TP Trails

It takes about an hour to drive from Schoodic Woods campground (Schoodic Woods Peninsula in Acadia) to Blackwoods campground (Mount Desert Island in Acadia). We were anticipating a lot more people/tourists on the Mount Desert Island (MDI) side; even the rangers at Schoodic Woods indicated that they typically avoid MDI. However, since we had never been, we wanted to spend some time on the MDI side (especially since there are many more hikes on this side of the park). There are two main campgrounds in MDI – Blackwoods campground and Seawall campground. Blackwoods is closer to Bar Harbor and many of the main hikes in the park, so we chose this campground. On our drive to MDI, we stopped at Walmart and picked up some more groceries and camping supplies for our four nights in Blackwoods. As we approached MDI, the lobster advertising signs multiplied. And so did the prices compared to the Schoodic Woods side of the park. We chose not to stop on our way and arrived at our campsite in the early afternoon. Our campsite was #A147, which is located in the last aisle on the A loop, so there was no one “behind” our campsite. Each campsite was relatively close to one another, but ours was higher up than one of the sites adjacent to us and we felt like we only had one neighbor. Our site also appeared to be slightly larger than the one next to us. However, our site was located across from the bathrooms, and we could hear the stall doors shutting and the toilets flushing.

After setting up camp, we headed to the MDI YMCA to shower (as we had previously done earlier in our trip). When we arrived, we figured out that there are 5 YMCAs in the country that are considered destination YMCAs and unfortunately require a daily fee for reciprocity users. We went ahead and paid the fee time as we were badly craving a nice, hot shower. After our showers, we walked around Bar Harbor. Bar Harbor was a cute town, with an ice cream shop every other storefront. We decided to stop at Side Street Café to grab a beer and a bite to eat. We took advantage of the happy hour specials ($3 drafts). We splurged and both got two lobster rolls (well above our daily food budget) – they were loaded with lobster, which was great, but didn’t have as great of flavor as other rolls we had tried. Our night ended with a few games of Yahtzee at the campsite.

Our first full day in MDI started with the Beehive hike. This is a well-traveled, short (~2 miles) hike with great views. We had been warned that this is a popular hike, so we tried to get there early to snag a parking space. We arrived a little before 9:30 am and were able to easily park in the right lane of the park road. However, we noted after the hike that parking was full near the trail head. The Beehive hike includes many sections with practically vertical cliff faces – iron rungs have been installed in the rocky walls to help hikers make their way to the top. We thoroughly enjoyed the hike as it felt like we were back on the jungle gym. However, one woman on her way up was having anxiety due to the heights, so if you are afraid of heights, stay away from this hike. The route back down is on the Bowl trail, a much flatter grade to the bottom. You also pass by the Bowl Lake on the way down.

Next we headed to Jordan Pond, another popular spot in the park. It took us a while to find a parking space – parking is very limited, so we had to drive around for a while until we found someone pulling out. The lot is small, and many others were doing the same thing as us, so it’s all about luck. One of the free park shuttle routes also stops here, so that could have been option. We did the flat walk around the pond (3.2 miles total). There are many sections of the walk that are up on bridges and allow only one-way traffic, so we often had to “pull over” and wait for others to pass in the opposite direction. Be prepared for the walk to take a while due to all of the other users. It was still an enjoyable, peaceful walk. One highlight of the walk was at the mid-way point; there was a loon nesting area that was cordoned off, and we could see a nesting loon from the trail! After our walk, we wandered over to the restaurant to check out the afternoon tea options. While they don’t serve official afternoon tea anymore, you can still order tea and popovers off the menu. So, this is what we did. The popovers are an egg biscuit concoction served with butter and jam. Very delicious and very reasonably priced! The restaurant also overlooks Jordan Pond. Quite the setting for some afternoon tea!

The morning of our second day was rained out. I read in the tent for most of the morning and Patrick made breakfast. Then we went to check out the Northeast Harbor. A much smaller town than Bar Harbor (which is saying something because Bar Harbor is small). It felt like more of a neighborhood – we walked around for a while and wandered down to the marina. We watched a couple boats some in with their (lobster?) catches and load onto a truck. Afterwards, we stopped in a local coffee shop in the town until they closed for the afternoon. Back at the campsite, we decided to take the Otter Cove and Quarry Road walking paths to Otter Cove and the Gorham Mountain trail head parking lot, which sat across from the rocky coastline. Eventually wandered over to Thunder Cove, but we were not there at the correct viewing time (should arrive about 2 hours before high tide). Dinner this night was simple hot dogs, followed by s’mores.

Blackwoods is where we did our second load of laundry. Patrick made us pancakes and bacon for breakfast, while I did laundry. This time, we were limited to the foldable bucket, so I attempted to use this. Turns out, I didn’t change the wash water in the bucket frequently enough, so our clothes were not fully cleaned. But, by the time I finished, I didn’t feel like re-doing it. So, we set off on our hike for the day. I had selected the hike for the day – the Sergeant Mountain South Ridge trail. There was also a Sergeant Mountain loop trail that followed the south ridge on the way up and a separate trail (Grandgent trail) back down, which included an additional four peaks (Penobscot, Gilmore, Parkman, and Bald peaks). We felt good on the way up, so decided on the longer loop trail. If we were to do the hike again, we would stick to the South Ridge trail on the way up and down. Penobscot peak can easily be added to this route because it is a short divergent path on the way up to Sergeant Mountain. When we got over to Penobscot, we ran into many other hikers, and then we realized that Penobscot peak is very accessible from Jordan Pond. The remainder of our hike was less traveled. The South Ridge trail was a relatively consistent incline on the way up and on flat, dirt ground. There were many spots with beautiful overlooks. All of the peaks we reached on this hike had amazing 360° views. Penobscot was the highest peak, but Sergeant was a close second. The hike on the way down along Grandgent trail was very rocky, rooty, and steep. And you are going up and down to reach the remaining three peaks. We did think it was cool to summit five different peaks on one hike, but the trail down was much harder on the knees. The overall loop trail was about 7.5 miles and wandered through a few different trails on the way down to eventually outlet onto a carriage road, which was a great relief by the end of the hike. The hike took us about 5 hours to complete, including a few longer stops (20-30 minutes each) at the first two peaks. On the way back to the campsite, we stopped at Parsons Lobster to pick up some fresh fish for dinner. We decided on fresh salmon, seafood chowder, and some shrimp (which we added to some pasta). Delicious!

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Initially we had planned 4 nights at Blackwoods campground, but our plans after this changed slightly, so we wanted to stay an additional night. Unfortunately, of the 200+ campsites, none were available. We also checked at the other MDI Acadia campground (Seawall), but they were full up as well. Just note if you are planning a trip here that you will need to reserve campsites in advance. So, the next morning, we had to pack up our campsite. We headed to a private campground (Bass Harbor Campground) located near Seawall campground on the “quiet side of the island” near Southwest Harbor. On the way, we stopped back at Parsons to pick up some pastrami smoked salmon and got a bagel in Bar Harbor. We then drove to the top of Mount Cadillac. More amazing 360° views to enjoy with our breakfast! Bass Harbor had plenty of space, so we drove through the campground to check out the best sites and landed on site #105 because it had an elevated wood platform for the tent (none of the other sites had this!). This campground also had showers! Prices were equivalent to those in Acadia National Park.  We thought about taking a ferry to Cranberry Island, but ferry prices were $32 per person for round trip. Unfortunately, this was out of our budget, so we walked around Southwest Harbor which was in between the size of Bar Harbor and Northeast Harbor. We then headed to a short walking trail (less than a mile) located along the southern coast called the Wonderland trail. This led to a rocky coastline, with tidal pools (since it was low tide). Many more picture opportunities!

After the walk, we headed back to the campground to shower (our first real shower in four days – never take showers for granted). In order to stay on budget for the day, we found a to-go pizza place called Salt Meadow Farm Restaurant and ordered a 16-inch pepperoni pizza for $16. We took the pizza to Bass Harbor Lighthouse with some of our boxed wine to enjoy the sunset (as recommended by many others). As we got closer to the sunset, more people started to show up. While it was beautiful to watch the colors changing along the rocks and the water, we couldn’t see the actual sunset as it was behind the lighthouse. We also met a professional photographer who was there photographing the coastline. He gave us a few tips, and Patrick was able to improve his water photos. Acadia has been very good to us, but tomorrow we head out to meet up with my friend in the Portland area.