The Jewel of the National Parks – here we are and as we drove to Maine the sunshine and blue sky and fluffy clouds were delightful compared to the gray drizzle we got away from for several days at PEI. We needed to find 3 nights camping and we found out the National Park Campgrounds do not have first come sites. Evidently, all last-minute cancellations go through to recreation.gov and only walk-in or group sites were showing available so no dice. I called around and found a spot at the Desert Narrows RV Resort meaning swimming pool, game room, laundry room, little store with super nice people who took about 20 minutes to explain how to get around both in the park and using the buses that stopped right at their driveway. Handy, nice but with tax it was $70 a night for water and electric and great WiFi, great for software updates and finishing my PEI Blog so I can get onto Acadia. And even got a load of laundry and a shower at this resort! A Camp Scanner got us a campsite at Seawall NP Campground, the much more quiet side of the Park, but the side that has the famous Bass Harbor Lighthouse that is seen in so many Acadia NP photos.
Beech Mountain Valley Loop
It is nice to be back in the land of mountains and harbors, and oh the granite rock. We decided to stay and extra day at the Desert Narrows Campground and do the Beech Mt Valley Trail. It had beautiful far off water scene yet the hike was the right amount of challenge to scramble up some granite rocks and walk up down inclines in the tree cover with a normal amount of downed trees under sunshine and 70 degrees.
There are many scenic water body views including Echo Lake, Long Pond and the Somes Sound. We love a hike where you are rewarded with beautiful views at the end. It doesn’t always need to be a brewery with a Stout Beer!
Hiking the Granite boulders was great fun on this beautiful day and had a textured non-slip appeal (hopefully Beehive will be this way). As we looked down at Somes Sound from all this granite our Guide-Along commentary indicates once granite quarries employed 15,000 workers from 1830 to 20th century. Most were European immigrants from Scotland and Scandinavia. Each quarry has a distinctive type of granite with pink color especially being known for this area and was considered the best grade granite for constructing bridges, wharfs and monuments. Now this nature made hard stuff is replaced by concrete and the reason there is only one quarry Island off of Isle Of AAHaut.
Atlantic Brewery, Bar Harbor
We took our chances and found street parking near Atlantic Brewery in the Bar Harbor, on a Monday it was bustling, but not impossible and the Brewery was pretty empty. Did our usual amount of barstool chatting and I finished some Dropbox downloads to complete my PEI post. John had to Princess the term cattywampus as the Romanian bartender had never heard the term that another patron had used. A lively barstool banter ensued with everyone sharing their own knowledge of the spelling/meaning of this word, Cattywampus.
Seawall Area Campground
Powerful oceans pushed large rocks and even huge boulders making this natural seawall.
Fiona of 2022 washed out the road, but we were told that the locals built it back for this season because when I had made camping reservations at Seawall, one was warned to approach from the West to get in.
Wonderland Hike
Wonderland Hike Trailhead a few miles south of Seawall Campground which was a mile and a half through the woods out to a shallow flat rock shoreline where we could scamper across the relatively flat boulders. Saw a big sailing schooner with all its sails up and this was perfect to pass the time until we could check-in to our campsite.
Ship Harbor hike is just a bit further down with some interpretive signage and views of the harbor.
Bass Harbor Lighthouse
This most photographed 1858 lighthouse along the Maine Coast is famous and a best place to enjoy a sunset. Sunsets are always better than sunrises for Paddle Boy, and we lucked out and got a parking spot and this small lot (No RV’s).
We even saw a cop on the way up that may have been looking for such violators. Climbing down a staired path to the rocks where people gathered at all levels to the sea to witness the end of this day. I did the best I could without have to launch a vessel from the granite rocks.
NPS needs to cut down that branch as it really impedes on my photo! Been there done that now we need to contemplate sunrise at Cadillac Mountain as this is the first place that the sun peaks over the land in the United States.
Acadia Mountain and the Man-O-War Trail
The NPS woman at Seawall Campground suggested Acadia Mountain. The trail to Acadia Mountain was named the Man-O-War when I searched. With such a violent name, we do not normally tackle a trail like this, but a 2.7mile, 705 ft elevation gain is well within our usual reach.
It had a 4.8 stars one of the highest rate All Trails in Acadia NP so off we hiked.
We were a bit earlier (10 am kick-out of Seawall Campground) at the parking area and for that reason did not get a parking spot in the lot, but continued South on Route 102 about .2 miles and there was another gravel parking area on the northbound side. People parked along the road but the drop off to the shoulder was too much for our step-scraped Vinny so we did not dare. This next place was perfect once we did a U turn and then backed in. The traffic later in the afternoon made that a much appreciated decision, and it was .2 miles walk on the road which was easy. There was a bus stop on the Southwest Harbor Route northbound side (I don’t see it on the map as a letter, just a dot to request I suppose, but there certainly was a bus stop that serviced this Man-0-War and St Sauveur Mountain Trail as well.
Definitely a 4.8* or more in my book when doing the recommended clockwise direction. There were incredible views of the lakes and sounds and islands as we hiked along the granite ways on the trail. Several spots required John to hand his poles down to me as holding on the rock was required for these 60+ bones of ours.
There were trails around some difficult spots but my hands did become red and irritated
in a few sections where we had to shimmy down a crack and were glad we had our boots.
Spots were slow going, but all along those challenging spots there were incredible views that were better than the last,
so it was easy to stop and rest and enjoy and not feel like you had to just stop at catch your breath rather stop and enjoy yet another view.
We usually take about an hour longer than All Trails says, but we have too many other trails to hike than risk a twist or worse yet a break, and besides we have 2 week in Acadia so what’s the rush! We eventually arrived at the half way on Somes Sound and saw the water.
The loop home was super wide and simple, and we covered that quickly, and decided it was time for a celebration!
Vinny turns 100,000 miles in Hancock, Maine
We were a bit overwhelmed with the incredible beauty of the last hike. We were tired and did the most climbing scramble of all our hiking years on the Man-O-War Trail, but it was not like the Ha Ling exhaustion of British Columbia either. It was a feeling of accomplishment, but we needed to figure out how to celebrated Vinny turning 100,000. So as we drove we were totally cognizant and took the video and almost found a perfect place at the Ironbound Inn. But it was 4:20 and they didn’t open for 40 minutes. So the Pickled Wrinkle, just a bit further than our turn off was selected for the Vinny toast. Funny that Paddle Boy found this brewery when it was one that had been recommended in my research notes. Quite the collision for celebration! We were hearing about what a positive Kamala Harris debate had occurred the night prior. We are firm believers that Trump has disgraced and ruined the Republican Party for many years now. Our democracy depends on a Harris/Walz Victory and as I think about all the Trump lies, and now JD Vance about Haitian immigrants eating pets, they are a disgrace. As my mom said before she died three years ago how he reminds her of Hitler, and his autocratic fascist rhetoric, sympathetic toward Putin, and of course his election loss denial, lack of providing any platform except for tearing our country apart by nasty lying and disgusting rhetoric toward his opponents. He is a disgrace to our country and makes me sad to be an American. Kamal represents a changing of the guard and hopefully some MAGA will be gone forever without too much damage. Maybe even a new Party that will hopefully provide disagreement and dialogues and not the Republican bowing down to Trump. And thanks for all those Republicans that are finally calling him out. Hold tight Liz Cheney you started it and thank you Mike Pence for taking Country before party!
Pickled Wrinkle
Ok enough political rant (this is my first time in writing), and back to the celebration of Vinny that now truly is! We had excellent blackened haddock after brussels and pretzel bite appetizer, and Paddle Boy was hooked on the Night Nurse, a stout by Fogtown Brewing Ellsworth Maine. Vinny is getting on and the last month has been like a bit of aging. He has gotten scraped on his low step passenger side at least twice not to mention the Waterfall Gash on the Digby Peninsula in Nova Scotia. We will be a little more kid glove in his future treatment as now he is in the dawn of a new Centurian era. We would return again!
Schoodic Peninsula
Wow, is this underrated and there was not much discussion of it in my Acadia NP research, except for Mary who said this area was incredible as she visited last year.
Mary convinced us to take a Windjammer Sailing 4 Day trip on the JE Riggins out of Rockland Maine as well, and we are so looking forward to that at the end of September.
We had three days at Schoodic Campground, with electricity, big sites, and really new facilities. I even get a 5G bar once in awhile and our signal extender has upped the usual 3 bars LTE to 4. Morning registration and visitor information gave me the low down on the biking aspect here which I had never learned in my research. Right from the campground take the gravel bike trail 1 mile to Frazer Point where the road here turns 1 way and the right lane is dedicated to bikers. It is an easy 5 mile ride to Schoodic Point Lookout.
The granite rocks that are expansive and incredibly gorgeous. There is pink, many hues of tan and black. It is so fun to run around the granite while gazing into the ocean.
No crashing waves like in Hawaii, but it was low tide. And so perfect after a 5 mile bike ride to prevent Frumunda Fatigue (from previous blog posts = From-Under-Fatigue, long bike ride phenomenon) It was a beautiful days to do boulder jumping,
The NFS Park ranger who had a whale rib and other info said there is a Sundew Trail that is accessed from the Schoodic Institute that we passed on the right shortly before getting to the Schoodic Outlook. We should have stopped there at the Roosevelt Visitors center that had exhibitions of when Schoodic Peninsula was a Navy Base. It housed some of the state-of-the-art transmission equipment between England and Chatham Massachusetts.
After serving as a barracks, it is used for educational purposes for school groups and others, as well as environmental shore research projects. It is a huge spreadout campus and unfortunately, we had not stopped at the Schoodic Institute Visitor Center and could not find the Sundew Trail. By then we were really missing the PBJ sandwiches that were sitting on Vinny’s counter. Luckily, they sold some pretzels and we were nourished for the way back. Make sure to stop here when you have not forgotten your lunch as see the orientation movie and a map to the trail which had been recommended by NFS Chris at the outlook. Delightful ride home, reaching the Wonsqueak Gravel Bike Trail back to Schoodic Woods Campground after the One-Way road ended at Frazier Point. The other option for return is to flag down the bus that runs every hour or so to load bikes and return. You are only allowed to ride in the dedicated right lane in the direction of the traffic. The return ride on the gravel path was a bit more hilly and lose gravel made it slower, but I think we only got off to push once.
Sundew Trail, Schoodic Institute
We decided to go back into the Schoodic Institute to learn a bit more about this impressive complex of buildings as they had a video and really nice volunteers too. It was originally a Top Secret Facility when it handled the WWII transmissions between England and also Chatham MA. It eventually turned Navy Base community and had all those things like a store, church, bowling alley (no golf course here) before being decommissioned in 2002 and becoming the Schoodic Institute for environmental education and research.
Since the weather was to get sunny later in the afternoon, we decided to do this 1 mile easy hike to 3 over-looks to pre-game for our Schoodic Head Hike.
Schoodic Head Trail
We hiked to the top of the Peninsula up the Anvil Trail. BTW best to park at Blueberry Hill Parking Area because if you do the loop up Anvil and down the Schoodic Head you end up at this Blueberry Parking Lot which is big compared to the small pull offs a bit further down. The road is one-way for the bike traffic so you can’t turn around and go back if these smaller pull offs are full. At the top we were glad to have All Trail because there are no signs that say Alder Trail.
The Schoodic Head is at the top and the Anvil leads to it and it has signs, but it looks like they are getting rid of the Alder Trail and just have signs for Schoodic Head and it takes you all the way down, even though maps still indicate Alder.
There was nice single view from the top, but we had been spoiled by our Acadia Mountain hike where there were multiple views along the trail to rest up a bit and enjoy. The Schoodic Head side was a bit rugged getting up to the head, but the last ½ mile of the loop was a gravel road and a bit boring that threw you right out to the Blueberry Parking Lot. The Anvil part of the loop was much more rugged most of the way up, but delightfully challenging for us 60+. I enjoyed the granite hopping from Schoodic peninsula more than this single view from this trail.
You could ride your bike the 6 miles from the campground to this trailhead and then it’s another 4 miles home. The round-trip going up Anvil Side/down Schoodic Head/Alder was under 3 miles. Or the Bus stop at Blueberry Hill can take you home too. Another night to head to the Wrinkled Pickle as John needed his Night Nurse, and there was a guitarist who turned out to be really good and a perfect volume for us 60+ers. I had the specialty, a Blueberry Cosmo with homemade blueberry simple syrup, so delicious and not too sweet. Another great dinner this time we split the beef tips and mashed. Absolutely delicious and so, so tender. Staff was exceptionally attentive and friendly !
Fogtown Brewery and Banned From Eden, Ellsworth
Between John’s affection for the Night Nurse, music that was scheduled and my camping schedule debacle we decided firmly to go the 40 minute drive from Blackwoods Campground especially when we got there say said your reservation doesn’t start until tomorrow. Opps and it’s a Saturday at 4pm not optimal to find camping near Acadia. Elks Club to the rescue only a mile from the Brewery and they even had a 50amp circuit. It was so quiet in their back parking lot. Banned from Eden, a local band from Bar Harbor, was incredible. Between the guy playing the mandolin/guitar and then the fiddle, to the drummer who could whistle and drum or mouth harp and drum, they lyrics were incredibly funny.
“Pizza Boy”, “Static”, the Dog Barking Song, and the Amoeba Song. It was a beautiful beer garden night and the pizza from the outdoor oven was even better, especially with the “Ellsworth” dark lager that I was drinking. We managed to walk home and didn’t have to get John to a registered Night Nurse. We came back to charge the batteries since there was dry camping at Blackwoods and we are there for 10 day.
Acadia Carriage Roads
We would bike on many of these famous 45 miles of trails including 17 stone bridges, throughout Acadia built for carriage rides making them 16 foot wide in most places, not too steep, and full on in nature complete with beautiful water views.
“Rockfellers’ teeth” border many of the roads with the granite boulders placed irregularly to give a very rustic feel. There are 17 stone bridges.
Around the Mountain Carriage Loop
This carriage trail when going clockwise is a steady uphill for the first 4 miles and then a bit of up and down for the last 7 miles or so, we didn’t need to push up our Q-Bikes even once. Seemed like when the ticker was ticking a bit too long and fast, you could see the top of the hill, so onward. Nice views from the carriage trail.
In fact I had to put on my jacket for the last 5 miles because it was getting a bit cool on this late afternoon ride.
Our ride was a bit slower as we stopped to help a E-Bike rider that had a very stuck chain that fell off. An experienced tough woman rider with tools came along and was instrumental in the effort until John said let me wedge a stick in the guide and another guy pulled the chain to untangle.
Jordan Pond Carriage
There is a grand main entrance to the Carriage Roads at Jordan Pond from the Park Loop Road, but this required a tiny bit of a ride on the Park Look Road.
It took a bit of searching to find an entrance from the Jordan Pond Popover Complex. Iit seemed like it would be poor planning to have all those bikers ride that bit along the busy loop road. This is how you find it: Keep the Park Loop on your left and the Jordan Pond Hubbub Center where the buses drop off on the right, go all the way to the end of the parking lot and there are ton of bike racks. On the right side, there is a small dirt path with a “Walk Bikes” sign. This will bring you to the Jordan Pond Grand Main Entrance or to the Carriage Road.
Parking at Jordan Pond is difficult but we have found after 1pm, requiring no additional circles. We like making the left up the hill into additional parking. It seems like going straight to additional parking there is less, but it is luck and we have had no problem in mid September. People are coming and going so one can circle, but we never had to do so.
Cadillac Mountain
Although we could have hiked Cadillac Mountain from Blackwoods Campground at over 11 miles round trip, we opted for the Park Loop Road Entrance requiring an entry permit that I got dutifully 60 days ago. Interestingly these come out 90 days and campground reservations are 60 days. So I missed the sunrise entry permit at this time because they are very popular, not that John isn’t happy with this fact. 70% of the Cadillac Summit Road Sunrise and Daytime vehicle reservations will be available for purchase at 10:00 am (ET) two days in advance of the desired reservation date. So if I could just get organized to do this perhaps John would have to suffer through the experience. More granite hoping up here with so many beautiful views.
The stars are supposed to be incredible up here too. That may be more his The hourly daytime entry does not fill up so instantly, so here we are. Now for scenery. Like Schoodic, I did lots of granite hopping over the top to see the incredible water scenery.
We could see where our Blackwoods Campground was.
The Acadia Metropolis of Bar Harbor was also in the landscape.
The many, many islands of Maine with only 7 being inhabited were also in the around the mountain view from the top.
It was a most beautiful day to be up on the mountain top that was left after a glacier ground it down, and then subsided leaving Cadillac Mountain.
Jordan Pond Trail and Popovers
Jordan Pond is perhaps the most famous spot, but maybe it is their popovers! We have always gotten a parking spot when arriving around 12pm. We started by riding our bikes about 2 miles up the around the Mountain Carriage Road and were going to take the Deer Brookings Trail and hike the South Bubble Trail, but the Bubbles connector was closed for construction and decided we really needed to have our hiking boots as we hike down the boulders on this trail.
I thought the Bubbles refer to these two mountains on the north end of Jordan Pond, but there are some huge boulders on the hike that look like they should fall at any minute and these are the bubbles. Colors are popping out on the Bubble Mountains
Plan B was to connect up and just do the complete hike circle around Jordan Pond starting at the northern section and ending where we locked up our bikes on the Carriage Road near this bridge.
It all worked out because we could make it to the Jordan Pond Popover Factory before it closed; we had stopped there as we entered the carriage road and it was packed. Now we had a real hunger, and even got the Blueberry Brie served warm in the cast iron.
We needed to order an extra popover to soak up all the warm blueberry syrup. They were delicious and we were ready to complete the western side of the pond. This side started with about ¾ of a mile on log boards. These split, 20 foot long logs were totally flat, but 20 inches wide making it necessary to wait along the many pull out sections if you came across someone traversing the opposite way. One could step on the ground, but the reason they had this extensive system was for restoration, and we try to be good naturalists. They were flat, but you had to keep your eye on them all the time because there was a foot of drop off into the dirt and would be easy to fall, but not die like other trails in the park. Not my kind of walking for that long, but then trails traversed upward and the land of granite was the path, no restoration needed here.
The eastern side of Jordan Pond was a very nice easy beautiful stroll along the pond on a dirt trail and we had walked it fast hoping that they wouldn’t run out of popovers at the end of day.
Beehive Summit
Notice how I didn’t say Beehive Trail because technically we didn’t do the climbing metal ladders and walking across metal grates for which this trail is famous.
We met a guy our age who did it and told us that his risk-benefit analysis indicated the better idea is to hike up the backside on the Bowl Trail because the summit overlooks are the same. But we did catch a glimpse of action on the Beehive as we descended the Bowl Trail
And just this morning as I looked for the Trail name, local news flash came up that a 58 year old man was airlifted from the Beehive Trail just that morning.
The Bowl Trail was challenging enough for us and oh boy were the views incredible, but that’s just Acadia !!
We expect it now!
And the view of Sand Beach is more inviting then a swim – notice no people in the chilly waters.
And yes more color popping!
It was actually pretty hot compared to other days and even Paddle Boy took a longer than usual rest at the top.
Gorham Mountain Hike
Another incredible view hike at the top. We are getting spoiled. Acadia has many pretty shorter hikes, and this one was perfect for pushing us a bit, but not overwhelming as far as the steepness goes. Luckily there has been no falling recently.
Just some peeking over the edges.
No having to get out the hands for pulling up or scraping the bums to get 60+’s down safely.
Gorham intersects the Beehive and the Bowl Trail that we did yesterday. If it had not been so hot, and we are so lucky to have plenty of Acadia time, it would be possible to do both Gotham and Beehive Summit together pretty easily. This is where we saw people buzzing up the Beehive, and were glad we had made good choices and just enjoy the beautiful views.
Ocean Path /Thunder Hole
We combine Gorham Mountain Trail with the Ocean Path which pretty much follows the Park Loop Road from Sand Beach all the way to Otter Point more than 2 miles down the road.
Bowl Trail comes out at Sand Beach and is the beginning of the Ocean Path.
The cool thing to know is that there are paths leading down to the granite after Sand Beach that you hardly have to take the mundane Ocean Path along the road.
One can granite hop most of the way down until you get to Thunder Hole and then after too. If a granite boulder crack requires a Crocodile Dundee leap, one can head back up to the trod on the Ocean Path.
Another 100 yards down the path, there will be another place to carry on with granite hopping.
I think there were over a dozen paths that were in sight from the ocean that went to the granite.
We even hit Thunder Hole at the right time before high tide and heard the boom. Ocean Path starts at sea level, only one crazy person in the ocean.
But then the path ascends and before you know it you are on the granite cliffs with crashing waves. It was a perfect 3 mile hike day for us when combined with the Gorham Mountain Trail.
Otter Point/Otter Cliffs
The Park Loop stops at both of these even though it is not listed on schedule. And is so, so worth it.
The granite cliffs and waves on this windy but sunny day made this a most incredible experience even when looking over the edge.
It just kept going on as you walked the Ocean Path, always being able to sneak down on the granite or dirt for more of a view or to sit and enjoy.
Compared to Big Sur or Point Lobos CA, you are right at the waves, so close that the mist blew on me on this blustery, bright day.
It was just a mesmerizing experience watching the crashing waves at nearly high tide.
Then on the trail a bit more, a new view to soak up. I walked the path from Otter Point to Thunder Hole this time about two glorious miles.
The Ocean Path after Gorham allows for more granite hopping than the section of the Otters where you would need to go back up to the path from a rugged treacherous lookout point.
Also, I would recommend going to Otter Lookout, and hike opposite the direction of the traffic.
You can pick up the loop bus at many different places from Otter Cliff, Gorham Mountain, Thunder Hole or Sand Beach depending on walking time frame and weather.These scenic views were my favorite in Acadia.
Hawaii has some beautiful crashing wave areas, but the relaxation of being able to walk along for 2 miles or less is divine.
It was a Sunday in September and I did not find the traffic on the Path to prevent me from getting great photos and easily heading down to outlooks.
Bubbles Bike/Hike
Our last attempt to do this hike ended with Jordan Pond Popovers instead of the Bubbles Achiement Award there in the distance.
This time, we carriage-rode from the Hulls Visitors Center about 6 miles south and past Eagle Lake. Came to the same place and to the short Brooks Pond trail down to Jordan Pond this time having our hiking poles, boots and lunch for our last full day in Acadia.
Found a nice loop up to see both South and North Buble and of course the famous Bubble rock which we did our best roll of the cliff.
A bit of climbing was involved on the steep boulder-filled scramble up, but my baby hands didn’t get quite as beat up as with the Man-O-War Trail.
There were some definite wedging boots between a crack and hand/knee climbing upward on this first segment of the trail. We had planned to take the easier part of the loop down!
There’s always much reward when you reach the top of the granite and the views are incredible. It was a bit of an overcast day and we were glad that we didn’t need to deal with wet granite during our hike nor heat.
The hike was only about 4 miles and had quite the variety from a bit of full body bouldering, to choosing the right rocks and sometimes nice flat granite steps, to walking along the Jordan Pond Edge, and everywhere in between.
We were so glad that the carriage road back to Hull Cove was mostly even or down hill so we got home tired but cooled off. We had a hard wood back at the campsite to burn, and John was onto what he does with gladness and alacrity ! It was the perfect way to end our Acadia Experience.
Blackwoods Campground
There is an hourly bus that goes into Bar Harbor with the last one returning from the Village Green at 745. So you can enjoy a nice leisurely dinner experience before having to hop on. Only one bus is listed on the schedule from Blackwoods, but as I was preparing to depart from the Park Loop Road Bus at Senor De Monts, the bus driver yelled “Anyone for Blackwoods Campground?” So I got off here at a painted crosswalk with a crosswalk barrier in the center on a one-way section of the Park Loop Road (very official in my mind). Between Campsite A and A there is a Beach Path that leads to the Park Loop Bus and supposedly you can flag down the driver. Bike riding down this path to the bus is allowed. The time is not marked on the schedule, but it is after Thunder Hole, Otter Cliff, Otter Lookout and Before Wildwood. The buses have six bike carriers and we have never seen them with bikes, just saying. This may open up options to the Carriage Paths without driving and the infamous Acadia Parking. Besides being a beautiful wooded campground with good bathroom facilities, there is no hot water and no showers. There are no Canadian style dish washing areas, but they have this huge stainless steel colander that fits over a pit to strain your dish water and then wipe out the solids that remain caught. So in that respect all is pretty primitive. There is a pay for shower and plenty of local firewood right outside the entrance at Otter Creek Coin Operated Showers. They have generator hours in Loop A only so we have discovered we need about 1 gallon propane each day to refrigerate, cook and run the generator for an hour.
Bar Harbor
Bustling with tons of eateries and libation stations, and so easily accessible from the Village Green where the buses stop both from Desert Island accommodations and Campgrounds, and don’t forget cruise ships! We arrived mid afternoon on Saturday and stopped at the Ivy Manor Inn on the green where they have live music every afternoon and John even had an
Oban on the Green while we listened to a Bo/Julie type couple at the perfect volume on this lovely day. We decided to head to Leary’s Landing Irish Pub which was cozy and free of the loud echoing restaurant noises.
My Rueben had shredded corn beef and John’s chowder was excellent and the brussel sprouts were among the best, having almost a chili pepper sauce and so perfectly crispy. We got our vegetables!! Wandered into Finkles Ale House which was bustling for one drink at the bar before an ice cream cone and hop on the last bus of the night to our campground!
Acadia Mountain and the Man-O-War Trail
Vinny turns 100,000 miles in Hancock, Maine
Sundew Trail, Schoodic Institute
Fogtown Brewery and Banned From Eden, Ellsworth
Around the Mountain Carriage Loop
Travels with Vinny VanGo 
You two are amazing!! I got exhausted reading what you’ve accomplished in Maine. Thanks for sharing your amazing journeys. Congratulations to Vinny 100,000 miles.
Hope to visit with you someday.
Barb Daly
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