08/29/06 Hiking St. Sauveur Mountain:
Rain and fog at Milbridge so I decided to go shopping in Ellsworth 60 miles away. Once there I decided to go on down to Acadia for a while. Rain eased up today but still a blanket of heavy fog over the area, My main reason for coming here is to begin hiking again. I'm headed for the White Mountains in NH for the fall foliage and want to hike the Presidentials, maybe even bag Mount Washington. This may be my last chance because of age, plans, etc.
Most of the s on Mount Desert Island are only a couple of miles long and less than 1000 feet. St. Sauveur peaks out at 679 feet. Lots of fog and I lost the pretty quickly. Actually a faded blaze was horizontal instead of vertical and I went straight instead of turning. I wandered around for a while, heading generally uphill and eventually stumbled onto the again.
A half mile past the St. Sauveur Peak is a nice open area with a good view of the houses/mansions lining the entrance to Somes Sound. The fog had lifted enough so they were clearly visible.
Very rocky and the many slick rock granite ledges were pretty wet. I slipped a couple of times and fell twice on the way down.
08/30/06 Hiking Beech Mountain:
Stopped by Echo Lake after yesterday's hike and saw a head for Beech Mountain so here I am this morning. Actually the is for Beech Cliffs and then goes on to Beech Mountain. This is a pretty tough . Very rock and very steep. Lots of stone steps and 4 iron ladders. A little more than half a mile brings you out on a ledge with a nice view of Echo Lake.
A loop continues along the ledge for .4 miles. A nice easy grade for .2 miles takes you to the Beech Mountain parking lot. That's certainly the easier way to cliffs.
I found the in the parking lot for the mountain and the fire station on top. It too is a loop so I chose the shorter and steeper route to go up. The fire station steps are blocked half way up. Still, nice views of the entrance to Somes Sound and the surrounding area. The return loop presented nice views of Long Pond.
Bright and sunny and in the 70's. I actually worked up a sweat on the hike. Coming back I was very careful. A fall on this could cause some damage.
08/31/06 Hiking Norumbega Mountain :
Bright sunshine this morning and way down in the 60's, if that, in the morning. Parked at the Carriage Road Parking Lot and went across the street looking for a head. Found a dirt road and wandered on down it a ways. Found a cairn along the side of the road and a so I took it. Wandered around for an hour and a half and ended back at Lower Hadlock Pond. Wasn't a waste of time. All rocks covered in heavy moss. Made me think I was up on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington. Not much moss on the trees though.
Back at the pond I found a sign pointing this-a-way for Norumbega Mountain so off I went. It also said 1.1 miles. I climbed for a while and finally came out on a bunch of granite slick rock and continued and continued until I came to a big cairn I thought was the summit. An older couple came by and said the summit was down the a piece. They also said the on the other side was very steep.
I followed the another 10 minutes without any sign of the summit. When the started back down (steeply) and I didn't see any sign of a summit I gave up and turned back. It took me more than an hour to get back down so that 1.1 miles on the sign wasn't even close. I also thought area with all the moss was much more interesting.
09/02/06 Hiking Parkman Mountain:
Yesterday wasn't so good. Bright sunshine, temperature in the 60's, sounds OK huh? It was until the engine light on the van came on. Drove up to Ellsworth and sat in the Dodge dealer's all morning. They ran diagnostics on it and it came back with something's wrong with the transmission. The guy ran all kinds of tests, took it on a long test drive and couldn't find anything wrong... maybe a sticky valve or something.
Climbed Parkman Mountain this morning. 900 feet in 1.5 miles and I did OK. Probably the best views so far of Somes Sound entrance and several of the lakes.
Felt pretty good so decided I'd continue on to Sargant Mountain. Met some people on the top of Parkman and we started down the other side of Parkman. I thought they were going to Sargant too. We got down to a carriage road I had crossed before I asked them. They of course were heading down. So I turned and went back up. Unfortunately that was the only so back down I went again, After looking at the map I saw where to pick up the Sargant Mountain but by then I was too tired and went on down,
09/03/06 Hiking Acadia Mountain:
Heavy clouds this morning and down in the 50's. Really felt like rain. I went out anyway and it cleared up some during the day. How could I come to Acadia and not hike Acadia Mountain.
It's only a mile up to the top. The first half mile was pretty easy. The last half a little harder. A number of rock ledges to get up require scrambling to get over. The top is just another view of Somes Sound though.
I started down the other side thinking it was a to nearby St. Sauveur Mountain. It started down pretty steeply and then seemed to be going in the wrong direction so I went back up and back down the way I came.
Hiking Long Pond :
Still feeling a little frisky so went over to Long Pond. I didn't want another hike, just a nice easy walk. It was that, for the first 1.5 miles or so. Then the seemed to start up and veer away from the lake so I turned back. I finally found my map and it showed that going up to Bernard Mountain and Mansell Mountain. Maybe I'll do them tomorrow.
09/05/06 Hiking Mansell Mountain:
Miserable day yesterday with heavy mist, the residue of some heavy rains the night before. Not bad today though.
I went back to Long Pond or Great Pond or whatever its called... maps say one thing, signs say another. 100 feet along the Long Pond is the head for Mansell Mountain and a few feet farther is the one for Bernard Mountain. I thought I'd go up Mansell Mountain and then go on to Bernard and then come back on the Great Notch . Mansell first because the map showed 289 feet, or so I thought.
A couple of maples along the lake are already completely red. A sign indicates the pond/lake is stocked with landlocked salmon and that there are also some wild ones in there. They cut a fin off the ones they stock and ask the fishermen to release the wild ones they catch.
The first part of the Mansell Mountain is pretty flat. The last half mile is something else. I thought it was pretty tough from a less than 300 feet and it was. The 289 feet I saw on the map was meters, not feet. It's actually 949 feet. The same nice views of the entrance to Somes Sound and the (Cranberry) islands farther out.
Down the other side of the mountain for a few hundred feet to Great Notch head. Then up some tough and wet ledges to Knight Nubble at 930 feet. Then back down to 890 feet at Little Notch and then up some more wet ledges to Bernard Mountain at 1071 feet. Lots of several types of mosses all over the place making this section very pretty. Pretty much the same views here.
Retraced my steps back to Great Notch head and followed it steadily down hill a couple of miles to the lake/pond, had lunch and then the final 1.5 miles back to the parking lot. 1 hour to Mansell Mountain, 2.5 hours to Bernard Mountain and 4.0 for the entire hike, including lunch.