Dorr Mountain

For the first time, we are in Bar Harbor the same time Wendy & Dan are here.  It didn't happen by chance, we purposely planned it so we could do some hiking together.  Soooo, today is the day.  

We agreed to climb the Kurt Diederich's Climb up Dorr Mtn.  This mountain is named after one of the men responsible for the preservation of much of this area.  We picked the trail up at the Sieur de Monts Nature Center on the East side of the park by taking the Wild Garden Path toward The Tarn.  According to Wikipedia..."A tarn ... is a mountain lake or pool, formed in a cirque excavated by a glacier".

The Tarn actually looks very "marshy" from this angle but when we looked down on it, the appearance was more "watery".

We crossed this awesome granite block bridge at the end of The Tarn

took a photos of "the boys" next to one of the many trail heads we came across

before we finally started climbing.

This climb has lots of granite steps covering half a mile and was originally built in 1913.  

 

 

Nice views of Bar Harbor and the three cruise ships there for the day.  Three cruise ships means...it's good to be on the mountain and not in town!

More pictures of us...

 

Throw back Thursday (although its only Sunday) to the last time Bill and I hiked this trail...September, 2004.  We were so much younger then ;o)

 

Although the leaves are just beginning to turn color, there is some color around.

After two hours, we reached the summit.

Cadillac Mtn in the background

We sat out of the wind, had a snack and took more pictures before heading back down.  (I will edit this when I get the pictures from Wendy.)  
Another TBT from 2004.

We took the North Ridge Trail down, at the suggestion of the Ranger in the Visitor's Center, which was very rocky and kind of sucked.  It had rained earlier in the morning and many of the rocks were wet and slippery.  I know this for a fact because, although Wendy indicated that it was slippery, I took one step, my feet went quickly and completely out from under me and I landed flat on my hip/butt before sliding down the rest of the, thankfully, small rock.  Shortly after that, Bill slipped and was able to catch himself by grabbing some tree branches before coming to a stop.  Luckily, he didn't fall.  I think we were all relieved when we reached the bottom.

We followed the Hemlock Road for a short distance

to the intersection of the Jesup Trail, a beautiful boardwalk trail, back to the nature center.

Bill and I commented that this is possibly one of the only handicap/wheelchair accessible trails in the park.

We arrived back at the car at 2:15 and were surprised at how overcast and foggy it had become.  We drove to the Jordan Pond House where we enjoyed popovers and tea, served by a very unhappy/unpleasant waitress.

Wendy and Dan met us in Bar Harbor where we watched the end of the Broncos game (sorry Payton, you lose) and treated them to dinner to celebrate their THIRD anniversary; nothing special, pizza and burgers.

Thanks for stopping by...
;o)