We decided to take a break from biking today and do some hiking! It worked best to take the bus so we were up and out early to catch the first bus to the Village Green and on to Sand Beach!
We started by heading out across Sand Beach to get to the Great Head trail. The Great Head Trail went up the rocks and you had a great view of the ocean and back down the scenic drive and the rocky coastline. I was hoping to see some Sea Irisis, but the only ones I saw were all withered up. The views were really nice!
After we did the 2-ish mile loop around Great ahead we walked back across Sand Beach and up to the Ocean Path. The Ocean Path goes along the coast, parallel with the road (right next to it in many places) from Sand Beach to Otter Point. It's about a mile and a half from Sand Beach to Otter Point and there were tons of views the whole way!
We arrived at Otter Point just as the 11:00 bus was pulling through. We weren't at the bus stop and even though the bus stopped for us, we hesitated for a few seconds and the bus left us! So we had to wait for the 11:30 bus! The busses in Acadia are the key to this hike, because we could do it as a one way hike! We could start at Sand Beach and then hike in the direction the buses travel (the scenic drive is one way) and then pick up a bus at the end and ride back to Bar Harbor.
At 11:30 the bus pulled up and we rode it out to the NPS campground and back around 45 minutes later to the Village Green. Mom had ridden the bus in from our campground to go to the fabric store and she met us for lunch! Dad and I had packed our lunches and Mom got a lobster roll! We ate in the shade on the Village Green.
Our next walk was out to Bar Island. You can only walk to Bar Island during low tide, the sand bar is passable 90 minutes before and after low tide so we thought the earliest we could walk out there was 2:00. We had about an hour to kill before we could head out to the island so we walked over to a new outdoor store we'd seen from the bus. While we were there I tried on a pair of low cut hiking shoes, like my Merrells, but a different brand - Oboz (like the instrument - Oboes). They were really nice! Very comfortable and had a sole with more tread than the Merrells had! My Merrells that I had were very worn, ready ready to be retired and I've been debating what to replace them with, I was thinking I'd found them! I liked them them but wasn't going buy them before our hike and have to carry them! After the outdoor store we hit the soft serve custard place next door - so many ice cream stores in Bar Harbor! And on our way to the trail we stopped at a different outdoor store to look at their shoes. Finally we headed out to Bridge St to get to the sandbar to cross to Bar Island.
It was barely 2:00 and the sandbar was already totally exposed, we probably could have accessed it much earlier! We walked across the sand bar and onto Bar Island. The trail went up about 100 ft to a view of Bar Harbor and Mount Desert Island. I went over there when I was in Acadia in 2009 and I remember the view being much more open, in fact I have pictorial proof on my wall at home.
The walk to and from Bar Island didn't take as long as we'd thought so we walked back into Bar Harbor to pick up Mom & Dad's mail, I needed coffee (which I got at the Trailside Cafe - Bohemian Blend, it smells wonderful), and we hit all three outdoor stores looking for shoes. Dad found a pair that he liked at the second store and I went back for the pair that I'd first tried on back before our walk. Both of us now had new shoes and it was time to head back to the campground. It was a 30 minute wait for the bus so in between making new friends with other folks waiting for the bus we both changed into our new shoes and on the walk back to our campsite from the bus stop we put them to the test and we both really like them!
Posted with Blogsy
No comments:
Post a Comment