Trip to Maine 2009
Acadia National Park & points north, 16–18 Aug 2009
After spending the Sunday morning in Portsmouth, we drove north to Maine, stopping on the way to assist a woman who flagged us down because she'd run out of fuel. After stopping for a late lunch in Belfast, we arrived at the camp ground near Acadia National Park which was to be our base for three days. On the Tuesday, we drove all the way to Canada.
Maine is, of course, famous for lobster and Lan is only too happy to support the local industry. In fact, Lan said this was a female lobster and from what we learned later, was perhaps taken illegally.
This was also our first view of the coast since my original intention was to drive inland all the way to Acadia National Park as Google Maps suggested but it seemed so much further than taking a more direct route so we cut across from Augusta to Belfast, arriving for a late lunch.
(I don't eat seafood as it makes me horribly itchy so I took the vege-burger option.)
The new cable-stayed bridge with the much lower suspension bridge it replaces behind.
At 1530 ft (466m) this is the highest place in Acadia National Park. It was nice to be up here at the end of a hot summer day; it was 87°F (30°C) the day we arrived and the following few days though it felt hotter than that. I thought I'd seen 92°F (33.5°C) reported but I must have been wrong. In any case it was way too hot to think about hiking or biking, two popular activities in the park.
A cruise ship steamed out to sea as we watched, having spent the day in Bar Harbor. A small town and a large ship mean that the town's population drops by perhaps a third at the end of the day.
I'm guessing that the vast majority of the ship's passengers never made it beyond the bars, restaurants and tourist-junk shops that line the main street. There are endless designs of tee-shirts on sale featuring moose – I saw one featuring a Ferrari logo and another showing the John Deere logo with a moose substituted for the stallion and deer respectively. I commented to Lan that the last moose on Mount Desert Island was probably shot many decades ago but the National Parks' web site suggests that the answer to the question "Are there moose or bears in Acadia?" is "Both occur on the island, but are rarely seen.".
Such a lovely view. So nice in fact that several people came down the path and then stood immediately in front of us while considering their options for where to sit.
Note to self: don't forget the woman to our far right doing strange yoga poses as the sun went down. Lan thought she was a bit of an exhibitionist; I thought she was just brave to not worry that someone might laugh at her.
We have owned this tent for 10 years or more but only used it for one night so far. It is tall enough for me to stand up in which is nice. On the first night we tried our inflatable mattress but we've become used to a firm mattress so for the second and third nights we slept on a foam mattress pad I'd brought for extra insulation just in case it was cold. That was much more comfortable!
Naturally the tent was well ventilated but lacked air conditioning making it difficult to get to sleep on a hot night but we were surprised how cold it was by 3am. Lan had laughed at me for bringing 3 blankets but she wasn't laughing when I retrieved them from the car.
We didn't actually go out on this boat but briefly considered it after discovering that the whale-watching tour was sold-out. It is certainly a pretty sight when under sail which it does 3 times a day.
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This Bar Harbor shop sold lots of arty things and the glass pumpkins were interesting to look at though I had no desire to own them. Somewhat like children in that respect. :-) I felt sorry for the young woman tending the shop as I'm sure 99% of those who came in were like us and never bought anything.
It's a pretty little light but this is about all you can see. A member of the Coast Guard lives inside the cottage and you can't get into the tower. More ….
With the heat sapping our energy during the day and making it hard to sleep at night, we stopped in the shade near the terminal for the Swans Island ferry and Lan had a little snooze.
There was a restaurant here offering lobster dinner for $9.95 or something like that. We thought of coming back later but getting around Mount Desert Island always took longer than expected – it is actually quite big and the roads are curvy. By helicopter it is about 13 miles from here to Bar Harbor but it took 40 minutes by road.
I neglected to take a picture of the boat, or the ranger who provided commentary. Sorry. Anyway, this is the view leaving the harbor at which many expensive yachts were tied up. We were already seeing a lot of buoys marking lobster traps.
More on the Bear Island Light.
Unfortunately, the former occupants of this nest didn't come back this season. The
The ranger said the lobster come into these shallower waters to molt* so the traps are set for them in such numbers that I had to wonder if the catch is sustainable. * The hard shell, or more properly exoskeleton, is both the animal's suit of armor but also its prison as it prevents the animal from growing. To overcome this, the animal climbs out of its shell and a new one grows.
![The ranger said the lobster come into these shallower waters to molt* so the traps are set for them in such numbers that I had to wonder if the catch is sustainable. * The hard shell, or more properly exoskeleton, is both the animal's suit of armor but also its prison as it prevents the animal from growing. To overcome this, the animal climbs out of its shell and a new one grows.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osprey" class="external" target="_blank">osprey</a> is a protected species and elsewhere we saw artificial nests to encourage their recovery.</p></figcaption>
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<figcaption class="figure__caption--thumbnail">The view back towards Northeast Harbor.</figcaption>
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At high tide this reef is almost submerged. Although hazardous for boats, seals enjoy resting on it. We saw a few in the water nearby.
It's only been a few weeks but I'm having trouble remembering anything I saw in here except a carved wooden object, not quite semi-circular in shape, that had no label. I suspect the museum doesn't get a lot of visitors and the woman from the National Parks Service on duty that day was pleased to chat but she didn't know what it was either.
There was mention that whaling was never a significant industry in Maine as it was further down the coast in Massachusetts though if a whale came strayed inshore the locals might give chase.
Beyond the museum which was adjacent to the dock, there didn't seem to be anything of interest on the island. We wandered down the road a short distance and just saw houses.
When he first saw the small ship, the ranger pretended to be surprised and commented, "Oh, they've brought my boat in"!
There is a 27 mile (43km) loop around the eastern half of the island with many scenic vantage points such as this one.
It occurred to me that this distance is just a bit longer than a marathon and I thought it would make a fabulous course. It turns out that there is an annual race on the island but the Mount Desert Island Marathon takes a completely different route.
Sand + water + children = fun.
Water temperature: 57°F (14°C)! The Gulf Stream which brings warm water to much of America's east coast heads off towards Europe long before reaching Maine and enough of the cold Labrador Current gets past Newfoundland to keep things cool. Too cool for swimming except by the hardiest.
There is a causeway across the cove so there is water behind me too.
Just before the road heads inland.
It's about 4 ft (1.2m) long. I pulled off the road at Southwest Harbor hoping to get a view of the water but private houses lined the road except for a driveway down to a commercial dock where there were dozens of these traps out in the open.
If you keep driving along the coast of Maine, you eventually end on Campobello Island, site of this historical park run jointly by the Canadian and American governments. FDR spent his summers here as a boy and a young man and it was here that he fell ill with polio.
The canoe is made of birchbark in the traditional native style.
Our first glimpse of the "cottage".
Lan resorted to carrying her umbrella to provide relief from the burning sun—making it a parasol. She did that many times on this trip but Asian women carrying parasols just seems so right to me.
Oh how the rich lived. Of the many things that were astonishing about this house was that it and was occupied for just 10 weeks per year! While there were some fireplaces, it isn't built to be warm in a harsh winter.
In the days before air conditioning, wealthy families fled the stifling heat of New York to summer homes in northern, coastal communities amongst other society notables where they would spend their time sailing or fishing or whatever else took their fancy while servants rushed about preparing their meals and their beds. The train took them as far as Eastport then it was but a short ferry ride across the bay.
Also intended to be used just for summer.
An architectural touch I've not seen anywhere else
A huge elliptical dining room window with views over the bay.
Lobster, lighthouse, Lan. What isn't there to like?
We actually saw this magnificent sign on the way into town but stopped to take a photo on the way out and were afraid we'd missed it as it is a long way out of town.
… and very close to the lighthouse.