Day 8: Hiking Acadia

 We hiked for FIVE solid hours today!  We had another slow morning.  We decided we would rather just wait for parking instead of busting our butts in the mornings to get out the door.  We have enjoyed waking up slowly, sipping our coffee, and watching the chipmunks out our window.  On the agenda for today was to hike the Bubbles.  We pulled into the small parking area at 10:15 prepared to wait for a spot... and someone was pulling out!  I don't want to jinx us in the future, but parking has just never been an issue for us in the national parks.  We started on the Jordan Pond Carry to Eagle Lake to Bubbles Trails Loop, a 3.6 mile loop that includes forest, rock ledges, lake views and a lot of boulder hopping.  We inadvertently started the route counterclockwise, but I am thankful we did because the first 1/3 of the trail was grueling.  Lots of uphill and steep climbing in the first section - about 250 feet of elevation gain in under a half mile.

We made it to the top huffing and puffing.

The views were amazing!  While the rock scrambling is challenging, it does add some fun to the hike and make the views all that more rewarding.  We continued on, but I will say we were not our usual happy, chatty, hiking selves.  

I'm sorry, but this picture just does not do the difficulty justice.  

We were all getting hungry but wanted to find a shady spot to eat.  I knew the lake was coming up so we pushed through and were rewarded with the perfect spot.  

After James read the first few blogs, he realized there were not a whole of pictures of me.  He decided he was going to take a lot more pictures of me, and now I find him sneaking all kinds of pictures.  

At this point, we were halfway through this loop.  Lunch energized us and the next section of the trail was amazing.  It followed right next to the lake and involved a lot of hopping boulders.  

We loved exploring the lake.  We saw so many huge tadpoles.

The trail curved back into a beautiful, quiet forest.  We finished out the hike playing catchphrase.

So we made it back to the beginning of the loop and all were tired!  

Hike stats:  

Distance: 3.6 miles

Elevation gain: 650 feet

The original plan was to finish this hike, then hike around Jordan Pond (an easy 2 miles) to get popovers, and shuttle back to our car.  I didn't realize, however, that the hike we just did, did not include South Bubble, which was one I really wanted to tackle.  Did I mention we were spent?  SE was DONE.  We decided we would take the easy .4 miles to the South Bubble trail and hike up the .4 miles to the summit, then back down and drive over to Jordan Pond.  We could so do less than a mile, right??? 

Um, the trail goes where? Between those rocks?

The girls went on ahead of us.  SE was not happy about this hike, but also felt the faster she could do it, the faster she could be done.  We were a bit worried they may have taken a wrong path, but they were at the top waiting on us.  Y'all, this was hard!!  .4 miles with around 500 feet of elevation gain.  

South Bubble marker taken from a distance, because I could not make it those few extra steps.

View of Jordan Pond.  The Jordan Pond House with the popovers that I wanted to walk to is at the other end of this lake - heck, no!

Did I mention she was DONE?

What is the easiest way out of here??  At this point, we can go back down the way we came, which sounded horrible to all of us, or continue the path that was a bit longer but a more gradual descent.  We chose the gradual route.

On the way, we ran into this guy.  He was a toy poodle and we commented on how much he looked like Moose.  Guess what his name was???  MOOSE!  I can officially say I saw a Moose in Maine!

Hike stats:  

Distance: 1.3 miles

Elevation gain: 469

After lots of water, we drove up to Jordan Pond to have popovers at the Jordan Pond House.  We pulled right in to find parking and our 30 minute wait for a table turned out to be only 5.  Yay, us!  The popovers were yummy, but I do think the one's at Hall's in Charleston may be better.

We drove down to Northeast Harbor since we have not been to this area yet.  We pulled onto the Main Street at 4:55 to discover all the shops close at 5.  Our luck ran out, but we did not have much browsing mojo left in us anyway.  We ate dinner at Mainly Meat which is attached to Atlantic Brewing Company.  James grabbed another pint glass for his collection (we may need a whole new freezer for his collection), and I had and excellent pulled pork sandwich.  

We drove home and decided to drive (even though it is a 30 second walk) down to the water on our property and see if we saw any fun creatures.  A couple were just finishing up eating mussels and oysters that they had just found along the shore.  They asked if we wanted some, but...    The guy was super nice and talked to us about a lot of the critters we would find around there at low tide.  We were amazed at how far the tide had gone out.  He also said that seals are often seen at high tide in this area!  I really want to see a seal!!

Daily steps:  17,815

Goodnight, Acadia!