It’s begun to rain. That is the cliche’ good time to catch up on writing.
This is a record of our vacation. Bar Harbor & Acadia National Park is the place. As it has been for the last 10 years straight.
May 30 – Seal Cove and Knox Road
Another place I never, ever saw in my many visits to MDI is the Seal Cove Auto Museum. Roger called ahead since the official opening date for the season was still several days hence. He was assured there would be staff present Friday, so with he and Lisa, I went to the Seal Cove Auto Museum. So our goal today (Friday) was to see one of the best rare car collections on the east coast. This also would likely be the last chance to see the majority of the complete collection since the benefactor passed away last year. Much of the remainder of the collection is to be auctioned off later this year to fund a smaller, but permanent core collection for the future. We were told that a “handful” of vehicles, described as the “cream” of the collection was already gone.
Afterward, we stopped at Knox Road Grill and Atlantic Brewing for Dougy’s Bar-B-Q lunch and to pick up a case of Real Ale to bring back to Michigan.
Roger and Lisa returned to the South Ridge Trail to take more photographs of the wild orchids.
Dinner at Poorboy’s tonight. New menu items this year!
Awesome!
May 29 – South Ridge Trail Day
Yesterday, we all agreed that THURSDAY would be a great day for climbing. The weather has continued to be perfect since Tuesday and today was just beautiful. A little haze in the distance, but that was noteworthy only because Wednesday was the clearest day I can recall ever seeing on Mt. Desert Island.
It was agreed that we would climb Cadillac Mountain’s South Ridge Trail. Seemingly, this wouldn’t be complicated to figure out, but the planning entailed thus…
Barry was going to join us. He would be able to meet us at the trail head at 2:30 p.m. after working. Roger wasn’t going to be able to climb as his knee was particularly painful today. Lisa and Jane were going to climb up, but there would be a car staged at the summit so they didn’t have to go down the trail if they didn’t want to. Steve, Barry and I just planned to hike the round trip … up and down. Roger was going to be at the summit with his car for the possible transport of any one wishing the luxury of another way down.
The South Ridge Trail is 3.7 miles one way – almost 1,500 feet vertical gain. It’s long and fairly gradual. It took us a little under 2 hours for everyone to complete the climb to the summit. On the way we spotted an area in the forested section with wild orchids just blooming. Lisa fired up the camera for some close-ups. Further up, the views and the WIND commenced to bluster. Poor Lisa almost took flight a couple times! Walking sideways against the wind and up hill against gravity was pretty challenging.
Roger met us at the summit. Ahead of everyone else, Barry was the first of the group to attain the summit. At this point, Roger and Barry hadn’t actually met each other face to face, so when Roger happened to be shooting video of “this guy in shorts” racing to the restrooms, it was total coincidence that his subject was actually Barry!
After gathering our collective breath at the top of Cadillac Mountain, it was apparent that only Barry, Steve and I intended to go back down the trail. It was about 4:45 p.m. The incredible views of the Atlantic Ocean, Frenchman’s Bay and the Cranberry Islands were always present in front of us while descending. The wind had disappeared. It was now the clock ticking off that kept us moving quickly. Barry had a dinner commitment at 6:30 p.m. so we had to get back to the cars by 6:00 p.m. at the latest to keep Barry out of trouble.
At some point on the hike down, Barry learned his dinner was at 6 p.m., not 6:30 p.m. It was shortly after that when Barry disappeared from view – lost in the distance below – seemingly in a blink of an eye.
Dinner at McKay’s again this night at the insistence of Roger and Lisa. They, Steve, Jane, Mindy and I enjoyed another thoroughly enjoyable dinner (redundant emphasis intentional).
Roger’s Wasabi ice cream from MDI Ice Cream Company across from the Village Green could be a topic of its own. Suffice it to say that after some thought, Roger declared it not totally unacceptable. A few days later, he further declared if it was the only ice cream choice available, he’d have it again.
Walking back to the inn, we saw Victor & his brown van outside the Mobil station. He had set up a tag sale of sorts in the parking lot. We wondered aloud what Chief Nate would say.
May 28 – Been Too Busy
Dinner with Steve and Jane last night at McKays Public House was the culmination of our day (Tuesday). Met Nate, the Chief of Police – at the next table. We’ve been so busy since, that I am just now getting a chance to write.
Many years ago we bought a large detailed map of Acadia Park trails. We’ve diligently marked each trail with the dates we hiked. Even though we’ve hiked some of our favorites trails multiple times, I guess some day the goal would be to hike them all. When we arrived in Bar Harbor Monday, Mindy realized that we had left our big map in GR. So we had to rely on memory. After a nice breakfast Wednesday, we set out to hike the Gorham Mountain trail, one we have never done before. Jane has often mentioned this as one of her favorites.
We drove into the park on Otter Cliff Road and parked at the Otter Cliff parking area on the Park Loop Road. We walked back toward Thunder Hole to the Gorham Mountain trail head. This is a moderately difficult trail with a vertical gain of 521′ and only a couple iron rungs. But the views are great. The trail goes northerly toward The Bowl and The Beehive, terminating very close to Sand Beach. Then we returned to Otter Cliffs via the Ocean Trail and Thunder Hole. A nice practice day for longer hikes later in the week.
Hungry, we decided to have lunch at the Jordan Pond House. It was about 1:00p.m. and we didn’t have to wait for a table. The view from the restaurant is of Jordan Pond with The Bubbles at the far distance. The south face trail of the South Bubble is where Mindy broke her finger a few years ago.
We had dinner with Steve and Jane at Geddy’s Wednesday night. Roger & Lisa arrived from Delaware this evening and we all watched the 3rd game in the playoffs – Penguins won 
I almost forgot! I honestly can’t remember if it was before or after the hike. Victor stopped by the inn today inquiring about tickets to the fundraising dinner on Saturday. He didn’t make it a practice of carrying that amount of cash on him, but assured Jane that he intended to come back and pay. Victor went on to describe how he had recently suffered a stroke that caused him to “lose” three days. He didn’t need a doctor though as he believed in self-care health care. He also explained various other details of various other subjects that I didn’t listen to in detail, but recall thinking about how incredibly patient Jane was being in listening to his ramblings. It was curious to hear of his CIA training. Apparently he was intentionally mixing truth with fiction in his everyday conversations so as to make it impossible for people to determine if anything he was saying had any substance in fact. I thought this was an interesting way to live life.
May 27 – My Place to Write
On the couch in the corner window bay, across from the fireplace, Warwick is laying on top of the iPod playing Freedom Rider by Traffic & I am writing. Late May in Bar Harbor…
May 26 – Green Mountains and Gritty’s
Route 9 east from Bennington, VT is a gem. Emerald comes to mind. The bright Monday morning sun shone through the trees and hills of the Green Mountains in a way the imagination cannot enhance now that it’s a day later when I am recording the memories.
We left Bennington early (for us) about 8 a.m. Hoping to make Gritty’s in Freeport, ME for a late lunch. Saying good-bye to Chet at the Harwood, we set off with the full tank of “93″ Sunoco gas from last night’s fill-up. The traffic was light, the road smooth and scenic. The trip was pretty quiet except for the wind in the windows & music from the CD player. Lots and lots of motorcycles cruising in gangs. Vintage cars were a common site. My personal favorite was a gorgeous yellow, two door ’57 Belaire we saw in Maine near Freeport.
Speaking of Freeport, it was demanded that we stop there on the way to Bar Harbor to pick up a case of Gritty’s Best Bitter for Steve. There was no choice in the matter. I was obliged to sit through an incredible meal on the back deck in the sunlight. mmm…
As we left Freeport after lunch, the sky was beginning to cloud up a bit. As we drove north, the cloudier it became, and darker, after about 160 miles it sprinkled a bit. Not enough to need the wipers until almost to Bar Harbor.
We woke Steve and Jane from their naps when we arrived at Aysgarth. They must have had a busy weekend!
Dinner at Pancho Villa’s Tex Mex in Bar Harbor. A Taste of the Southwest… in the Spirit of Downeast Maine. Ask for your meal prepared El Diablo. I double dare you.
