ut it was awesome. It had carmel, chocolate, grahm crackers, and other deliciousness in it. I then drove down to the seawall which was beautiful. There was a full moon reflecting off the ocean and rocky shore. Breath-taking really. I went and parked at the picnic area and after walking along the shore for a bit, and I decided I was too lazy to set up my tent and didn't want to pay for two nights of camping. I figured I'd just sleep in my car in the parking lot of the picnic area as Sarah said the Park Rangers wouldn't be patrolling it too heavily yet this time of year. Well, after about an hour and a half of "sleep", I was awoke by bright lights shining in the back of my car. So I sit up and see an officer standing next to the car. So I go to open the door and my car alarm starts going off, so I fumble for my keys and finally manage to shut off the alarm. I open the door and the officer asks, "You know you aren't suppose to be sleeping here?" I go with the ignorant tourist act and reply, "Oh really?!? Ok, I'll move." He replies, "Well, if you're really tired, I don't want you going back out on the road, and I don't really care if you stay here, but the Park Rangers might." I reply, "Ok, thanks." I'm thinking "Sweet!- I'm set." He then states, "I'll stop by every couple hours to check on ya, a lot of heroin addicts come down here." gulp "Thanks." So I decide I should be safe since this nice officer is going to come and check up on me, but then I start having images of me being drug out of my car and pillaged by herion addicts and the cops shows up to find me after I've lost everything. I sort of have an active imagination. Needless to say, I decided I needed to move and luckily remembered that the Rangers manning the camp site would be long gone and I'd be up and gone before they showed up. So I drove across the road and slept peacefully until about 6:00AM.I then woke up to a cloudy, humid day and went and check out the nearby lighthouse. I was able to watch some lobster boats heading out to check their traps. After that I figured I get started hiking right away. Sarah had provided me a list of sweet hikes I should check out so I take out my not so good maps and try to find where they are. I start driving to where is seems as those the trail heads should be. Eventually, I realize that I'm farther north than the first hike I was planning on doing and after driving around somemore I think, I'm just going to do Acadia mountain since I know where it is. Well, I thought I knew where it was. The parking area is actually on the opposite side of the road from the trailhead, which they don't bother to tell you in anyway so I head down some other trail which ends after about 500 yards. However, I was still determined this was the right trail and figure I know right where the trail must really go and keep walking through the woods. Eventually I run into another campground and realize I'm not even close to the trail. So I walk back to the road and then to my car and decide to go set up my tent for the next night and get a better map.
I then went to the camp site, and battled the misquitos as I put up the tent. I grabbed a good map from the fine Camp site rangers and headed off to try again to do some hiking. So I'm following my much more detailed map to the trailhead of Bernard Mtn only to find that both roads leading to it are closed. Sad that I won't be able to hike that mountain today I headed to Mansell Mtn. The hike started out very humid but I didn't want to take off my long sleeves as the bugs were thick. When I'm finally totally drenched in sweat and sick off bugs and starting to
wonder if this was worth it, I turned around and saw an amazing view. I also realized there was now a nice breeze and the bugs were significantly less and things got much better. I made it to the top of Mansell and realized I could easily hike from Mansell to Bernard. Well, that all took a little longer than anticipated and I was 15 minutes late for picking Sarah up in Bar Harbor. She didn't seem to be too upset though.We then checked out the beach she used to life gaurd at, hiked Beehive and the South Bubble mountains. The Beehive is pretty cool as it has ladder parts to help up the reallys steep parts. We went to Thunder Hole which is a spot on the shore where when the waves crash into the whole in the rocks it sounds like thunder- hence the name. After dropping our bikes off at the
top of Cadillac Mountain, we drove down to the bottom so we could hike up it. Cadillac Mtn is the highest land point on the East Coast until you get to Brazil. It still doesn't compare to anything out west in the Rockies, but the thing about east coast hiking is that they don't appear to believe in switchbacks. You just gotta go straight up. Finally, we summitted a little humbled after scoffing at the 1.5 miles hike at the beginning. It was tough. However, then we got to ride out bikes down the mountain. No peddling needed as most of the time I was going so fast that I thought I was going to wear out the brakes before I got to the bottom. My significantly greater mass than Sarah tended to make my bike want to go a lot faster so I also had to be careful not to fly past her or into her.That night we roasted S'mores over the fire after we ate supper at Poor Boys. I had some delicious stuffed haddock and Sarah had the hugest plate of eggplant parmesean I've ever seen (not to mention her's was a bottomless plate). The rain managed to hold off until I was going to
bed and was done by the time Sarah woke me up in the morning. Thankfully, I stayed dry and slept very well. The ground in a tent was much more comfortable than my car. That day we went a visited the people who were working for A Christian Ministry in the National Parks which is who Sarah works for in the main office. We went to the Jordan Pond House for some warm beverages, seafood chowder, and popovers. Luckily, Sarah's connections came in handy and we only paid for the drinks. We ended our Acadia trip with a bike ride down one of the carriage trails and some ice cream.The rest of my week has been pretty low key really. I saw Shrek the Third on Tuesday. On Wednesday, my CI invited me over for dinner and made me lobster rolls for dinner - Mmmmm. I went kayaking for two hours on Thursday. Just when I was turning around to head back toward my house a seal popped his head out of the water about 100ft from me. I got my camera out and he disappeared. I waited a while with camera in hand and he wasn't to be seen. So I put it away and started back toward home again. After about 10ft he popped his head up again about 60ft from me, so close I could see his whiskers. So I got my camera out again but by this time the kayak was facing the wrong direction and by the time I got turned around he was gone again and didn't come back. It was exciting anyway, even without a picture. Friday I went kayaking again with my CI on the river by her house. We went around a few islands, saw a beaver, an osprey, and some other cool birds.
Here is a view from my house.
It is sad that my time here is almost done. I have a lot more I want to do, and I'll miss the people I've met. However, I do get to go back to Minnesota and see all of you, which will ROCK! And there is a very good chance I will come back out here for a year to work. See you all soon.
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