at the head of Somes Sound, part of the Mount Desert Island. This has been the site of our boat-cottage for the week, as we explored Acadia. Here is a view from our anchorage --- the shore, Cadillac Mountain, and the almost full moon.

Somesville is a tiny village that has one store, a library, 1 room museum, bridge, and a bookstore. oh, and a few houses. The footbridge from the museum is over a little pond and is just picture cute.

When we picked up the dingy from our walk around Somesville, I noticed the baby starfish on the side of the dinghy float. There were hundreds of them, from 1/2 inch to 1 inch!

There is a free bus system that covers all of Desert Island. The buses run on propane. Each day they carry around 7000 visitors to the park. Just think of the gas, exhaust, and wear/tear that saves. Although there are designated pick-up points, the drivers will stop anywhere as long as it's safe. It's a wonderful way to get around. We caught the bus to go sight-seeing in Bar Harbor. Bar Harbor is a well done tourist trap. It's quaint as can be, all of the stores are non-chains, loads of restaurants, art shops, 2 ice cream shops on each side of each block, a very nice harbor, and a small city park. On the practical side, it also has a good grocery store, bank, post office, and laundrymat withing walking distance of the bus stops.

Up way too early the next morning, we were off with our too small folding boat bikes to explore some of the trails in Acadia. Our bikes are so small that someone once told us that they looked like we picked them before they were ripe. :-)

The buses all have bike racks on the front and back, plus there are bike shuttle specials that haul 16 bikes at the time to the most popular bike trails. The bus driver suggested that we start our adventure at the lighthouse at Bass Harbor and bike to SW Harbor, about 5 miles. It WAS beautiful, but unfortunately, it was along a narrow roadside. Not terribly busy, but busy enough, especially with almost no bicycle trail along the side. We stopped, took a short hike to Ship Harbor

for lunch, and eventually made it into SW Harbor. I was exhausted, my knees hurt, and both of our butts were screaming. We had a slice of pizza, ice cream, and Luke managed to get a yellow jacket up his jeans leg, getting a sting on his upper thigh. When we got back to our serene little harbor, our dinghy was missing. After about 10 minutes of panic, we discovered it on the other side of the floating dock from where we had tied it off. Seems we were on the "residence's only" side and someone decided to move it to the visitor side. Enough excitement for 1 day!

No tiny bikes the next day. We decided, THIS time, that we would hike to the top of Cadillac Mountain, the highest mountain on the Atlantic coast north of Brazil, about 1500 ft. I don't know why we thought it would be a fairly easy 2.3 mile trek.... The trail was a combination of granite rock expanses and smaller granite rock trails through the woods. A stream ran through some of the trail. The day was cool and very foggy (hey, this is Maine. I haven't had on shorts for 3 weeks). A plus for Luke ---- blueberries all along the trail!

By the time we got about 30 minutes from the top, we were both bone tired. A rest for a while and we reached the summit, along with several hundred others who had driven to the top.


The fog had mostly cleared and it was amazing to see the topography of the coast of Maine in this region. Beautiful bays, the Atlantic, and multiple smaller islands.

The fog has it's way here. Look at the series of pictures below, fog slowly enveloping one of the islands over about 15 minutes. Amazing.

There was no way I could climb back down the boulders another 2 1/2 hours, so Luke hitchhiked us a ride back from the parking lot. The very first car stopped (how dangerous can 2 old sweaty folks with Richard Petty backpacks and dangling cameras be?). It was a nice couple from Italy, on a 3 week NE US tour.

Our little bikes are great for scooting to town or casual sightseeing, but obviously not for bike trails in Acadia. We rented 2 full size bikes for an adventure along the Carriage Trails of Acadia.

These are trails that Rockefeller put in so his guests could enjoy his property. Much flatter than the road, no cars, and along a couple of lakes. 9 miles this time.

The waterlilies were in full bloom in many of the ponds.

And there were frogs.

and the required perfect scenery.

Saturday was spent doing major laundry, catching the bus back to SW harbor to pick up some things from the marine store, and starting chores. Our plan is to finish up those chores today, get the boat back in sailing shape (i.e. put away everything that can fall), and move to NE Harbor for fuel and water. We then will anchor somewhere further "down east" for the night, as we start our final push further down east for about another week. We'll probably get as far as the Canadian border before we return. Physically, we'll be further north than parts of New Brunswick, but not into Canadian waters. Maine's Down East area is not as cruiser/tourist oriented, and water, diesel, Internet, and cell are not as easy to get. The harbors are working harbors, to support the lobstermen, the workers of those waters. We have full tanks of water and diesel - the plan is to turn around when the first one hits half :-)