Acadia National Park
Pre-trip and Day 1
Our trip to Maine was almost one that didn’t happen. I had reached out to my friend, S, many months ago to see if he was interested in doing a fall leaf peeping trip with me. He agreed, we both requested the time off work, and then we exchanged occasional text messages of links to social media posts with videos of fall getaways, occasionally interjecting that we should probably start planning our trip. It wasn’t until 3 weeks before we would leave that we finally sat down one evening after work and booked our plane tickets and lodging. It took a bit of coordinating, since we were flying from different states, but everything turned out very smoothly.
The first day was a travel day. For me and Cody, it was only a 1.5-hour direct flight to Boston. S would get in a few minutes before us, and we met him at the rental car center. We were hungry but decided to drive a little bit out of the city before settling down for lunch. Usually when you’re on a trip with people of varying preferences, it can take a while to find a place that everyone agrees on. Miraculously, we settled on a Vietnamese restaurant and 0.1 miles later, we were turning into the parking lot. Cody and I had pho, with milk tea, that was very tasty.
With full stomachs, we were ready to continue our drive north. One of the few stops we made on the way was Portland, Maine. We saw the Portland Head Lighthouse and walked around downtown, getting a coffee at Arabica Coffee Company. Cody got a hot chocolate, and S got an iced blueberry pancake latte… fancy! A few hours later, we picked up groceries at Shaw’s. We thought about getting a frozen pizza to share for dinner, but S had the great idea to get a pizza from a local shop. We went to Finelli NY pizzeria. It looked like an authentic pizzeria, in a run down building with bright red and yellow exterior paint. When you walked in, the walls were filled with vintage signs and fixtures. There was one large pizza oven behind the old-school counter. We ordered a Marguerita pizza with chicken wings (salt and vinegar and garlic parmesan). Since we were still about an hour away from our Airbnb and I wanted to experience the freshest slice, we sat in the car, eating delicious thin-crust pizza, with the heat steaming up the windows of the car.
Around 9 pm, we arrived at our Airbnb in Tremont, Maine, stepping into what appeared like Grandma’s vacation cottage. The walls were adorned with wallpaper with printed bird designs and needle point-inspired artwork. The wooden floors were covered in trip hazards, aka rugs. It was cozy with a small kitchen stocked with periwinkle blue dishware and a small breakfast nook. The living room area had a 24-inch television sitting atop a wooden dresser. There were two bedrooms made up with quilted bedding, where we settled in for the night.
Day 2
We wandered around Southwest Harbor looking for a coffee place and stumbled onto a soup kitchen holding a summer fundraiser event. For a donation, we were able to enjoy coffee, tea and popovers with your choice of maple walnut butter, cinnamon sugar, or blueberry jam. We sat outside and listened to an older man playing his ukelele while singing classic songs.
On this day, a lot of our time was spent exploring the Island Explorer bus system. There are eleven bus lines that circle the island, so it takes some thought to figure out how to get to your destination. The most popular stops for us ended up being downtown Bar Harbor and Acadia’s visitor center. We also utilized the Park Loop Road route, stopping at the more iconic sites of the park. At many of the bus stops, there are bus ambassadors guiding you where to go. All the Island Explorer employees we met were retirement-aged, with silver hair, donned with L.L. Bean polo shirts. Coincidentally, it seemed like 80% of the Acadia visitor population also matched this description. The bus ambassadors are nice, asking people where they want to go, and directing them to the correct bus line. When they weren’t helping patrons to their buses, they were blowing bubbles and entertaining children waiting at the bus stop.
We took multiple buses to get to Jordan Pond. It is one of the most recognizable sites in the park being the second largest lake in Acadia and is Seal Harbor’s water supply. It is encircled by cedar and spruce forests with the Bubble mountains off in the distance. My friend, S, who is a radiologist that specializes in breast imaging, commented on how the view complemented the month of October, breast cancer awareness month! We took a walk along the 3.3 mile path encircling Jordan Pond. Much of the trail involved walking along elevated wooden planks.
The Bubbles at Jordan Pond
We went to Bar Harbor for lunch, ordering from a sandwich shop called Lunch. I had a chicken curry sandwich and Cody had a three-cheese grilled cheese sandwich. As we were eating, we listened to the interesting and crude humor of the shop worker. He jokingly called BBQ chips, Bar-Harbor-Q chips, and when he was circling around the restaurant calling out a “Virginia” to deliver her sandwich, he quipped “Virgin for short, but not for long.”
When Cody and I were in Montana, we had a fun time kayaking the peaceful waters of Lake McDonald, so we signed up for a kayaking tour of Frenchman Bay. It was a completely different experience on the choppy ocean waters, dodging lobster boats and the Margaret Todd, the 151 foot long, four-masted schooner that cruises through the Bay. I had some fun with the new challenge; however, S tells us this was the worst part of the trip for him. Most of us were in tandem kayaks, and I partnered with S. Cody was on his own in a single kayak.
In my kayak with S, I sat in the back, in charge of the rudder, pressing pedals that would turn us right or left. Not only did we wear life jackets, but we also needed to wear spray skirts to prevent water from getting into the boat or onto us (I was still soaked). S and I were the weakest link of the group. I wasn’t very good at steering, and I’m sure we expended a lot of our energy zig zagging back and forth through the waters. Our communication was probably decent though – S would direct me to go right, and I would say “Right!” to ensure closed loop communication. I would also throw in a couple enthusiastic “Yes, captain!” to really get us into the seafaring mood.
We were so far away from the group, I couldn’t hear much of the tour commentary from our guide, Tim. What I did learn is that we were navigating around the porcupine islands. There are multiple porcupine islands, including Sheep Porcupine, Burnt Porcupine, Long Porcupine, and Bald Porcupine. They get their name from their rounded domes topped with evergreen trees that look like the spikes on a porcupine. The slopes were formed by ice-age glaciers moving north to south. Burnt Porcupine is the only privately-owned island, and all the others are owned by the park. Also, Bald Porcupine is Cody’s favorite (just kidding).
A much needed rest during our kayaking adventures.
Luckily, we made it back to shore mostly unscathed. We had dinner at Side Street Café. I had chicken curry and Cody had mac and cheese with pulled pork.
Day 3
Cody had to work for a few hours in the morning. We were running a bit behind, so S dropped him off at a coffee shop in Bar Harbor. We drove on to park at the visitor’s center before taking a bus back to meet him. S and I wandered around the Village Green and the neighboring shops. One of the more interesting shops was filled with handmade wooden trinkets that smelled like pine and cedar. We also tracked down some smashed penny machines, so I added three more to my collection. We went to ChocoLatte café for drinks and lunch. It was described as a “chocolate café, from Mexico to Maine.” I had a latte, hazelnut croissant, and chicken salad. Cody had a quesadilla.
For our hike, we went on Ocean Path. It starts at Sand Beach. The trail mostly follows Park Loop Road, with offshoots to get closer to the rocky cliffside/ shore. There were areas on the path that smelled like the salty ocean waters and pine trees. Along the way, we saw many different types of moss, asters, partridge berries and late goldenrod. There were trees with impressive burls. About halfway through the walk, we encountered Thunder Hole. It is a small inlet carved into the coast of Mount Desert Island. If you are here during high tide or a storm, the way the water enters and leaves this cave lets out a thunderous boom. We were there around low tide, but it was still impressive! We walked a little further toward Otters Cliff before catching a bus back to the visitor’s center. The bus driver was amusing. He seemed disappointed when people were not getting off the bus; “Anyone for bubble pond? Nooo… sigh.” He also had nods of disapproval when a fellow bus driver quickly rounded a bend, almost driving us off the road.
Dinner was leftovers at home. We went out again around 8:30 pm to go stargazing at Sea Wall. It was a little scary at first, being somewhere unknown in the pitch-black darkness. There was a large truck following behind us, which made S and I feel like we were in a horror movie about to be murdered. Once our eyes acclimated to the darkness, we recognized that the other person was another stargazer and acquiesced to Cody's requests to turn the lights off and get out of the car.
We walked out a little bit toward the shore and laid supine on the smooth rocks to admire the Milky Way and bright-shining stars. We even saw a few shooting stars! It was peaceful hearing the calming sounds of the waves and the distant ringing fog bells. There were some occasional wafts of marijuana smoke from nearby stargazers, but other than that, a fun time!
Day 4
At our location, we were not yet at peak leaf color, with about 10-30% color change for the first week of October. As the days went on, we noticed that the leaves were changing colors before our eyes. The yellows and reds were becoming more prominent as we drove into the park each day! The process in which leaves change color in the fall is called abscission. When unfavorable weather comes, the trees have specialized cells that trigger a process to help absorb water and nutrients from the leaves to store in their roots for later use. One of the first nutrients broken down is chlorophyll, which is why we see the beautiful golden hues.
On this day, Cody and I did some hikes on our own. S wasn’t too excited to go rock scrambling or climb ladders up the side of a cliff. He’s likely the wise one of this group. He dropped us off at the visitor’s center, and we caught a bus to go to Sieur de Monts. The Precipice trailhead was a bit of a walk away from here. (Later, we realized that we could have asked the bus driver to drop us off at the trailhead! We didn’t even think to ask, since it wasn’t a stop on the map.) Well, we walked about an hour before getting to the Egg Rock viewpoint. Across the street was the start of the Orange and Black Trail. Cody found that this trail led to the Precipice Trail, so we decided to jump on it to avoid the continued monotony of walking along the road.
Well, it definitely added some excitement to our hike. We were scrambling up and down granite slabs for about 0.5 miles, trying carefully to avoid twisting an ankle or breaking any bones. We didn’t see too many people on this path, but once we got to the junction where the Precipice Trail started, we encountered many more people ready to take on the “Angel’s Landing of the East.”
I guess I can see why some people compare Angel’s Landing in Zion National Park to Precipice Trail. It is a challenging hike, with narrow ledges and sharp drop-offs. On Precipice Trail, we saw signs referring to the hike as a “non-technical climb.” I agree with this, since much of the trail is not about walking, but involves using metal rungs and finding a good grip on a rock formation to pull your body up the cliff face.
Since Cody and I are novice indoor rock climbers, I would describe this trail as “bouldering with cheat codes.” I would look at the rock with a goal to get to the top, starting my way up, trying to figure out the “problem.” Whenever I got to a tricky part, there was always a metal rung to use as a hand or foot hold to help me bypass it. I would rate it no harder than a “VB.” For me and Cody, it wasn’t too challenging, physically or mentally. We did see other people struggle on their way up, taking frequent rest breaks. When we got to the summit of Champlain Mountain, I observed a couple around our age. The woman looked like she was having fun, but her partner looked shaken up. Reading his lips, I saw him say to her, “I’m scared.”
Cody tells me that two years ago, he wouldn’t have been able to do this hike because of his fear of heights. Now that he climbs, he feels more confident in his abilities and is more desensitized to climbing 1000 feet above the ocean. We always try to be cautious, knowing that severe injury or death is a possibility. We also have a veto rule where either one of us can veto a hike/climb at any point, and we will turn back.
We walked down Beachcroft Path Trail that was very rocky with downward-sloping rock slabs leading us back toward the road. We saw the colorful fall leaves with views of the ocean in two directions. We caught the bus to go downtown to have lunch. I had a prosciutto sandwich with fig jam, and Cody had the grilled cheese sandwich (again). After, we wanted to fit in another hike, so we went back to the park to tackle the Beehive Loop Trail.
The Beehive Loop Trail is considered the easier version of the Precipice Trail, and the more heavily trafficked of the two trails. It is only 1.5 miles long, with an elevation gain of just over 500 feet to summit The Beehive. It starts out with a “choose your own adventure,” path navigating through a boulder field. Cody chose “the floor is lava” approach, and hopped along the boulders, avoiding touching the ground. Continuing on, I found this trail to be equal in difficulty to Precipice, just shorter. We used the same skill set to climb the metal ladders and traverse narrow cliffs. I found some areas of the rock more slick than Precipice trail, due to heavy foot traffic smoothing out the stone.
We completed this hike earlier than expected and took the bus back downtown. We sat at a bar, called Bar (which was just next door to the lunch restaurant called Lunch), and had a drink while waiting for S to pick us up. The Bar was a small locale, with old pictures of Fenway Park and signs like “Drink beer, it makes you smaaat,” covering the walls. To pass the time, the bartender occasionally took out a salt gun to shoot at pesky flies. I had a cider from a cidery in Maine (Freedom’s Edge Cider – The Juice). Cody perused the bourbon offerings and had Barrel Bourbon 31 and an Old Forester single barrel (smelled like butterscotch, while also burning my nostrils).
Day 5
At 1506 feet, Cadillac Mountain is the highest point on the eastern seaboard of the United States. This also makes it a popular attraction. In order to drive up to the summit, you need a vehicle registration pass (70% of spots open up 2 days prior at 10 am and can be hard to get). Luckily, Cody was able to secure one for us to be there to see the sunrise. We arrived at the summit around 6 am, and it was so crowded. It was also foggy, so we decided to drive down a little bit to a quieter lookout point with better visibility. It was still very beautiful and we saw cotton candy pink hues fill the sky.
We had some time to pass, so we walked along the shore at Sand Beach. I found a small sand dollar. We also went back to Thunder Hole during higher tide, and Cody and I ended up getting splashed with an unexpected burst of sea water. Then, we went back to Bar Harbor and stopped at ChocoLatte for breakfast. I had a latte and avocado toast. Cody had a London Fog tea and a breakfast sandwich.
One of S’s goals for the trip was to go on a whale watching tour. I was a bit hesitant because I get sea sick, but I didn’t want to pass up the opportunity. I premedicated with meclizine and boarded the boat, called the Atlanticat. For the first few miles driving out from shore, the bay was sprinkled with colorful buoys for lobster fishing. We had to travel 50 miles and enter Canadian waters in order to reach the whale feeding grounds.
Our tour guide is a naturalist, and she was great! She has been leading these tours for the last 4 years, but she still had so much excitement teaching us about whales. We learned about the two main types of whales, those with teeth and those with no teeth. Whales with no teeth have baleen, which is a fringed plate of keratin that line their mouths acting as a straining system when they take in large gulps of seawater. Prey will get stuck in their mouths, while the water gets pushed out. These whales include humpback, fin, blue, and minke whales. Toothed whales include dolphins, porpoises, sperm whales, and orcas.
When looking for whales, there are essential B’s to look out for: 1) Blow - the way they expel water up into the air, 2) Backs - their characteristic long, dark backs in the water, 3) Behavior - all sorts of feeding behaviors, tail slaps, pectoral slaps and even breaching, and 4) Birds - where there is food, there are birds and whales. Not only did we see whales on this tour, but we saw various types of birds including the northern fulmar, Atlantic puffin, and northern gannet.
We also learned about a process called upwelling. Cold, deep water that is more nutrient dense with phytoplankton rises to the surface attracting larger plankton, birds, fish and other marine mammals. Whales travel up to the Gulf of Maine in the summer to feed, before returning south to breed and raise their young.
I enjoyed hearing about different efforts that are being done in Maine to help keep the whales safe. Whales can get tangled up in the fishermen's lobster traps. Each state has a different color rope they tie on their traps (Maine’s color is purple), so if a whale gets entangled in one, there is accountability as to which state’s traps were responsible. Additionally, there is a link in the lobster traps’ rope that breaks if there is too much force exerted onto them, so the whales can escape. There is also new technology being developed, where there are no ropes at all! The lobster fisherman use GPS to locate their traps and bring them to the surface (although it sounds like we are many years away from this being efficient and commonplace).
We saw pilot whales, which I learned was not very common to see. We also saw multiple humpback whales. Many of them are identified from their unique tails, and the naturalists on the boat were able to tell us about three that they identified: Snooker - a teenage, female humpback whale, Gondolier - a male humpback in his 30’s, and Frost - a female humpback that was swimming along with her calf. It was so cool to see them spouting water into the air and flapping their tails. We thought that was all, so the boat turned around to head back to shore.
Surprisingly, on the way back, we saw even more active humpbacks slapping their tails and fins around and even breaching! It was so unexpected. Humpbacks are typically more active when they are in warmer waters down south and trying to mate. I can’t imagine how much energy it must take for them to lift their 60,000 pound bodies out of the water, not only once, but multiple times!
Since this was our last day in Maine, we treated ourselves to a lobster dinner. We went to a restaurant called The Travelin’ Lobster, and ordered takeout to enjoy at our Airbnb. Cody and I shared a whole lobster, corn on the cob, mussels, and lobster mac and cheese. I also tried a blueberry soda, called Old Soaker, produced in Maine, and had blueberry ice cream. I felt kind of weird and also grateful to be able to have a meal like this. I think that for the three of us, we grew up in families that always provided for our needs and some extra, but were also cognizant of the budget and needed to pinch pennies at times. Lobster wasn’t a meal that we would eat, and I would never have dreamed to get a drink and a dessert at a restaurant. I felt appreciative that my parents sacrificed for me, so that I could have opportunities like this.
Day 6
We woke up early, since we needed to get back to Boston in time for S’s 2pm flight back home. We made a quick stop in Freeport, Maine, so I could get coffee. S bought a gourmet blueberry Himalayan cheese stick for his friend’s dog.
There were a couple of exciting moments on this drive. One of which is that S and Cody noticed some plastic wrapping on the road. I guess it looked benign enough and there was nowhere else to go, so S drove into it, thinking it might blow over the car. Instead, it caught perfectly on both sideview mirrors, causing a loud whooshing sound. I was in the back seat, so I had no idea as to what was going on. Alarmed and confused, I looked up when I heard the noise and saw plastic film blowing all around us. S ended up lowering the window, so I could pull it inside the car and dispose of it later.
The other source of excitement on this drive back to Boston was that S had prepaid for a full tank of gas on the day we left for the trip. That meant our goal was to return to the rental car center as empty as possible, riding on fumes, yet avoiding the need to push the car back! We ended up stopping twice for gas, the second time, only putting in about 2 gallons. Overall, we were successful and the gas light even came on in the home stretch!
Cody and I have mostly taken trips with just the two of us. We’re really fortunate that we often have similar goals, which involve going on the most difficult hikes we can find and climbing things until we’re exhausted and have mild cases of rhabdomyolysis. It was interesting and fun to go on a trip with one of our friends. We would have never planned to go stargazing or whale watching, but we enjoyed trying new activities.