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Published: October 31st 2007
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Obfuscator writes: Having been up pretty late the night before with uploading material and laundry, we awoke fairly late in Bar Harbor. Our plan for the day was to explore Acadia National Park, the second smallest National Park in the service, at least according to our 1989 National Geographic Guide Book (which was perhaps the greatest 50¢ investment ever). We stopped first at the Visitor's Center to see if there was anything we could possibly need to know, and it turned out that there wasn't. Camping was only available in one of the campgrounds, but they didn't anticipate we'd have any trouble finding a spot, since twenty had been available the night before, and this was a Sunday.
The weather couldn't have been better for viewing a National Park. It was sunny and very clear. It was a bit on the chilly side, being in the 50s throughout the day, but this seemed appropriate for fall explorations. We took the scenic park drive through the eastern part of the Mount Desert Island section of the park. We stopped a number of times in various spots for pictures of the stunning views we were getting of Frenchman Bay, which is the
bay that Bar Harbor is in. It's also the bay that Frenchmen used to hide their ships so they could attack the British.
Our first serious stop was at the Precipice Trail, which leads up to the summit of Champlain Mountain. Though not the tallest mountain there, Champlain Mountain is over 1,000 feet tall, and the Precipice Trail is more or less a vertical climb. The sign at the beginning warns tourists that while it isn't a “technical climb,” and requires no special equipment, that it should not be undertaken by people who aren't in good shape. We definitely found that to be true. The ONLY reason it isn't a technical climb is that they've put in steel bars to be used as hand and footholds at various places in the trail. Otherwise you'd need pitons and rope, or something. As you get up closer to the top, there's a sign that helpfully tells you that coming back down is harder than it was going up, and that if you want, there's another easier path back down. It's my personal opinion that they placed that particular sign extremely strategically, right after the most extendedly vertical part of the climb.
From the top of Mount Champlain,we could see in most every direction. To our west you could see Mount Cadillac, the tallest mountain on the East Coast in the United States, at a bit over 1,500 feet. To our south was just a bit more island, and then the Atlantic. To the east and north we could see Bar Harbor, and Frenchman Bay, with all of its little islands. It's worth noting that Bar Harbor is on Mount Desert Island, which isn't really very big. The island is probably only about 12 miles by 12 miles, and is home to a few tiny communities like Bar Harbor, as well as a lot of National Park land. The park started out extremely small, and grew over time through donations of land from citizens to its current size.
Up on top of Mt. Champlain, it was cold. It wasn't really that it was any colder that high up, it's just that the wind was very strong. It wasn't quite as strong as it was on the Buffalo Bill Dam, but it was strong enough that it made you feel extremely cold, and when it gusted strongly, it could definitely give you
a good shove. There were also some cool little ponds on top of the mountain, which helped explain why there was such a constant trickle from above during our climb up.
We took the easier way down, which had the unfortunate side effect of putting us a fair ways from where we had parked. Once underway again, we made a few more stops at Otter cliffs (where there were no otters to be found), Jordan Pond (where there's a house that's been serving tea for many years), and Bubble Pond, before proceeding to Cadillac Mountain. Luckily for us, Cadillac Mountain has a drive that takes you all the way up to the top. The view from here was much like that from Champlain Mountain, but without the sense of accomplishment, and with even gustier, colder winds.
By now it was getting pretty late in the day, and we still hadn't seen anything on the western part of the Island, or the fjord. Since we didn't want to spend another full day in Acadia, knowing that we had to be in Boston by Tuesday, we decided we'd fit in one more thing. Somes Sound is the only fjord in
North America. By Norwegian standards, I'm sure it's a bit of a dwarf, but it was still really neat to see. We drove around to the western part of the Island and climbed up to the summit of Mount Acadia, which is about 680 feet up. This afforded us a very nice view of the fjord in late afternoon, and the sun setting over the mountains in the west of the island.
When we were done with that, it was only a matter of climbing back down to the car in the darkening twilight. On our way down we encountered a couple, and they seemed happy to follow us, since they were having trouble following the path. We eventually lost the path in the dark too, but by that point we were only a short distance from the road, and we could clearly hear the cars, so everyone made it out safely. We headed back to the east part of the park, and into the only open campground, where we made ourselves dinner and tried to burn some very wet logs for a few hours. (Onaxthiel notes: When we went to bed, the moon, which was waning, but still
nearly full, was obscenely bright.)
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