By Shelby
Starting Sunday night, we stayed in an AirBnB since Spencer’s allergies were bad, along with my cough. We hoped that sleeping in the car wasn’t making Spencer’s allergies worse. The AirBnB was in Wells, Maine, a tiny touristy town on the ocean. We parked at the beach while we were waiting to check-in. It was very foggy.
On Monday, we worked from the AirBnB and just relaxed. It was very nice to sleep on a real bed for a couple of nights. Tuesday we had to check out, so we worked a little in the morning and then drove on to Waterville. The Waterville Public library was closed, so we ended up working in a tiny library that used to be a roller skating rink in a nearby town. After we finished work, we drove to Bangor, the capital of Maine. We worked from the Bangor Public Library on Wednesday. We had to move the car every two hours due to limited street parking.
Thursday was cloudy and cold. We ended up going to the Bangor City Forest and relaxed there a bit before walking the Orono Bog boardwalk. It was a very cool trail that led through the woods out onto the bog. It was a completely different environment compared to the forest. As we finished the walk, we started feeling raindrops, so we hurried back to the car.
Our original plan for Thursday had been to camp near Mt. Katahdin, the highest mountain in Maine, but it turned out that the trails leading up the mountain were closed due to “mud season”. For dinner, we went to a Mexican restaurant in Bangor called Las Palapas. I got a Mahi Mahi fish dish and Spencer got a massive burrito.
We drove to Acadia National Park on Friday and got our “America the Beautiful” pass, which will allow us to enter any national park in the US for the next year. Unfortunately, one of the most popular trails in the park, the Precipice Trail, was closed due to peregrine falcon nesting, so we hiked the Beehive Trail instead. This trail was half the length of the Precipice Trail, but it was still very exciting. This trail involved climbing vertically up the rocky mountainside using metal rungs embedded in the rock. Spencer said it was the highlight of the trip so far. The trail had great views of the ocean and the nearby Sand Beach. From the mountain summit, we then descended down via the Bowl Trail.
When we arrived back at the car, we had lunch before walking over to Sand Beach. Sand Beach is a tiny, sandy beach located between mountains and rocky shores. There were many people walking around the beach, but it was much too cold to swim or go in the water. We then walked on the Ocean Path, a popular trail that goes along the rocky cliffside. There were little paths leading from the main trail out onto the rocks that we walked on.
The Ocean Trail led to Thunder Hole, a small inlet in the cliffside where the water crashes and makes a sound like thunder. Unfortunately, the water was calm that day and the site was rather underwhelming. We did get a picture of the profile of a man in the rocks. See if you can spot it!
From Thunder Hole, we decided not to continue on the Ocean Path and turned around to go back to the car. We drove on to Jordan Pond. We started with hiking the Jordon Pond Loop trail which goes all the way around the pond, but we turned off onto the South Bubble Trail. This was a 1.7-mile loop trail that climbs to the 768-foot peak of South Bubble. At the top, we got sweeping views of Jordon Pond.
Near the summit, we even got the classic pictures of Bubble Rock, the most famous rock in Maine. Bubble Rock is a huge boulder that was left in a very precarious position on the edge of the mountain by glaciers. Just like everyone else, we attempted to push the boulder off the side of the cliff to no avail.
We descended the South Bubble by the Bubble Divide trail. We climbed down over many many rocks. When we reached the bottom, we continued onto the other side of the Jordan Pond Loop Trail. The majority of the trail on this side of the lake is a narrow boardwalk, which protects the fragile lakeside. There were brief sections where we had to walk over rocks in the lake.
After we arrived back at the car, we decided to drive to the summit of Cadillac Mountain, the tallest mountain on the eastern seaboard at 1530 feet. As we drove up the mountain, we passed through patches of fog. Luckily, when we reached the top, the fog and clouds had cleared up for the most part.
We walked the summit trail, a paved trail leading around the top of the mountain. We got amazing views of the surrounding area. Clouds rolled in pretty quickly, immediately changing the view from the mountain. We were very lucky we had this chance to see the view before it got foggy because it wouldn’t happen again for us.
We drove to the other side of the mountain – there is both an East and a West parking lot. Again, we got lucky and saw an amazing view of the sun over rolling clouds. It didn’t last very long as the fog rolled in, completely obstructing the view. We attempted to see the sunset, but the sun was quickly hidden behind the clouds. We stayed there for a while longer until it became dark.
As we descended the mountain, the fog became very thick and there was low visibility. When we reached a certain elevation, the fog immediately cleared up and everything was crystal clear. We drove on to a small parking lot at a trailhead outside the park. We successfully stealth camped here for the first time. Luckily, no one bothered us or asked us to leave.
The next morning, we got up at 4 am to try to see the sunrise from the top of Cadillac Mountain. We didn’t have very high hopes, as it was already raining and very foggy. When we reached the parking lot at the summit, there were already many other cars there. We were fortunate we came this early in the season. Starting late May, reservations are required to drive to the top of the mountain at sunrise because of how popular it is. As we had expected, there was no sunrise to see. The clouds and fog were too thick. We drove to the less busy West parking lot to take a nap.
When we woke up, we drove back to Bangor to shower and have breakfast. We then drove south to a rest area where we were planning on sleeping. We saw our first and only moose at the rest area. I wanted to try a Maine lobster roll, so we drove to the Red Barn, a restaurant in a nearby town that supposedly had very good lobster rolls. However, due to rising costs and short supplies, they no longer served any kind of lobster. I got fried clams instead. Spencer got fried chicken, apparently the “best in Maine”.
After dinner, we drove to Halloway, a small town nearby, to get ice cream at the Local Scoop. Spencer wanted a shake, but it turns out their machine was broken. He got mint chocolate chip ice cream instead. I got a “unicorn”, cotton candy ice cream with sparkly sugar sprinkles and a marshmallow horn. It was very good! We found a spot to relax by the river with a couple of Adirondack chairs.
Sunday morning, we drove to our next stop, Laconia, NH. There was no interstate into Laconia so we had to take state routes. The hilly roads and 55 mile-per-hour speed limits made for perfect Prius driving conditions. the car averaged 53 MPG on this route. We did some laundry and went to Opechee Beach to hang out and work on the website.
Fun Facts from Week 4:
- From October 7th to March 6th, the summit of Mount Cadillac is the first place in the US to see the sunrise.
- Stephen King lived in Bangor, Maine for a period of time until 2018. The house he lived in is now a nonprofit organization.
One response to “Week 4”
Looks like you two are having a lot of fun! Too bad about the fog on Cadillac, though!