Last week my girlfriend Meadowsweet and I went to Mount Desert Island, which is where most of Acadia National Park is. It was her first time there, and my first time in over 40 years. Our time there included two hikes, a short one on Thursday where the two of us circled Jordan Pond, and a longer one on Friday where I summitted seven named mountains in eight miles.
The weather for both hikes, and indeed for the entire vacation, was excellent. Warm with no rain, and excellent views all around.
The hardest part of Thursday's hike was finding a parking spot at Jordan Pond. When we finally did we hiked the pond look clockwise. This loop hugs the shore the entire way, which is about three and a half miles. There's essentially zero elevation gain, although one section is kind of rocky. There's mountains on each side of the lake, though, so there's still nice scenery.
On Friday I did a solo hike which started and ended at Route 198, in between Jordan Pond and Somes Sound. I climbed, in order, Bald Peak, Packman Mtn., Gilmore Mtn., Sargent Mtn., South Bubble Mtn., Penobscot Mtn., and Cedar Swamp Mtn. The first four came quickly one after another. It was steeply up, great views, steeply down, repeat, repeat, repeat. Sargent Mtn. was the high point of the hike. After that I dropped down to Jordan Pond, repeating about a tenth of a mile from Thursday, and went up to South Bubble to see Bubble Rock, a glacial erratic which looks like it's about to roll off of the mountain.
After than I retraced my steps past the pond, and went up to Penobscot Mtn. From there I went to Cedar Swamp Mtn., passing Sargent Mountain Pond on the way. SM Pond is a cute little pond on the Sargent Ridge. On both Penobscot and Cedar Swamp I was bitten by deer flies. Those were the only times any bugs bothered me during the hike, or, indeed, during the whole vacation.
After CSM it's a gradual descent down to the trailhead, passing Hadlock Falls (pretty tall but not a lot of volume that day) on the way. This was the only sustained gradual elevation change of the hike, other than that it was either steep or flat.
We might be back. We were on MDI four days and there was still more to see, and a lot more trails to hike.
Here are the pictures for the Jordan Pond hike.
Here are the pictures for the seven mountain hike.
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Cumulus
NE111 in my 50s: 115/115 (67/67, 46/46, 2/2)
NE111 in my 60s: 84/115 (59/67, 23/46, 2/2)
NEFF: 50/50; Cat35: 39/39; WNH4K: 41/48; NEHH 89/100
LT NB 2009; CT NB 2017
"I don't much care where [I get to] --" said Alice, "-- so long as I get somewhere," ...
"Oh, you're sure to do that," said the Cat, "if you only walk long enough."
- Lewis Carroll
The weather for both hikes, and indeed for the entire vacation, was excellent. Warm with no rain, and excellent views all around.
The hardest part of Thursday's hike was finding a parking spot at Jordan Pond. When we finally did we hiked the pond look clockwise. This loop hugs the shore the entire way, which is about three and a half miles. There's essentially zero elevation gain, although one section is kind of rocky. There's mountains on each side of the lake, though, so there's still nice scenery.
On Friday I did a solo hike which started and ended at Route 198, in between Jordan Pond and Somes Sound. I climbed, in order, Bald Peak, Packman Mtn., Gilmore Mtn., Sargent Mtn., South Bubble Mtn., Penobscot Mtn., and Cedar Swamp Mtn. The first four came quickly one after another. It was steeply up, great views, steeply down, repeat, repeat, repeat. Sargent Mtn. was the high point of the hike. After that I dropped down to Jordan Pond, repeating about a tenth of a mile from Thursday, and went up to South Bubble to see Bubble Rock, a glacial erratic which looks like it's about to roll off of the mountain.
After than I retraced my steps past the pond, and went up to Penobscot Mtn. From there I went to Cedar Swamp Mtn., passing Sargent Mountain Pond on the way. SM Pond is a cute little pond on the Sargent Ridge. On both Penobscot and Cedar Swamp I was bitten by deer flies. Those were the only times any bugs bothered me during the hike, or, indeed, during the whole vacation.
After CSM it's a gradual descent down to the trailhead, passing Hadlock Falls (pretty tall but not a lot of volume that day) on the way. This was the only sustained gradual elevation change of the hike, other than that it was either steep or flat.
We might be back. We were on MDI four days and there was still more to see, and a lot more trails to hike.
Here are the pictures for the Jordan Pond hike.
Here are the pictures for the seven mountain hike.
--
Cumulus
NE111 in my 50s: 115/115 (67/67, 46/46, 2/2)
NE111 in my 60s: 84/115 (59/67, 23/46, 2/2)
NEFF: 50/50; Cat35: 39/39; WNH4K: 41/48; NEHH 89/100
LT NB 2009; CT NB 2017
"I don't much care where [I get to] --" said Alice, "-- so long as I get somewhere," ...
"Oh, you're sure to do that," said the Cat, "if you only walk long enough."
- Lewis Carroll
