Acadia National Park: Mt. Penobscot

Our first and longest hike in Acadia National Park was a loop from the Jordan Pond House up to the top of Mt. Penobscot, with a slight detour to Sargent pond for a swim. Since we got to Acadia late Friday night we weren't able to see the beauty of the park until we woke up on Saturday and headed in to hike up Mt. Penobscot. Acadia has a weird system for paying to enter the park, while you can drive into some areas without paying, if you get on the one way road that circles the park you are forced to go through the entrance gate and pay the fee (Which we didn't even end up doing till Sunday evening).
We started out the hike from the Jordan Pond House, first making our way through droves of hungry car hikers waiting in line for the breakfast place. There was literally over 100 people waiting to eat breakfast, apparently their Maine blueberry's were better than the billion other places around. After the zombies were behind us we headed up the trail, slow at first and then more steep, until we broke treeline and made a scramble for the summit of Penobscot. The views on the way up were the first ones we had experienced in Acadia and they did not disappoint.The summit afforded 360° views of the Atlantic, the island of Mount Desert, and inland Maine, friggen awesome if I do say so myself. After eating lunch with bumble bee's and tuna we headed on a side trip to Sargent Pond to go for a swim. We had originally planned to hike Sargent Mountain also, but opted for swimming instead. At this point in the hike we got stuck behind a woman in maybe her late 40's hiking with the most annoying adopted kid in the history of the god damn world. After 30mins of hearing the word mother (pronounced mudda) we finally made it to the pond and Mike and I proceeded to drown her. We didn't really. After changing we dove in and it was completely nice, like something out of a commercial with a fun. song as the soundtrack. After swimming for a bit we got out and toweled off and headed back to the top of Penobscot to take the Penobscot Mountain Trail down to the base and back to the Jordan Pond House to complete the loop. This turned out to be a great first hike in Acadia which raised our expectations for the rest of the trip which were inevitably met and surpassed in the days to come. Some other noteworthy stops we made in Acadia included: Thunder Hole, Otter Cliffs, Bar Harbor, and some horseshit lighthouse 45 minutes out of our way. All and all it was an excellent trip and I'm already planning my next jaunt there which will hopefully be sooner rather than later. Go to Acadia, Go to any National Park, they are the best idea this country has ever had, Ken Burns knew that, I know that, you should know that too. 

P.S. Lost my National Parks Pass. Lesson for the day: Drinking and responsibility don't always go hand and hand.

Mileage: 4 Miles

Deerz.

Jordan Pond.

Acadia Cairn.

Mike contemplating.

Directions.

Bumble Bee's Tuna.

Sargent Pond.

Hike on.

Little bridge guy.

Mike without swimmies.

Sunrise, Cadillac Mountain

Getting up at 4:30 am is a lot easier when it's to see something as awesome as the first sunrise to touch American soil, and while in Acadia N.P. I was able to do just that. In the fall and spring months Acadia's Cadillac mountain holds the title for being the first place in the United States to see sunrise. After waking up before the crack of dawn and driving to the top of Cadillac Mountain using the auto road, cheating I know but I was not in the mood to hike 4 miles before sunrise, We parked the car and found a spot on the summit to sit and enjoy the show. The weather was perfect and the low lying clouds shrouded Bar Harbor and most of the bay in a thick layer of fog that we were fortunately above. At first there wasn't many people but by the time sunrise was starting hundreds of people lined the top of the mountain to get a view. If you go to Acadia, I would highly suggest getting your ass out of bed and watching the sunrise, it was a completely awesome experience. And for the first time in my life, after heading into Bar harbor, I had to wait for a breakfast place to open instead of getting there after they close like I normally do.
And finally my attempt at wisdom, no laughing.

"Wander on as though you were meant to, as if your feet were not meant to stay put in any given place for too much time as to get used to it. Put on your boots and head down the trail that takes you to somewhere new, somewhere different, some place unlike any you have been before, and hopefully, just hopefully you will discover a part of yourself you’ve never known before. Carry the spirit of wanderlust in you throughout your life and seek out as much as our short time here will allow, because when that final bright day comes it is better to have tired feet and bones than a broken spirit and a lost sense of adventure." 

Once again thanks for following along!

Video Series: Cadillac Mountain time lapse sunrise

Mileage: Not enough to count.

Bar Harbor in the fog.

Bar Harbor fog covered.

Pre Dawn.

Momomomo8989898.

Thrilled.

Sun Come Up.

Sunrise Flowers.

Lahvas.

Awesome.

Rolling Fog.

From a plane window?

Dream Team.

Over the Horizon.

Acadia National Park - Precipice Trail

One of the best privileges of the time and place that we live in is having the opportunity to pack up the car and head in any given direction to some place that is completely new and different to us than the daily routines we have gotten so used to, it's what countless films and novels are written about from "Road Trip" and "Tommy Boy" to "On the Road" and "A Walk in the Woods" and it's something that everyone reading this has done at least once in some form and can look back on with good memories. And if you have never done this...yolo bro. This past weekend I had the opportunity to pack up said car, in this case a Ford Escape, courtesy of Meredith Auto and head north to Acadia National Park for a weekend filled with camping, hiking and exploring. Along with my goal to reach 100 miles hiked this year (which I may have reached, pending official tally) I have been trying to visit as many National Parks as I can, Acadia being the fifth. For some reason I have not yet been to Acadia NP and I had been tossing the idea to head up there around in my head for quite sometime, and as with all of my trips I wanted, scratched that, needed to convince some people to come experience the park with me. After proposing the idea to a number of people I was able to get two of my friends, Mike and Sarah to come along. We headed out on Friday evening around five, which anyone who lives in the Boston area can tell you, is the best time to try to get anywhere. After 6 1/2 hours of enduring traffic and fighting off Popeye's induced comas we arrived at Mount Desert Campground, which I might add was very nice, great campsites, good camp store and most importantly good bathrooms because after all, everybody poops. Save for some assholes ripping around the campground at 1230am blaring "Hell's Bells" it was a good stay, but to be fair I'm sure our neighbors didn't enjoy my "indoor" voice at 1am while I drunkenly peaced out 6 smores like Joey Chestnut. But enough about all that, I promised a hike, which this time comes in the form of the Precipice Trail, Acadia's most dangerous, most badass hike/climb/suicide mission up the face of Champlain Mountain. Now I won't hype it up to much because I know there are a lot more dangerous things one could do with a Saturday afternoon, but a simple Google search will yield obituaries and yelp reviews about crying at the top. So of course the best time to climb up said trail would be while it's heavily raining out, and if my last post tells you anything about my decision making as of late, this is what we did. Now in our defense, a bunch of other people did it too, and we even jumped off the same bridge as them afterwards. And since I'm about as much of an expert as anybody in a Jackass episode I'll spare the disclaimer and encourage you to go to Acadia and try out this hike. But you don't have to take my word for it because, in a new addition to the Wanderlust blog, I've GoPro'ed the hike and you can watch the video HERE. The hike up was not so bad at first, but an uphill climb turned into a series of metal bar ladders, which then turned into uncomfortably spaced handholds on ledges that would make even Alex Honnold think twice about his next move. This Vertical Limit-esque type of climbing gave way to a final, slightly inclined, easy hike to the summit of Mount Champlain that afforded awesome views of Acadia, Frenchman Bay, and the Atlantic Ocean. After taking some pictures, the heavy rain forced us to make our way down the easier, but still slip-n-slide like, north face of the mountain. The trail back wasn't much less nerve racking and there were a few moments, including one where Mike definitely saw a fast motion montage of his life flash before his eyes which, for his mom's sake, I won't go into detail about. But as with all hikes before this one, we made it safely back to the car and spent the rest of the day exploring some of the other sights Acadia had to offer. So if you've learned anything from this post, besides the fact that I do dumb things, I hope it's that even if the weather is crappy, you can still go out for a hike and have an experience you won't forget. Too Cheesy? Well then I hope it's that if you get drunk while camping and house a bakers dozen of smores, make sure you choose a campground with a good bathroom for the morning after. Cheers!

Mileage:  3 Miles

Watch the Video here: Precipice Trail

Triumphant.

Cruisin'

Ladder section.

Perfectly Safe Trail.

Even downhill had to be dangerous.

Just ignore these.

One of the caves.