We didn't want to waste a moment, so we made breakfast, packed lunch and picked a couple of hikes we wanted to get in. Tired of driving to the Bar Harbor side of the island for the past 3 days, we stuck around on the quiet side. The trails on our map were marked "easy" "moderate" and "strenuous". The first one we wanted to do was "strenuous" but we're not *that* out of shape and have no problem with strenuous hikes in VA. So we tackled the Perpendicular Trail up and Mansell Mountain Trail back down to make a loop. The Perpendicular Trail is made up of several hundreds of granite stairs cut into the mountain, creating a trail that runs mostly perpendicular to the elevation contour lines. We weren't scared of a few steps, so off we went. But, as we eventually figured out, people in Maine seem to make downplaying things an art form. For example, when they say "pond" they mean a body of water that rivals the Indian Ocean and when they say "stairs" they mean squared off boulders that are hip-high. It was part stair climb, part boulder scramble, and part orienteering practice.
The climb down was a longer hike, but according to descriptions, easier. So after a picnic on the summit, we started back down the other side of the mountain. The trail up on Perpendicular had been painstakingly crafted by the Civilian Conservation Corps. We're pretty sure the trail down on Mansell Mountain was crafted by a drunk person who stumbled down the mountain while carrying a can of blue spray paint. We just followed the rocks where the water washed down the mountain, with blue blazes to mark that we were on the right path. We just kept waiting for one of us to turn an ankle or worse. That is not a trail. That is a wash. Figure it out and build a trail.
After picnicking in the back of the SUV and noshing on some When Pigs Fly bread and sandwich makings, we headed over to Echo Lake for some more taking-in-of-views. Having had enough of stairs, we opted for the Beech Cliff Ladder hike and swapped out stair climbs for rusty ladders to get up the mountain face.
After enjoying the view of Echo Lake from the summit, we did the cliff loop and then back down an "easy" trail to complete the loop. "Easy" is another one of those words that they like to downplay in Maine. More than once on this trip we were amazed that things that required a level of agility, sure-footedness, and strength to maneuver were listed as "easy". In Virginia, hikes labeled as "easy" are usually synonymous with "no special shoes needed" and "stroller friendly". There are even some wheelchair hikes in the Smokies that are ADA compliant! Around Acadia it means "may need to walk across logs, climb over short boulders, and wade through bogs".
After we got back to camp and had dinner, we decided to see if we could nail that "sunset at Bass Harbor Light" bucket list item again. We had seen some stock picturesof it before the trip and after going to the lighthouse the first time, it was clear we were looking at it from the wrong direction. This time we tried the trail to the east of the light,Ship Harbor, thinking we'd be able to look back on the lighthouse like the picture. That was a nice little trail with minimal standing water out to the rocky point. However, it does NOT afford a view of the lighthouse. You can hear the bells tolling on the buoys, but no lighthouse. It didn't really matter since the cloud cover made for a less than spectacular sunset anyway, but we knew tomorrow might be our last chance since Saturday night we needed to start breaking camp to leave early Sunday morning.
As usual, a slideshow is below or you can see the full album here.
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