Acadia National Park

We woke up to find that it wasn’t raining!! Yay!! We got ready and were out the door by 8:30 and had a seat at Jordan’s Restaurant by 8:46. Tom and I shared a breakfast of Maine blueberry pancakes, eggs, toast, sausage, and fried potatoes. Splitting the meal was absolutely the right choice! We both walked out feeling content and not overstuffed. The blueberry pancakes were super delicious. I was super happy that we got those!

We left the restaurant and headed straight to Acadia National Park’s visitor center. They had a sign that you needed a mask to go in the Visitor’s Center so Tom stayed in the car and I went in to ask what we should do with only having one day at the park. The ranger gave a couple of suggestions for some hikes and let me know that if we wanted to go to the top of Cadillac Mountain that we would need to pay and make a reservation online, and she thought there were still some spots available in the afternoon. I went back down to the car and discussed the day’s plans with Tom and we decided to make the reservation for Cadillac Mountain. It only cost $6 and we figured if we made it during our reservation block of 1:30-2:00 great, if not it would be ok too. We got our plan of attack together and headed off.

It was quite hazy/foggy but we still stopped to take some pictures on the way to Sand Beach. At Sand Beach we found the parking lot was already full, but found street parking not far away. After reading the sign for three different hikes available from this location (easy, moderate, difficult), I said we should do the easy as that was a 4 mile hike that the ranger had suggested. We headed down to the beach to check it out. It was chilly, misty, and windy and quite difficult to see down the beach due to the fog. We got a couple of pictures and walked down the beach to where we thought the start of the trail was for the Ocean Path walk (the easy trail). Instead we came across the Great Head Trail (the intermediate trail) and decided to take it since we were there. I’m so glad we did! We did have to climb up some boulders, but the views were quite nice (fog and all) and we enjoyed the extra challenge of climbing the rock. Sometimes the best adventure is the one that is not planned. The loop was a mile and a half long and took us about an hour and a half. When we got back to the parking lot we re-read the sign and realized that we weren’t anywhere near the Ocean Path trail as it started from the parking lot, not the beach! At the car we enjoyed a snack of Combos, pita chips, and Red Vines.

We continued on Park Loop Road (one way road) and stopped at Thunder Hole and Otter Point for some pictures. If we had taken the Ocean Path trail we would have walked to these points, but I’m happy with the hike we did and that we still got to see these spots. The timing was starting to work out perfect because we had now checked off the spots we wanted to see and we could make our way to Cadillac Mountain Summit road in time to meet our reservation time. We got to that gate at about 1:45 and headed to the top of Cadillac Mountain. As we got higher, the fog started to fade away and the sun started to shine. It was so nice to see the sun!! At the top we hiked a 1/2 mile paved loop and saw some great views and enjoyed the warmth of the sun on our face. We stopped at an additional parking lot on the way down and hiked down massive rocks for a short distance, took some pictures and hiked back up.

By the time we got back down off the mountain it was going on 3:00 and we headed to our final destination for a planned 4 mile hike around Hadlock Ponds. We found our parking area and the trail head and began our way. The trail was quite uneven with numerous tree roots. The ranger had told me that this would be a good hike to see a lot of fall color, and although we saw some, it was not quite what I expected. There were way more evergreens than trees sporting color. We didn’t quite stick to the trail and veered off onto the Carriage Road trail for a bit, before we re-linked up with the Hadlock Pond Trail. We found the Lower Hadlock Pond trail loop more enjoyable than the Upper Hadlock Pond trail. When we popped out of the Lower Hadlock Pond trail it was on the main road where we had parked our car, but instead of crossing the street to continue on the trail we opted to just walk the street back. It had started to rain and we had enough of the hiking experience for the day.

It was about 5:00 when we got back to the car and I decided to drive to a nearby geocache to get my fix in for the day. It took us to a nice little park where we fortunate to get a glimpse of the sunsetting. I made the find with no issues and we got a couple of nice pictures before we headed back to the Visitor’s Center. The only reason I wanted to go back to the Visitor’s Center was to grab a picture for the virtual geocache located there. I was in the exact spot in the morning when we arrived, but I forgot to read the entire cache description to determine what was needed to log the cache. I got the necessary picture and made the log and then headed into downtown Bar Harbor for dinner.

Tom had set in his mind that he wanted a full lobster while we were still in Maine. We headed to a restaurant called Geddy’s that had some good lobster signage on the outside. We checked in and found they had a 2 hour wait, so we decided to look for somewhere else. Next door at Galyn’s they had an hour to hour and a half wait. We decided to put our names down and then went to walk the streets of the super cute and quaint downtown Bar Harbor area. We came across Bar Harbor Beerworks and got a seat inside. I thought maybe we would just eat here, but Tom looked so sad and poopy pants about not getting the lobster dinner that he envisioned (reminiscent of a certain strawberry pie episode someone once had . . yeah Mom I’m talking about you LoL), that we just got a flight of beer instead. We tried 6 different beers and watched the end of what was a really good Alabama vs Tennessee football game. Tennessee came from behind in the last few minutes of the game and kicked a field goal with 2 seconds left on the clock to win 52-49. The game ended about the same time we finished the flight and got our bill. We headed back down to Galyn’s to see if our table was ready.

When we walked back in the host said our table was ready for us!! Prefect timing! Tom was so much happier once we decided we were not eating at the Bar Harbor Beerworks and was seated at this very nice restaurant. We decided to share Oysters Rockefeller, Caesar Salad, and two lobster tails. We were going to get a whole lobster, but the waiter talked us our of it letting us know we would actually get more meat in the two tails. Tom had a vision for a picture with the whole lobster, but practicality won out in the end. The meal was good, but once again we were not overly impressed with lobster. I mean we have had lobster before, but I guess we’re not just head over heals for lobster in general. We weren’t’ stuffed, so we ordered the dessert of a blueberry apple crisp. It was very good. Before the bill came we made our wagers of what we thought it was going to be and whoever was closer would buy. I was the lucky winner as I was only $9 off the total, although I think we set those terms backwards. Why should the person guessing correctly have to buy, but then again we’re married so it doesn’t really matters who buys at all. Ha ha.

After dinner I grabbed one more geocache that was just over 300 feet from where we ate. Tom was thrilled (not) to go on the little adventure but he did follow me. I was going to do one more, but there were too many people around the area so I bailed on the attempt. All-in-all we had a great day. Everything worked out as it should and the weather cooperated too! Tomorrow we will leave and head to New Hampshire.

Stats of the Day

Miles Hiked: Approximately 6
Geocaches Attempted: 4
Geocaches Found: 3
Temperature Most of the Day: 62
Steps Walked: 23,657