It's Acadia Time...Day Five

Up before 8:30 to bright skies and blowing winds.  

It was warm enough this morning that I was able to sit outside with my coffee.

We had talked about going for a bike ride on Schoodic but decided it was too windy and it would be chilly, so we decided to hike Homans Path, to Emery Path, then back to Sieur de Monts.  

We left Edgewater at 11:07, 59* winds @ 11mph.  We drove the long way around, through the park to Rt. 3, then back to Sieur de Monts where we actually found a parking place fairly quickly.  Parked at 11:48, warmed up to 63*.  

We used the bathroom, then headed along the Jessup Path to the Tarn, where we realized we had gone the wrong direction.

The Tarn

Sooo, we checked our map, turned around and walked the right direction to the Homans Path trailhead.

The path was predominantly granite steps uphill for .4 of a mile.  

We were pleasantly surprised to see this on the path.

I felt like this tree was still reaching for the sky, although it had seen better days.

Look at that beautiful blue sky.  What you don't see is the wind...

Then we came across this

Next stop...the end of Homans Path at 1:04, 63* winds @ 14.

There was a beautiful view of The Great Meadow and the Porcupine Islands.

We sat here and ate our snacks before heading down the Emery Path.  Two bald eagles were soaring nearby.

Titan is always with us.

The way down started with this nice flat section, then the steps returned.

Looking back from where we came.

Another look back...

Then we were done, reaching the Sieur de Monts spring and the Emery Path trailhead at 1:36.

As we reached the parking lot, a ranger was excorting a cormorant through the driveway toward the grass.

We've never seen anything like that before.

We left the parking lot at 2:10 and drove to Charlotte's Legendary Lobster Pound in SW Harbor where we sat outside for lunch.  Bill had the clam roll and I had the shrimp roll.  They were yummy.

From there, we drove on to the beach at Seawall.  We sat at one of the picnic tables, ate our chocolate chip cookies from Local 130 in Shapleigh and read for about an hour.  It is such a beautiful, quiet place.

We left at 4:42 and drove back to Edgewater, arriving around 5:20. 64* winds @ 11.

We got most of our stuff packed, ready to leave in the morning.  We ate late so had cheese and crackers for "dinner".  

Another trip to Acadia in the books.

Thanks for stopping by...

;o)

 

It's Acadia Time...Day Four

Up at 8:30, sunny and windy enough to create whitecaps on the water.  

Only 55* and windy.  We both slept well but got cold overnight, having left some of the windows open. Although I always prefer having my coffee on the deck, it was just too darn cold, so I sat inside instead.  We had bagels for breakfast and moved at a snail's pace getting ready for the day.  We didn't leave until 11:41...61* sunny & windy.  

We arrived in  SW Harbor at 12:03 and found a parking space without any hassle.  We wandered through town; Bill bought a really nice print from J.K.Putnam, a photographer I've been following on FB and IG and we bought some Christmas gifts.

We ate lunch at Eat-a-Pita/Cafe 2, sitting in the outside patio, enjoying the sun.  The temperature had climbed to 64*.  Bill had a portabello panini and I had the caprese panini, which was very heavy on spinach.  I forgot the usual food photo...

We left there at 1:56 and drove to Seawall, arriving only ten minutes later.  We parked along the rocky shore, took a short walk to the end of the path, walked back and got our chairs out of the car.  We picked a fairly flat spot, sat and read for an hour. It was perfect when the wind wasn't blowing and tolerable when it was.  64* winds at 20mph

High tide but the wind was blowing out keeping the water at bay

We only discovered this area a couple of years ago but it has become one of our favorite places outside the park.

We left at 3:35, drove into downtown Bar Harbor and scored another parking place (4:15) across from the Village Green.  We were able to walk to Acadia Perks and get iced coffees and a whoopee pie.  Beedandy has some specialty soaps here, which we spotted on one of the shelves and now I wish I had taken a photo ;o(. The problem now was finding a place in the sun, out of the wind, to enjoy our afternoon snacks.  The Ivy Manor has a courtyard, live entertainment and a sign that says "public welcome", so we took a seat in the sun, started enjoying the music and eating our shared whoopee pie.  

Although the public is welcome, outside beverages are not.  While we weren't technically asked to leave, we were told our iced coffees had to go.  So we left, stood on the sidewalk and ate our pie.  

We checked out Bark Harbor, wanting to bring something back for Tessa.  We decided on a moose shaped treat.  

We spent another half hour or so browsing in and out of the various stores, including looking for sock liners at Cadillac Mtn Sports. No luck.  

Reached the car just as our paid parking expired and drove to Pat's Pizza, where we had a thin crust, sausage, pepperoni and bacon pizza.  Got back to Edgewater at 6:52.  The temperature had dropped to 57* and the wind had died down some.

I worked on the blog and we watched "Major League".

Thanks for stopping by...

;o)

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)