Day 11 - Saturday in Acadia NP

We set our alarm and woke up at 3:30 am and piled on our coats and headed to Cadillac Mountain to mark another thing off the bucket list.  Cadillac Mountain is, for most of the year, the first place the sun dawns on the United States.  So we went to watch it.  What a beautiful, cold, and windy start of the day!

Brett also took a time lapse sequence of pictures every 10 seconds as the Sun rose and then linked them together to make a movie.


It's been a while since we'd watched a sunrise and it was well worth the trip to the other side of the island to catch it.  The next thing we wanted to do was go on the walk to Bar Island.  There's a sandbar that's exposed 1.5 hours on either side of low tide, allowing you to walk across.  That happened at 8:30 or so, and we went out and strolled around.  The meadow on the island was full of blooming lupines, deer, and butterflies.

After that, we headed down to Jordan Pond Trail and made a detour up to the South Bubble.  The Bubbles are two rounded hills (Megan said they were much more deserving of the name Tetons than the actual Tetons, but hey... [look it up if you don't get the joke]).  The climb we took to the top was again "strenuous" and actually required a minimal knowledge of rock climbing and the use of a couple of iron rungs jammed into rock faces.

There were some families with children who had come up the other side of the mountain at the top.  They leaned over the edge of the mountain and said "how do you get down on this side?"  to which we replied "down the cliff face."  They all turned around and went back the other way except for a grandfather whose grandkids wouldn't let him turn around.  We did see them safely later at the bottom, but we did agree they should have a warning sign to let people know what they're in for.

But either way you come up the mountain, the view from the top is amazing!

At the top of the South Bubble is a boulder that was left by a glacier during the last ice age.  It's popular to try to push it off... much like the sword in the stone, except that if anyone actually did push it off it'd probably do a lot of damage smashing its way down into the valley.

We got back on the Jordan Pond Trail and made it back to our car for a picnic before driving down to Sand Beach to catch the trailhead to The Bowl, a quick walk out to a bowl shaped glacial pond.

From the first hike on Perpendicular and Mansell Mountain we started noticing a theme. Every single hike in Maine, except the Appalachian Trail, was blazed blue. The point of blazes is so you'll know that you're still on the right path. Not in Maine. The point of blazes is to mark that you're supposed to climb up a rock face or not get lost following down the middle of an active streamed (both things that, in our opinion aren't usually trails, so they DO require marking). We carried our trail map with us, but sometimes it was just nice to keep walking. The blue blazes failed us when we wandered off the short hike and onto a long mountain summiting hike, just following the string of blue blazes. 

But the views were beautiful and it turned out to be a nice detour.

After all our hikes, we turned back to camp to begin packing up to head into the wilds of the North Woods the next morning.

As usual a slideshow is below or you can see the full album here.

A Break in the Trip Reports - Just Tastings!

Taking a quick break in the reports of our trip, we made our regular trip to Vintage Cellar for the Saturday wine tasting and we also boldly attempted to match a wine to our dinner on Sunday night, beef stroganoff.  I will confess that the latter was quite the difficult match in our heads so we reverted to  Google for help.  Here's the very first link that popped up:

Sigh... we read through many posts and there was conflicting advice.  We eventually settled on a Cotes du Rhone as Brett thought red was going to work better than white.

Anyway, here are the reviews:

156. 2007 - Sbragia Family - Cabernet Sauvignon Andolsen Vineyard - this was amazing and on special 
157. 2010 - Bodega Catena Zapata - Cabernet Sauvignon - this was nice, but not as nice as the above
158. 2011 - Familia Mayol - Malbec - this was a pretty fair Malbec
159. 2011 - Cà La Bionda - Valpolicella Classico
160. 2011 Lagar de Costa Albariño Rías Baixas Doelas - this was an interesting albarino, definitely good with food or just to drink
161. 2011- Bodega Los Aljibes - Syrah Viña Aljibes Rosado - good grief this was fun;  a rose of syrah where the nose is all fruit (mostly strawberry), but the wine itself is crisp and refreshing and not nearly as sweet as the nose might lead you to expect;  great for summer!
162. 2012 - Château Les Arromans - semillion and sauvignon blanc blend
163. 2010 - Saint-Cosme  - Côtes du Rhône  - our beef stroganoff pairing.  This went pretty darn well but because of our last minute decision to have wine with dinner, it did not get opened nearly early enough to get some time to breathe.  It was much much better a couple hours after dinner was over.  

We'll be wrapping up our trip reports in the next few days as we go through the remaining pictures and videos.  We should easily crest 200 and probably be very close to 250 total new tastes at that point!  Stay tuned!

Day 10 - Friday in Acadia NP

Our handy NOAA forecaster said that it would rain again Friday morning, so we planned to spend the morning out of the rain and in the laundomat. It was about the halfway point in our trip and we were running short on dry, warm clothing. Of course we spent hours in the laundromat and it never did rain, but our legs enjoyed the rest after Perpendicular trail the day before, so we drove into Bar Harbor as we had planned to score a lobster roll.

Megan had never heard of a lobster roll and while she doesn't do seafood normally, Brett was going to get one. After looking up reviews, we headed to one of the best rated places in Bar Harbor, Side Street Cafe, and sat down for a bite. Megan ordered a Philly Cheesesteak. She loves cheesesteak and was a little heartbroken after the disappointing one in Philly. This one was great! Brett got a lobster roll, so here's the tasting note since neither of us had ever tried one and we both had some as well as Megan's drink with lunch (Brett unknowingly ordered a Shipyard Blue Fin Stout which happens to be the exact same stout from Sea Dog Brewing!  Really guys?  We're trying to get 1000 new tastes here - help us out!).

146. Side Street Cafe's Lobster Roll. It boasted the meat of one and a half lobsters. The meat was fresh and well seasoned, but in the end this isn't our cup of tea. It's a mayo and spice mixed concoction on a buttered and grilled piece of toast. Chicken salad (Megan) or tuna salad (Brett) does it better, not because SSC did a bad job, just because neither of us really care about lobster.  

147. Baxter Brewing Company - Pamola Xtra Pale Ale

After killing a little time in Bar Harbor we set off to try the tastings at Atlantic Brewing Company.  The employees seemed less than excited to be at work that day and wouldn't pour us tasters until after a tour finished - 15 minutes later.  This put us too late in the day to try to the winery and coffee roasters, Bar Harbor Cellars after we left.  So that was a bummer.  Fortunately the beer wasn't as bad as the service.

148. Atlantic Brewing - Mount Desert Island Ginger Beer
149. Atlantic Brewing - Bar Harbor Real Ale
150. Atlantic Brewing - Manly Men Beer Club New Guy IPA
151. Atlantic Brewing - Coal Porter
152. Atlantic Brewing - Old Soaker Root Beer:  Pretty good root beer, but just like their blueberry soda it's too sweet.  This is less offensive than the blueberry soda, but there are better root beers out there for the same price as a bottle of this.

Quick summary - the Baxter Brewing Xtra Pale Ale was the best of the lot, although the Real Ale from Atlantic Brewing wasn't bad either, but there was nothing truly exceptional.

After that we needed to re-up our perishables, so we stopped off at Little Notch Bakery (the Southwest Harbor location - website is apparently under construction) for bread and dessert before going back to camp for dinner and a new beer.

153. Little Notch Bakery Blueberry Tart - shaped more like a fried pie, but less greasy, light and fluffy, great crust, filling was a little tart (Megan says very tart, but Brett thought barely tart so we'll compromise - Brett's taste buds don't think hardly anything is too sour or too tart) - super yummy.
154. Little Notch Bakery Honey Oatmeal Bread - after the great tart, this was disappointing.  The bread appeared to be a fresh loaf when purchased.   We had it sliced and made sandwiches the next day and the bread was very dry - disappointing to say the least.  It made us wish we'd had more yeast rolls from the When Pigs Fly bakery.
155. Baxter Brewing - Amber Road 

After dinner we let the fire die down a little and go back out to Bass Harbor Light.  This time we get the picture!  From the parking lot of the lighthouse there is a path on the left as you pull in.  It's not particularly well marked and it was pouring when we were there the first time, so we didn't even see it.  This time we followed the crowds down the path away from the light house so we could climb out on the rocks and look back at the lighthouse as the sun set.  Of course being almost the solstice we didn't get to see the sun very well, but the colors were indeed quite beautiful.

We only have 4 good photos from today, so no link to the album or slideshow since all 4 pictures are on this entry.

Day 9 - Thursday in Acadia NP

Waking up Thursday morning was like coming out of a sensory deprivation tank.  We had gotten several inches of rain in the past 2 days. But this morning, there were sounds of birds singing and light and shadows danced across the tent through the trees. It was beautiful and magical and ... 5:15 in the morning.  The sun sure does come up early at those latitudes!

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.

It took us nearly 2 hours to do the one mile hike to the summit, but it was worth it.

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.

Day 8 - Wednesday in Acadia NP

We finally got up in the morning, to the lovely sound of still more rain and inspected the damage from the raccoon. The little bugger had dumped over the food totes, but the ratchet straps held.  The food wasn't touched, but the syrup bottle had leaked all over everything requiring a serious wipe down.

The rain had continued all through the first night, the day before, and all that night.  It was a hard, pouring rain that had soaked through our rain coats more than once.  Even the slugs were drowning.

Our 14'x14' screen canopy "slice of heaven" became more like the nonsmoking section at a smoking restaurant. Sure, you're not right next to the smokers, but you're still coughing and sneezing. We weren't getting poured on, but we were getting more and more drips on us as the wind and rain put the canopy to tests it wasn't designed for.

Nothing was dry. If it wasn't getting rained on directly or dripped on slowly it was damp.  The tent was waterproof and no water came in directly, but our sleeping bags were damp making the upper 30s temperature not that great for sleeping. We would have given up and gotten a hotel, but the only thing worse than being in camp in the pouring rain is breaking camp in the pouring rain and schlepping all that back to our car in the wet wheelbarrows. We lived for Thursday.

The campground had no cell service so we used our emergency radio to get NOAA forecasts.  The weather gods were going to shine down sun and breezes on Thursday.  We told ourselves to eat well, do what we could to go on short hikes between downpours, and plan for an epic outdoor adventure of a day for Thursday.  To ease the pain of another day without hiking, biking, or kayaking (our planned itinerary) we went into Bar Harbor and did a tasting at the Bar Harbor Brewery and Soda Co.  It's now owned by Atlantic Brewing Company, but still maintains an independent label.

140. Bar Harbor Brewing - True Blue Blueberry Ale
141. Bar Harbor Brewing - Thunder Hole Ale
142. Bar Harbor Brewing - Cadillac Mountain Stout
143. Atlantic Brewing - Summer Ale
144. Bar Harbor Brewing - Old Soaker Blueberry Soda - We thought it sounded like a great idea.  It's Maine, home of the blueberry "caviar."  But it was sickeningly sweet and left a foul aftertaste.  We even saw people try all of the beers but dump the soda in the spit can.  It was probably a good idea.  Stay away.
145. Sheila G's Chocolate Chip Brownie Brittle - If you're like Brett, you like the edge of brownies because they're crunchy.  Sure they have those pans that provide all edges to each brownie, but this has gone one step further and made the whole thing into basically a thin cracker.  These are delicious.  We didn't even know they had other flavors, but definitely going to get more to eat and try.  

We also got a chance to do a little bit of walking as the rain turned to a drizzle.  We walked the 4+ miles out and back along the Ocean Path trail from Sandy Beach to Otter Point.  

It was great to get out and enjoy the views and the trail was only somewhat flooded and only occasionally had water actively running down it, so it seemed reasonable after a day and a half of cabin (tent?) fever.  We got quite a few pictures and managed to keep the camera mostly dry!

As usual, a slideshow of the pictures from the day are below.  The full album, and 3 different movies, can be found here.

Day 7 - Tuesday in Acadia National Park

We knew that the rain would put a damper on our day, but we were excited to get out and enjoy some of the park, so we went down to the Wonderland trail, which is near the campground.  It's a short hike that, according to the guidebook, shows hikers how the forest leads right to the shore.  But it was so foggy and rainy that we didn't hang around much to admire the ecosystem.  The rain, fog, and blowing wind did feel like what we imagined Maine would feel like.  (Megan's view of Maine was almost entirely made up from watching Pete's Dragon as a child and the rainy day wasn't too far off from the night Elliot has to light the wick.)  Or that guy on the Gorton's fish stick packages - it seemed like his life.


After getting soggy on the short hike, we dropped plans to keep hiking and went driving around in search of NPS stamps.  The whole stamping thing has gotten a little out of control.  In the beginning, many many years ago, each site or park got their own stamp with their name and the date.  Then they made individual stamps for visitor centers or oft-frequented ranger stations.  This makes sense for big parks, to differentiate between only seeing parts of it.  However, in Acadia, they've struck a deal with the gift shop owners to include a unique stamp for each visitor center AND gift shop.  Since it was a rainy day, driving from gift shop to gift shop didn't seem like a bad way to spend it and Megan got 6 or so stamps.

We had hoped that the pouring rain would let up and let us walk around a bit more in the park, but that was not meant to be.  There were driving winds and rain most of the day and getting stamps became an obstacle course: sprint as fast as you can but don't stamp in the puddles on the way into the gift shop.  We were soaked through our rain jackets (we each brought 2 so we kept switching back and forth) more than once that day and didn't really take any pictures.

By evening the "cats and dogs" had slacked off to "just raining" so after dinner we tried for a bucket list item.  It had been listed on several pinterest "must do before you die" lists to "watch the sun set from Bass Harbor Lighthouse".  We thought maybe the clouds would lift a little more and make for a pretty sunset.  Nope.  The clouds settled on the water as impenetrable fog.  But listening to the tolling of the fog bells was fun - until the rain came back.  Then we just got in the car and headed back to camp to wait out the rain and catch up on reading.

And now a quick comparison of what we were supposed to see:

From Day 7 - Tuesday Acadia National Park

and what we did see.

From Day 7 - Tuesday Acadia National Park

During the night, however, Megan woke up to a sound outside the tent she couldn't identify.  It was quickly followed by a "bang crash" that was definitely identifiable.  We had been warned to use ratchet straps on our food containers because the raccoons can open rubbermaid totes.  We had done so, but that didn't stop the little bugger from knocking our food totes off the picnic table just to see if he could get into it.  Megan did the brave thing and woke Brett up and insisted that if the raccoon was rabid, he would probably be less likely to be bit because boys apparently have a force field for things that go bump in the night.  He hung his head around the tent and shined a flashlight through the rain and the big eyes of the raccoon stared back at him before running off.  Between the sound of the rain pouring on the tent and the story the ranger had told us about how sometimes the raccoons will shred tents, there wasn't much more sleeping to be had that night.    

Slideshow is below or you can look at the full album here.

Day 6 - Portland, ME to Acadia National Park

After packing up camp and admiring the pink lady slippers blooming around the edge of the site, we headed out to Acadia with an important stop along the way: the LL Bean flagship store.  It was only a 2.5 hour drive to Acadia, so we figured we could kill a little time shopping before heading up there.

To call it a "store" is just not adequate.  To start with, there are 5 free standing store buildings in a complex that make up the "store".  There's a store for bikes and a store for home decor and a store for clothes and... you get the picture.  The camping store was a wonderland of gadgets you didn't even know you needed, like stackable coolers, dehydrated ice cream, and propane crockpots.  Between the sales on clothes and the in-house coffee shop, we lost several hours of the day but did get a new, lighter griddle for our trip as the old one was getting a bit scratched.  We also found out that the Stonewall Kitchen brand was nearby.  We love what we've had of theirs (dips and salad dressings) but can only find them at Fresh Market around here.  There were products of theirs that we hadn't even imagined.  This started our collection of the "things to take home and taste".  That collection became a space issue later in the trip until we decided it didn't really matter if Brett could see out of the back window.  It's not a problem problem - it's a perspective problem.

At the LL Bean flagship store complex.

After tearing ourselves from the time sucking vortex that was LL Bean, we walked down to a highly recommended bakery and bought a few things for our week in Acadia.  When Pigs Fly Bakery was *amazing*.  They had samples out and everything was delicious!  We got yeast rolls for sandwiches, focaccia for some Italian meals and some outstanding giant cookies for hikes.

[Standby for tasting note]
140. When Pigs Fly Bakery: The lemonade blueberry sugar cookie was out of this world and stayed soft for days.  Unfortunately there's not a link available to the cookie as they change stock constantly. It's a good thing they do mail order because we will need to try more from them now that we can be at home and freeze some loaves.

We drove along the coast to get to Acadia and enjoyed the scenery and the nice weather.  It was getting cooler, but there wasn't any rain and we figured we'd get to the park in time to set up camp and then maybe go out for a quick hike or stroll around.  Sadly, the GPS did NOT understand that cars aren't allowed on the "carriage roads" in the park and was sending us in all kinds of wrong ways.  It added another hour to the drive but we got turned around and went to the appropriate campground.

We chose the Seawall campground for our stay because all of the reviews talk about how quiet it is.  In fact people call that side of the park "quiet side".  This sounded perfect because 7 days of listening to dogs barking and generators running isn't our idea of fun.  To further keep the campsite quiet, we requested the D loop.  It has walk in sites.  You tell them how far you're willing to walk and when you get there, the ranger picks a site for you and you borrow a rusty wheelbarrow to cart your stuff from the car to your site.  The ranger greeted us and talked about the coming rain (we had hoped we had left that in Philly!) and said not to worry because she'd pick an "uphill" spot for us.  Turns out that nothing is really uphill when everything is sea level.  There was standing water everywhere, even before the rain began that night.

The campsite on the "uphill" side.  This is also known as mosquito Disney World.

The good news was that we hurried and got camp set up before the rain and the sunset.  It was a bit of a walk but we weren't near anyone else.

Back at the start of the trip, when we were packing up the Edge after picking it up from the rental car, there was clearly an issue with space.  What had fit easily in the back of the truck was NOT going to fit in the SUV.  We had to leave some of our precious cargo behind.  We mostly picked things like some of our fire starting stuff, a table that we could manage without, and kitchen-creature-comforts, like tongs and metal marshmallow sticks (don't judge!).  We almost left a screen canopy/tent that we have.  It's big (14'x14') and doesn't pack down small or light.  We didn't think we'd ever bother to set it up, but Megan had insisted that it go in case of rain - so we could tie a tarp over it and have a place to cook.  That first night in Acadia we set up our tent and then went to put up the screen room (since it was clearly going to rain the next day) and it turned out that it was massive and barely fit in the site.  We had it crammed between trees and stretched in funny ways to get it out of the standing water.

Home sweet camp with our screen room sort of in the site.

However, it had 2 features that would be immensely important the next 6 days: the screen meant that the mosquitos couldn't eat us alive and a roof that kept us mostly dry.  It was like a 14'x14' slice of heaven in the midst of a cold, pouring, mosquito-y few days that started our time in Maine.