09/07/99 Hiking Parkman Mountain:
It's been pretty foggy the last few days. Yesterday was Labor Day and the Sea Wall Campgrounds really emptied out as people left to get back home or where ever. At 6:30am there were 100+ cars in the parking lots. At 10am there were almost none. Walking around looking at all the empty campsites made me feel kinda sad and a little lonely.
There was no one at all left in my area. The leaves are really turning colors now and starting to fall. A couple of days ago my campsite was covered with pine needles. Now it's covered with mostly red leaves.
I had been told that gray squirrels and red squirrels did not get along and did not share the same territory. There are lots of red squirrels in this part of Maine. Today I saw my first gray squirrel, being chased by a red squirrel about a third of its size. Well, at least the first part of what I was told seems to be true.
There was lots of fog today again with some rain during the night. The ankle has been feeling ok so I decided to hike up Parkman Mountain. Parkman is part of the Acadia Carriage Road System created by the Rockefellers in the 1920's or so. These are a set of well maintained dirt roads that go up and down several mountains and from one village to another. These roads are restricted to horses, bikes and hikers. So now, in addition to all the dog sh*t on the s, I'm dodging horse sh*t on the roads. <Sigh>
I started up the carriage road at a brisk pace looking for a hiking marker. After a mile or so with no sign of the marker I reversed course and soon found it. Given two choices, I'll choose the wrong one almost every time.
A pretty easy climb of 0.5 miles or so provided a foggy view of Lower Hadlock Pond. Off to the side I could see the vague outline of some trees way up over my head. As I watched, the wind blew some of the fog away and I was presented with a sheer rock face close to 100 feet high. As I sat there hoping the didn't go up that way a couple was descending from the other direction. The fog blew back in and I began to wonder if fog gets as thick on mountains as it does on the water. It was some consolation that I'd taken a waypoint on the GPS down in the parking lot.
A little later I was crossing a ridge and stopped to watch the fog and mist swirling around the trees in a small valley below. The fog thinned a little and a large tree was exposed. It had a long limb sticking out and I could just picture a large silverback (gorilla) sitting there staring off into space with Diane Fossey (Gorillas In The Mist) squatting (ok, crouching might be a better word) in the bushes with notebook in hand.
As I neared the summit, I could feel the wind picking up and I started feeling chilled. I remembered the saying "Cotton Kills". With the extremely high humidity and my mild exertions my cotton T-shirt was soaking wet and the wind was really cooling me down. I've been very religious about wearing synthetic T-shirts on the water (to wick moisture away from the body) but not on the mountains. In fact my logic had been leading me in the opposite direction in warm weather at these low altitudes. The cotton would retain the moisture and any breeze would have a nice cooling effect. This was a little too much effect and I got the Polartec 100 vest out of the backpack. That helped quite a bit and I still had the nylon rain jacket in reserve.
I got to the summit (941 feet) around 11:20. It's a big bald top with no view on this day because of the fog. I didn't linger there because the wind was blowing 10-15 knots and headed off for Sargant Mountain, 1.1 miles away.
A little ways from the Parkman summit, I came across a pretty nice view of the upper part of Somes Sound and Western Bay beyond it. As I looked, however, the fog came racing in obscuring everything in it's path.
The sun appeared to be trying to come out and for a while it looked as though the sun and wind would prevail but the fog was just too much for them to overcome on this day and the fog finally triumphed.
It was a moderately steep climb to the top of Sargant Mountain (1373 feet) and I arrived at the top about 12:40pm. The wind and the fog were back again and 5 of us who happened to reach the summit at about the same time hid behind a large cairn of rocks for lunch.
I came back via Gilmore Peak (1036 feet). I had just finished rereading Norman Mailer's "Executioner's Song" and couldn't help but think of Gary Gilmore. He killed people in two separate robberies in Utah in the 70's. When sentenced to death, he then demanded the sentence be carried out without appeal. Screwed up everybody's minds for a while but they finally did him.
There were a lot of wet rocks on the way down and that made things pretty slow and difficult for me. I got rained on briefly a couple of times. Both times I would have sworn I was in for an all day rain but that didn't happen.
I met another older (than me) couple in their 70's on the way up and we stopped and chatted for a while. It's really great to see them out there hiking. I hope to be doing the same thing when I'm that age.
09/09/99 Hiking Penobscot Mountain:
Today is the 9th day of the 9th month of the 99th year and we're into our fifth consecutive day of heavy fog and a lady yesterday said the forecast was for a couple of more days of the same.
The park rangers were doing some digging with a backhoe the other day and dug up a waterline. Now I have no water and no toilet facilities in my area. They wanted me to move to another area but I said I'd rather walk for the water and 'other things'.
This morning I chose Penobscot Mountain (1194 feet) for my hike. Shortly after starting up the mountain I came across a volunteer crew. Every Tuesday and Thursday, vacationing volunteers go out with regular crew to help maintain the many s in the Acadia National Park. It's a good thing they were working on this as it was starting to be over grown farther up. I suppose I should have felt guilty about not helping but I didn't.
I passed several exposed ledges that probably offered some great views. I couldn't tell with all the fog though. All I saw was a big gray wall of nothing.
The to the summit had some moderately steep sections to it but none very long. Near the Penobscot summit is Sargant Pond with a nice little rest area with rough hewn benches. All I could see of the pond though was about 10 feet of water and a few lily pads because of the dense fog.
The exposed ledges were pretty dry for the most part. The wet spots were under the trees. This leads me to the brilliant conclusion that the pine needles become saturated with the heavy fog and mist as it blows by. When the accumulation becomes too much it then drips on the rocks making things difficult for us unsuspecting old people.
I got to the summit around 11:45am, soaking wet again. And again, there was a strong wind blowing, probably 10-15 knots. I had a quick lunch and started back the way I came.
I'm trudging along following the recognizing this landmark and that. All of a sudden I'm on another summit, Cedar Swamp Mountain (942 feet). What? I never heard of Cedar Swamp Mountain. And what kind of name is that for a mountain? Sounds like something that should be down in Florida or someplace.
Looking at the map I see Cedar Swamp is not too far from Penobscot but how I got on it by following the same I dunno. I don't remember stumbling over the rock cairn with the summit sign on the way up. Maybe I'm just getting forgetful. I got back on the and it eventually took me right back where I wanted to be. I think someone was playing with my mind or something. I can offer no other explanation.
09/12/99 Paddling Cranberry Islands:
After some major winds and rain Friday night, Saturday morning began the 7th consecutive day of heavy fog. By heavy fog I mean a maximum visibility of 0.25 miles, normal visibility of a couple of hundred yards and often as little as 50 yards. Day after day after day.
The Friday night rain was torrential. And it went on hour after hour. And my ground cloth had a little teeny channel in it that funneled lots of water over top of it rather than underneath it. Score another one for the air mattress, though. It kept my delicate little bod' up out of the water. The sleeping bag got mildly wet (is there such a thing as mildly wet?).
My normal bag is a down bag with a nylon type covering. It's rated at 20 degrees, weighs next to nothing and can be jammed into a stuff sack about 4X6 inches. The only problem with it is the nylon cover. When it's hot and humid, it makes me sweat and attracts moisture even when I'm not in it. So I bought a cheap Coleman's sleeping bag for $30 that's rated to 30 degrees and weighs about 30 pounds. It's comfortable and is somewhat roomier than the down bag but it weighs a ton and it's like a sponge when it's near moisture.
The sun finally broke out around 10am and I spent the rest of Saturday drying out.
Today (Sunday) I had to get out on the water. It had been over a week and I was starting to feel like a needed a beer, a fix or a Twinkie or something.
I put in at Southwest Harbor. This is my favorite put in in the area and is really a pretty harbor. They have quite a few different postcards of this harbor. I spent an hour just getting out of the harbor while paddling around gawking and admiring 100+ boats, mostly sailboats 35+ feet. There were lots of cruising boats in the harbor too.
A northwest wind of 5-10 knots finally pushed me out of the harbor. I was kinda hoping it would swing around to the southwest in the afternoon so it would push me back also but no such luck.
On the way out I passed a couple in a canoe. While there wasn't too much in the way of wind and waves, they were out a little farther than I thought prudent in an open boat.
I saw one seal as I passed Greening Island and came across another one sound asleep near little Cranberry Island. They are really amusing when they sleep out on the water. Their bodies seem to be pretty much straight up and down while their heads are tilted back with their noses straight up in the air. And that's about all you can see of them, the nose, most of the head and a little bit of the neck.
I was a little farther away from it than on previous occasions and thought I might finally get a picture. I made a little too much noise back paddling, trying to stop my forward momentum. He/it woke up, looked around but didn't see me. It started to doze off again, seemed to think better of it, took another look around, spotted me and sank out of sight.
The charts and the Delorme Atlas both showed a lighthouse on Baker Island on the outer shores of the Cranberry Islands and that was my half hearted objective for the day. I had been out here earlier in the year but didn't notice Baker Island at the time.
As I got to the outer shore of Baker Island I was greeted with 3-4 foot gentle swells. The exposed shoreline was mostly large slabs of pink granite jumbled on top of each other the way broken river ice stacks up along the shore in fast moving currents.
The island is pretty flat so where did these huge slabs come from? They certainly didn't come from the top of the island so I guess they were torn up from ledges along the ocean floor. If so, they must have been hurled ashore during some homungous storm. The kind of force required to move a slab of granite 10-15 feet square and 1-2 feet thick is pretty hard to imagine though.
A little farther along there were 4 foot breakers crashing against the rocks. At high tide they were making quite a racket. There wasn't much in the way of reflected waves but there was a couple of hundred feet of foam and bubbles as a result. It was a strange sensation paddling through them.
Most of the shore on this stretch of coast was broken rock as if huge slabs been tossed up and then broken into smaller sizes. Along this area a couple waves close to 5 feet seemed ready to crest right on top of me and I started paying a little more attention to the waves and a little less to the shoreline.
And after all that paddling, there was no lighthouse on Baker Island. There was a house built up on large granite blocks on Little Cranberry Island that could have been a lighthouse but wasn't. It did have a steeple or spire type structure but it had a chimney rather than a light attached to it? Or maybe I was somewhere else entirely?
In any case it was a great day to be out paddling. Except I had that 5-10 northwest to paddle into 3 miles or so back to the put in.
09/13/99 Hiking Cadillac Mountain:
They've closed my section of the campground to all new campers because of a broken waterline. They told me I could stay where I was but had to get my water and use the toilets in another area. The other day they drove me out of the campground with the constant beep, beep, beep of a backhoe as they demolished one of the toilet facilities and ended up with a moderately deep pit. Talk about not having a pot to p*ss in.
Today was my last trip here at Mount Desert Island for this year. I'm leaving tomorrow morning. I've paddled just about all of the really good areas and hiked up most of the mountains except for those only accessible from the inside of the park loop road.
This is a 27 mile road circling the sea cliffs and mountains on the northeastern side of the island. I've been camped on the southwestern side and had plenty of things to do over here without having to drive 45 minutes or so to the loop road.
I did drive farther than normal today to do the South Ridge of Cadillac Mountain (1530 feet). I've been kinda saving this one because Cadillac is the tallest mountain on the island (on the eastern US seaboard, I think) and I expected it to offer some good views and I didn't want to do it in the fog.
The weather really cooperated beautifully with temperatures in the 70's and a bright blue sky. I started up the 3.5 mile across from the Blackwood Campgrounds and the first half mile was very easy. The next 1.5 miles was a little steeper but still easy and exposed ledges made views of the Cranberry Islands, Frenchman Bay, Champlain Mountain, Schoodic Peninsula and the open ocean available.
The last 1.25 miles to the summit were steeper with a few short, moderately steep pitches. As I began these pitches I could see two eagles soaring over different peaks in background. Then I saw four eagles at once in the valley between Cadillac and Pemetic mountains. Three was the most I had seen before so this was a record for me. All four of them circled directly overhead 50-100 feet up and that's the closest I've been to them too. I made a scramble to get the camera out of the backpack but they headed down the valley and out to the Cranberry Islands. I sat there another 15 minutes waiting for them to come back but the just kept soaring around out over the islands.
They didn't seem to have white heads and tails though, at least not from my vantage point and I can't be 100% sure they were bald eagles. Maybe they were turkey buzzards waiting for me to stumble into a deep ravine and then come down and eat all my tender parts. Let's see, there's really not many tender parts anymore; my eyes and my...
What appeared to be a sight seeing helicopter buzzed the mountain top. That really added to the outdoor experience
About 100 people were at the top of the mountain. The round ones had arrived by car and bus since the summit is one of the main attractions of the park loop road. One 400 (well maybe only 300) pound woman barreled into me and looked at me like I had no right to be there.
The summit did offer great views of Frenchmen Bay, the Porcupines, Ironbound, Schoodic Peninsula and Dorr Mountain.
On the way down there was a wonderful strong breeze, the same one I was calling a killer wind yesterday when paddling. Guess maybe it's just a matter of perception.
Pemetic Mountain, across the way is very rugged with long steep cliffs. The topo map shows a really tuff climb with contour lines all bunched together. I won't be climbing it this time around. Maybe in my next life I'll come back as a mountain goat. I've been called an old goat many times in this life so maybe I have a leg up for the next one.
Halfway down the mountain three eagles came up the valley again followed by the fourth off to the side. Two were smaller guys, one was mid-sized and one was bald eagle sized. Still no white head or tail. Dunno what they are. Too big for osprey and they don't look or fly like them. Peregrine Falcons migrate through here in the fall but I think it's to early and I also think they are smaller than osprey. They were definitely eagles but what kind I dunno.
So all in all it was a pleasant 2 hour hike up and another 2 hours back down the South Ridge . Very enjoyable.