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On to Eastport and another Road Scholar Hiking Program

Sunday, November 21st, 2010

Eastport is the easternmost city in the United States.

Welcome to Eastport, the Eastern-most City in the USA

It used to be a busy port, but today it’s pretty quiet. Campobello Island is just across the chanel in New Brunswick, but to get there you have to drive an hour around Cobscook Bay.

Our Road Scholar group gathered from as far away as Wyoming and New Mexico for four days of hiking on Maine’s Bold Coast, including Campobello Island. In addition to hiking, we were tempted by Monica’s chocolates,

Monica's chocolates in the making

and we dined on lobster.

Lobster dinner by Phil Childs

We also dined on spaghetti made by women of the Patrons of Husbandry Maine State Grange in Perry and fish chowder prepared by members of Christ Episcopal Church. Our big evening treat was a visit to Toodleville for ribs and music–after we inspected the gardens and tree house.

Toodleville Pumpkins

Toodleville

On our free afternoon, our guides Tess and Steve of Cobscook Hikes and Paddles took five of us sea kayaking.

We had a good group that shared lots of laughs and beautiful hikes. The weather was unbelievably cooperative, except for our last half-day when it poured, forcing the U.S. National Park Service interpreter for Saint Croix Island International Historic Site to give us a briefing indoors at the visitor center. Frenchman Pierre Dugua, Sieur de Mons, established a settlement on the island in 1604–three years before the English arrived in Jamestown–making it one of the earliest European settlements on the North Atlantic coast.

I’ll be discussing our hikes in future posts, but if you want a quick slide show of the photos taken by Tess and Steve, check out Cobscook Hikes and Paddles facebook page.

Posted in Food, General, Maine, National Parks and Monuments | Comments Off

The Leaves and Lichen of Mount Desert Island

Friday, November 19th, 2010

When I returned to Mount Desert Island in mid-October for a second Road Scholar program, this one on the natural history of Acadia National park, the leaves were reaching the peak of their autumn glory. Here are some favorites that I’ve not previously included in my posts.

Somesville Outlet

Reflections

Bright red

Leaves in Somesville

While the colors of autumn leaves are visually stimulating, sometimes one needs to stop while hiking through the forest to take in the small details.

Woodsorrel

Ferns and Moss growing on a rock

Old Man's Beard

Pillows of Rheindeer Lichen

Rheindeer Lichen

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Acadia National Park’s Schoodic Peninsula

Thursday, November 18th, 2010

Not all of Acadia National Park is confined to Mount Desert Island. Parts of a small island reached via boat from Stonington on Deer Isle–Isle au Haut–and the southern tip of the Schoodic Peninsula are also part of the park. I didn’t have the time to return to Isle au Haut, but I did revisit the Schoodic Peninsula where I completed one more virtual cache and one more earthcache.

This earthcache was about the black diabase dikes visible along the coastline at Schoodic Point. The dikes were created when magma intruded into cracks in the granite.

Black diabase dike

Another diabase dike

Where diabase meets the sea

A displaced piece of diabase

Looking Northeast from Schoodic Point

Looking across Schoodic Harbor at Spruce Point

Posted in Acadia, General, Geocaching, Geology, Maine | Comments Off

Acadia National Park’s Carriage Roads

Wednesday, November 17th, 2010

Hiking on carriage roads is like hiking on rails-to-trails, a little goes a long way unless you realize you have an opportunity not usually available when hiking. You don’t have to stare at your feet; you can enjoy the world around you and concentrate on finding the next perfect scene.

Thanks to John D. Rockefeller, Jr., Acadia NP has 45 miles of pathways designed for motor-free travel in some of the most scenic valleys of the park. Whether on a bike or your feet, you won’t have to huff and puff up any steep grades, although some are more than the 2-3% of railroad grades. In the summer, one can actually travel the roads in a horse-drawn carriage. In the winter, cross-country skiers and snowmobilers use the roads.

Your carriage awaits!

The paths are roads in the sense they are 16 feet wide with a 6-8 inch crown and wide culverts that insure good drainage.

On the Carriage Road around Witch Hole Pond

Carriage Road along Eagle Lake

The roadsides were carefully landscaped and groomed, and many coping stones were placed as guardrails or to define the roadway.

Coping Stones

One of the delights of traveling the carriage roads is finding the next hand-built stone-covered bridge.

Three-arched Duck Brook Bridge

The Duck Brook Bridge’s central arch is 30 feet wide, while the two flanking arches are 20 feet. Corbelled, semi-circular balconies provide viewing platforms

Duck Brook Bridge Viewing Platform

for taking in the scene along Duck Brook.

Duck Brook, scene 1

Duck Brook, scene 2

The triple-arched Stanley Brook Bridge carries a carriage road over Stanley Brook, the road connecting Jordan Pond to Seal Harbor, and the Seaside Trail. Note how this less symetrical, more rustic-looking bridge differs from the one over Duck Brook.

Stanley Brook Bridge

A multi-million dollar restoration of the carriage roads and their bridges began in the 1990s as an experiment in public-private partnerships for the National Park Service. Maintenance of the roads is a continual battle against nature, but the Friends of Acadia contribute thousands of hours of manual labor to clear debris and keep the culverts running. After widening the Eagle Lake Bridge to accommodate a busy cross-island road, work continues on restoring its stone facing.

Eagle Lake Bridge

Posted in Acadia, Architecture, General, Hikes, Maine | Comments Off

More Acadia National Park Geology

Tuesday, November 16th, 2010

As a qualified participant in Road Scholar programs who doesn’t like ladders, I pick and choose among potential hikes. My roommate at Acadia, who was much younger, and another member of our group weren’t so squeamish about climbing ladders attached to the side of a cliff. They hiked the Precipice Trail to the top of Champlain Mountain.

Precipice Trail

As this video explains, these sheer cliffs were formed when the last glacier receded taking with it huge chunks of granite created by the freezing of water in cracks.

Champlain Mt

Where's the Precipice Trail?

It’s possible to see granite ledges without climbing ladders at Thunder Hole, where water rushing into a sea cave when the tide is just right creates a loud boom.

Thunder Hole

Sea Cave at Thunder Hole at low tide

Granite Ledges at Thunder Hole

Fractures in the Cadillac Mountain Granite

Thunder Hole is no less dangerous than the Precipice Trail when the seas are crashing wildly as during a hurricane. This article describes how people have died at both locations.

Not being a professional geologist, I’m not sure what the story is in the following photo.

The capstone rock appears to be different

At low tide when you can see how parts of a rock layer have been worn away by the sea, the small rocky isle off shore at Thunder Hole known as Old Soaker almost looks like a breakwater.

Old Soaker at low tide

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Geocaching on Mount Desert Island

Monday, November 15th, 2010

There are no hidden caches in national parks, but one can still search for treasures. There are long-established virtual caches and earthcaches that will lead the seeker to unique locations within the parks. At Acadia the park rangers themselves have created a series of earthcaches that eventually leads to getting a special stamp, which I had placed in my National Parks Passport. For an article on this special cache and more background on geocaching, see Natural Resource Year in Review–2006.

The search for the Story of Glaciers and how they created the land that is now Acadia National Park begins along Somes Sound, a fjard or glacially-carved embayment that is drowned by the sea. It is not technically a fjord, which is how most of the guides and tourist literature refer to it.

Somes Sound--Earthcache #1

There are four other stops on the trail to finding the secret answer that will earn the cacher the special stamp. In order to avoid giving away the final question and answer, I won’t describe all of the stops.

Two of the stops require some hiking. The hike to the top of a Bubble is the most challenging, but it is only about 1/2-mile to the top or one mile round trip. The park classifies the trail as moderate, probably for elevation change. The elevation of the Bubble is somewhere between that of Gorham Mountain (525′) and Beech Mountain (839′) (which I described in an earlier post), but the trail is much shorter than either. I would highly recommend good foot wear, although I saw teens in flip-flops and Europeans in leather-soled dress shoes.

View from Atop South Bubble Mt

The top of the Bubble is a great place to see how a glacier scoured the Cadillac Mountain Granite of the mountain and left behind as it receded pieces of Lucerne Granite that was formed 30 miles northwest of Mount Desert Island.

Exposed Cadillac Mountain Granite Atop South Bubble

A waymark for the erratic has been registered, along with a brief trail description and some spectacular photos, at waymarking.com.

Glacial Erratic of Lucerne Granite

There are several non-park sponsored earthcaches on Mount Desert Island, but I only went in search of one–Ellsworth Schist. Needless to say, this cache is about another kind of rock–the oldest on Mount Desert Island.

Ellsworth Schist--a layered metamorphic rock

Quartz layers

Located on the west side of the island not far from the Seal Cove Auto Museum, there’s more to see than just rock.

Seal Cove at low tide

At anchor in Seal Cove

There are also five virtual caches within the park boundaries that will take you to Bass Harbor Head Lighthouse, Otter Point, Great Head, the top of Cadillac Mountain, and Jordan Pond–all of which I’ve covered in earlier posts.

Outside the park’s boundaries there are numerous traditional caches. I looked for four along my paths of travel. All were relatively easy finds. One involved hiking the unmaintained Seaside Trail from Jordan Pond house–a perfect excuse for indulging in popovers afterwards.

Popovers at Jordan Pond House

Posted in Acadia, General, Geocaching, Geology, Hikes, Maine | Comments Off

The Lakes and Ponds of Acadia

Sunday, November 14th, 2010

There’s more to Acadia National Park than seeking lofty heights for views of the sea or climbing over rocks to witness the power of the sea. There are numerous ponds and lakes with still waters that make for spectacular photos featuring reflections–especially when the leaves are in their autumn glory.

Beaver Dam Pond

Eagle Lake, early in the morning

Looking towards the Bubbles across Eagle Lake

Witch Hole

Somes Sound, technically this is a fjard filled with sea water, but photographically--

The Bubbles from the lawn of Jordan Pond House

Jordan Pond

Jordan Pond and the Bubbles

Boulders in Jordan Pond

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Shoreline Trails of Acadia

Saturday, November 13th, 2010

On our last morning in the park we hiked around Great Head.

Great Head from Otter Point

Great Head from Sand Beach

This trail involves a few rock scrambles as it circles the head, sometimes in the trees, but mostly out in the open.

On the Great Head Trail

A Seaside Ramble

Sand Beach from Great Head

I repeated the hike in the opposite direction in order to complete a geocache. Note how much sand is exposed at low tide.

Sand Beach from Great Head at Low Tide

One evening we took a stroll around Otter Point with a naturalist.

Along Otter Point

More rocks and cliffs

The cruise ship dwarfs Egg Rock Light with Great Head in left foreground

Waves on the rocks

Great Head at Sunset

On a repeat walk to do a geocache there was more light for trying to capture the waves on the rocks, but it was the wrong time of the tide cycle.

There's no spray at slack tide

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Mountain Hiking in Acadia

Friday, November 12th, 2010

One of my Road Scholar programs was focused on hiking in Acadia National Park. The highest point in the United States within 25 miles of the Atlantic Ocean is located in this park, but hiking to the top of Cadillac Mountain at 1,528 feet is not like hiking Katahdin (5,268′), the highest point in Maine and the terminus of the Appalachian Trail, much less a mountain pass in the Sierras, Himalayas, or Andes. It’s not even as high as Catoctin Mountain (1900′), which is north of Frederick, MD and the highest peak of any size close to my home. But what Cadillac lacks in elevation it makes up for in views. There are no shoreline views from any of the other above mentioned heights.

View from Cadillac Mountain

Our group took the South Ridge Trail which climbs easily up a ridge for 3.7 miles to the summit,

An early section of the South Ridge Trail up Cadillac Mt

passing a lovely, small pond along the way.

A pond along the South Ridge Trail

The most difficult part of this trail on a day like the day we hiked up the mountain is the last third. It’s out in the open.

Somewhere there's a peak up there!

By the time we reached this section the sun had disappeared, and the wind had risen to 25-30 mph. Depending on the cloud overhead, it was either drizzling or raining. Keeping one’s glasses dry was impossible as the wind whipped the rain sideways.

A trail intersection near the top

Although the trail looks like it’s going to disintegrate into rock climbing, the path finds its way easily among the rocks until the very last bit–where one has the option of walking the road.

Needless to say my photos from the top were taken on another day. Our group rode the bus up one evening in time for sunset,

Frenchman's Bay from Cadillac Mt at sunset

and I took the opportunity to seek out the benchmark.

Cadillac Mt Benchmark

Much of the summit is wide open, providing spectacular views in all directions.

Atop Cadillac Mt

To prepare us for the “big climb”, our fearless leader Barb Chase took us on two easier hikes earlier in the week. Gorham Mountain at 525′ provided a good view Sand Beach and Great Head, where we would hike on our last morning. This was a good introductory trail in terms of terrain–lots of tree roots, rocks, and open granite ledges.

Sand Beach and Great Head from Gorham Mt Trail

Although it was a very overcast day with a bit of a breeze, we enjoyed lunch at the top.

Atop Gorham Mt

Our second preparatory hike was to the fire tower atop Beech Mt (839′) on the “quiet” side of Mount Desert Island. From this trail we could see some of the “cottages” near Southwest Harbor.