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.