First big national park!
We are in Mount Desert Island, ME the home to Acadia NP and staying at Smugglers Den campground for an 11 night stay. It is the longest stay on the trip so far. There’s so many things to do in Acadia, so we had to capitalize including: a 10 mile bike ride, multiple hiking trails, fishing trips, lobster eating and catching, and daily pool visits.
On the first day in Acadia, we did a bike ride called the carriage trails . Everybody goes there for popovers at the Jordan Pond house. The popovers were served with ice cream in a dish it was a 9/10, the flavor combo tastes great. It was only the aftertaste that doesn’t make it a 10/10. The bike ride was 10.9 miles total. With hilly terrain and dirt roads, it was long and tiring but I’m so glad we did it. Eli was on the back of dad’s electric bike and I was on a mountain bike the whole way through. John D. Rockefeller made the roads to preserve the park once motor cars got introduced, on all the sides of the trails there are big granite boulders that people call “Rockefeller’s Teeth.“
We went to Bar Harbor, pronounced Ba Ha Bah to the locals. We went there and we had ice cream at Mount Desert Island which was 20/10. I got fresh mint in a waffle cone, instead of the green artificial mint you’ll find in most ice cream shops this one tasted like real mint. It wasn’t too overpowering but it was just enough to be perfectly balanced. It tasted like the shop in NH but I think this one was better. We also walked across sand bar. It is normal ocean at high tide but at low tide it becomes a sand bridge to get to another island with hiking trails and good views of the ocean , sadly we didn’t get to do ANYTHING on the island because we were there right when the tide was about to go back up again. Ba Ha Bah was fun!
I did a famous hike with Dad called the Beehive. Eli couldn’t do the hike so mom stayed behind with him. Unfortunately, it was a cloudy day so we didn’t get a great view. ItI was a hike up the mountain ⛰️ with iron rungs and bridges to get across. We did it on a rainy day so it was a little slippery but it wasn’t as hard as I anticipated but not as easy as any other trail we did in Acadia. Another hike that we did was called Beech mountain. It was a beautifully clear day and very hot 🥵. But we pushed through to the top where there was a fire tower with a beautiful view. Sadly, we were not able to go to the top of the tower. The hike down was so much easier than the way up, and unlike the beehive there was actually payoff with a view at the top.
Some other things we did was walks with the Acadia Park Rangers to learn about wetlands and we saw a baby porcupine in a tree! I did a morning fishing program for kids in the park where I caught a bunch of little fish and saw the biggest snapping turtles. Eli and I completed our Junior Ranger books for Acadia, got our National park passport stamped, and saw the famous Thunder Hole. We also checked out a place called the Carroll homestead, an old home from before Acadia was a national park.
My favorite thing we did was when we went out on a boat and caught lobster! While on the boat we also got to see lots of seals and puffins!!! We learned that puffins have their signature orange beaks until they have a baby, then their beaks turn gray. A lot like my mom’s hair after Eli 🤪. After we caught our lobsters and learned the process of banding their claws, measuring them and making sure they did not have eggs; we went back to the dock and learn the process of how they cooked the lobster 🦞. We then got to break off the legs and the tail to get the meat out. This was my first time having lobster but honestly my review is 6/10 I prefer steak 😭😂. The flavor was way different than any meat I have ever tried. I’m glad I tried it but I don’ t think that it’s for me!
Off to Old Orchard beach next
Current leg : 102
Total miles : 497
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