It's Acadia Time...Day Three

 Woke up around 8:00 to a beautiful morning, lots of sun 66* but breezy.  It was nice enough to sit on the deck with my strawberry bread and coffee.

We left Edgewater at 10:25 (actually early for us) 72*, and headed to Schoodic Mtn in Sullivan.  We used the maps app, which more often than not, doesn't work very well.  We drove 4.4 miles on a little dirt road and ended up nowhere close to where we needed to be.  I actually texted Wendy, since they did this hike last year, and asked where they parked because there was no parking area or trailhead in sight.  She found us on her phone (modern technology and all) and said to follow the road to the end.  We kept driving, never really finding the "end of the road" and somehow stumbled upon the right place.  There was even a parking space...miracle of miracles ;o). It was now 11:35, 73* with a mix of sun and clouds.  

Although the Alltrails app had comments saying counterclockwise was the best way to go, we didn't see a trailhead, so we walked 1/2 mile down to the beach and headed left, the way Wendy & Dan went.  The beach was beautiful and no one was around.

Schoodic Beach on Donnell Pond

I was thinking it would feel good to wade into the water when we got back down.

We honestly never saw a trailhead marker but we took the first path into the woods that we came across and headed up at 12:12.  It was very steep, we stopped and started often and finally reached the summit at 2:40.

With so many stops, there was a lot of time to notice little things that I might have missed if we had moved at a faster pace.

Shining Waxcaps (Thanks Greg)

dewdrops on a spider web among tiny ferns

Hobble-bush (alder-leaved viburnum)

I'm just gonna call this the Christmas plant ;o). It would make a great art quilt!

I guess fall is not far away...

This cairn marked the intersection of a couple of trails.  I liked the little tree growing so close.

Whenever I find a heart rock, I think it's Titan saying hello and sending some love.

Finally, only .4 of a mile to the summit!  We've been walking forever...

We should have paid more attention to this marker on the way down.

Still time to smell the flowers.

Possibly goldenrod

After a mere two and a half hours, we reached the summit, only to find it was so incredibly windy, we couldn't sit anywhere to enjoy the 360* view while we ate lunch ;o(.  And...there was no summit marker where we could take a picture of ourselves after conquering the steep hike.  What the heck!?  I spent four minutes taking pictures, then we headed down to find a place out of the wind.  FOUR MINUTES after hiking over two hours...

Looking toward Bar Harbor

I wish I knew how to "stitch" these pictures together.  This summit would be the best spot to view the fall foliage.

We did find a place to eat lunch, although not the best of the available views.

The View at Lunch

Bill thinks it might be Tunk Mtn on the right and we suspect this is Donnell Pond with Schoodic Beach on the right end.

We resumed our trek down at 3:12 and when we reached the trail marker, we took the trail to Schoodic Trailhead.  Bill spotted this little fella on the way down.

Eastern Newt (Thanks Greg)

It was very brave and never moved, even when I got close enough to snap the photo.

The Schoodic Trailhead trail dumped us our right at our car at 4:27, 75*.  Unfortunately, the Schoodic Beach trail would have taken us directly to the beach, which is where I wanted to end up, not the parking lot.  After four hours our feet hurt, along with our shoulders, backs and Bill's knees.  There was no way we were going to walk another half mile down to the beach and another half mile uphill to the car.  There would be no soaking of sore feet on this day.

We got back to Edgewater at 5:30, with me sporting a big fat headache.  We sat on the deck and read till 6:00, it was a lovely evening.

We had ham steak, broccoli, tomatoes and cukes for dinner.  Bill cleaned up the dishes, I took a shower, washed and dried my hair.

In year's past, we have hiked and biked for three or four days in a row and it's difficult for us to admit that we are getting older but we fell into bed around 10:15, early for us.  We planned to watch the America's Got Talent finals but fell asleep before the winner was announced.  haha

Thanks for stopping by...

;o)