Acadia

The morning after hiking/climbing Katahdin we packed up camp (in the dreary rain and drizzle) and headed for town and breakfast at the Appalachian Trail Cafe in Millinocket. As well as generous portions of food for hungry, calorie deficient AT hikers, they provide services and lodging. It's worth a stop even on a dry day to eaves drop on hiker conversations and observe the comradery.

On the way out of Baxter SP we stopped to peak at a couple ponds in hopes of spying a moose casually breakfasting on whatever it is that moose enjoy gnawing on - alas, there were to be no moose sightings our entire trip.

 

However, in the wildlife department, we did have a pesky and somewhat portly chipmunk that was intent on trying to get into the Westy. He even ran over Dave's foot one evening during dinner - not sure who was more surprised at that encounter.

But this is a post about Acadia.

Acadia National Park encompasses about 47,000 acres of land, predominantly on Mount Desert Island, on the Atlantic coast. Our first stop was park headquarters where one of the friendlier of the stereotypical no-nonsense New Englander park rangers told us that they had broken a record this past summer with 2.2 million visitors. Being the weekend after Labor Day, Dave and I had foolishly thought that there would be very few people around. I suppose in comparison to 2.2 million the park was nearly vacant, but it felt crowded to us. Fortunately I had reserved a campsite on the "Quiet Side" of the island, in Bass Harbor. I am sure the friendly but odd folks running the campground had our best interests at heart when they parked us right next to the bathrooms and practically on top of other campers. I am also certain that when we politely requested to move to the most remote, furthest away from the bathhouse site we could find they thought we were the odd ones. We were very happy with our new-found seclusion.

It's hard to sum up Acadia, and I've babbled on here long enough. It is obviously a major tourist draw and everything I have ever imagined Maine's rugged coast would look like. There are plenty of hiking trails from easy to moderate to strenuous, and lots of biking, canoeing and kayaking options. Suffice to say that a weekend is not enough time there. If you ever go, and it's a haul from Western NY (800 miles -ish), give yourself lots of time to take it all in. Personally, I would also suggest you avoid summer and leaf-peeper seasons. But that's just me.