A tale of two

Monday, August 25, 2008

Signs along the way

The ever-present moose signs first popped up on I-95 in Maine. But those were just occasional signs. Along the Acadian Coastal Drive in New Brunswick these signs were all over. Some of them were more insistent - including warnings to drive slowly at night.

Unfortunately I only saw the signs, no moose wandering.

New Brunswick is apparently the only (officially) bilingual province in Canada. For the most part, the signs were in both French and English - even the common stop sign that usually is recognized based on its color and shape.

Then again, there was an area on the Acadian Peninsula that seemed to forget the English.

You don't speak French? Here's a translation, courtesy of Yahoo! Babel Fish.

Caution
Let us be proud and responsible!
Let us keep our own footbridge, collect droppings of our doggies!

Announce the faulty ones to 336-3900.

Tell me, why is the warning about the danger of standing next to a fog horn always situated right next to the noise-maker?

OK, OK, you're right - it is a few steps away. But wouldn't it make more sense to post a warning far enough away that on an iffy day you might not wander close enough to damage your ears?

Even worse - here's the same warning right in front of the foghorn. Not a few paces away, right there!

Now this one just made me laugh!

Somehow I don't think I would have wandered out to the point where this sign lived if it had been really foggy...

OK, OK, I'll stay behind the fence!

Sunday, August 24, 2008

Home again

...a driving afternoon

Noon, time to head home...

Denise drove out of the park and off of Mount Desert Island. We had one stop to make in Trenton before we really started that long drive home. Where? We stopped at a farm stand to pick up some of those marvelous tiny and tasty wild blueberries. They have decorated our breakfast for this entire trip since the growing area extends into the Maritime provinces too. Denise bought three quarts of the berries, some for eating now, and some for freezing. It's always nice to pull out a taste of summer in the cold months of the year. Oh, I like them too, and Denise always shares.

We followed route 1A, angling toward Bangor where we picked up quick-moving I-95 for the journey home. Denise usually resets the trip odometer in her car when she fills up with gas, but she thought it would be interesting to see how far we drove during this trip. Of course we found something interesting in the process of watching the miles click by... the trip odometer only holds 3 digits. Denise looked pretty confused one morning - I guess she thought that the car misplaced some of our miles. Then she realized that at 1000 miles it had flipped back to zero. Isn't that silly?

Our total? 1670 miles. Wow - think how many days of biking that would have taken!

Home again, and now it's time for a bit of a rest.

Oh, you want to know what's next? We're heading to England in September to attend a photography seminar because Denise says she still has a lot to learn. We're going a few days early, so we'll be doing some hiking too. Maybe I'll bounce along the path instead of riding with the cameras this time.

I have four more weeks to dream of wandering in the Lake District.

Oh! I like this photo of me. I was bouncing around at the top of Cadillac Mountain, watching the sun sinking slowly, painting the rocks and then the sky. A good trip memory...

I wonder when Denise & I will be wandering back to Acadia National Park again. You do know she's going to go again, don't you? It's only a matter of time.

--- Rover

Photos: A bubble of a view

The Bubbles

...two feet walking

Hi, it's Rover again. I told Denise that it's my turn to write for the day. We spent a half of the day wandering, and the other half driving home - and my words will describe both halves of the day.

Evin made us another wonderful breakfast. Today we had a vegetable frittata, fresh croissants, and a wonderful pear crisp. At first Denise thought the pear was a potato, but then Evin went through the morning's menu. It was a half a pear - still in the skin - that had been baked (just a bit) and topped with crunchy crispy good-tasting stuff. Yum... Denise says she'll be quite happy to go back to her normal fruit and cereal in the mornings, but I know that she really enjoyed her B&B breakfasts.

It was a morning to do something different, a walking kind of day. We headed to The Bubbles, a pair of - well, I guess you would call them hills. South Bubble is 766 feet high, and North Bubble is 872 feet high. South Bubble is decorated with Bubble Rock, a glacial erratic (a boulder, a large rock...). South Bubble was a pretty easy walk. Even the climbing parts were just walks. North Bubble was tilted granite, a harder to see path that was highlighted with the occasional blue marker. I was surprised that Denise didn't turn around at one point; not only was the rock steep, it was tilted strongly to the side. But she kept on walking. Both bubbles looked down on Jordan Pond, water surrounded by very green trees.

The sky was decorated with some interesting looking clouds, so we took a quick drive up Cadillac Mountain for one last look before we headed toward home. And a couple of sea gulls landed right next to our car. I think they were wishing us a good journey.

Saturday, August 23, 2008

Photos: Sun dropping...

...changing colors

Photos: Loops and loops

See... I told you that we did some riding!

Park Loop variations

..two wheels rolling

Morning rolled around, and so did another good breakfast accompanied by good conversation. Evin served eggs, stuffed French toast topped with wild Maine blueberries, and, on the side - watermelon topped with a little bit of spice. The French toast was so good that I had a second serving, as did everyone else.

Ah, it was time to ride under a blue sky with a a few wispy clouds as decoration. My bike started down the road towards Seal Harbor, but then turned around and headed for Park Loop Road. I made it to Seal Harbor too since I jumped off of Park Loop Road when it switched from a one-way to a two-way road just before Jordan Pond. Funny, I always wondered where the road came from that emptied out at the beach in Seal Harbor. I know the answer now - it's the road that jumped off of Park Loop road at the direction change.

There are a lot of people wandering around Bar Harbor, and there are a lot of people congregating in the more popular locations in the park. Yet, for the most part the roads were quiet. So quiet that I had an interesting deer encounter... I was riding, heading up a slight grade, when I saw a deer just ahead standing by the side of the road. He was just standing there, looking down the road, looking my way. I kept riding, assuming that the deer would see me at some point and would move. I was in the road, he wasn't. But somehow I didn't think he would wait for me to go by. I would have loved to snap a photo, but I knew there wasn't any point in reaching for a camera. After all my 4-legged companion is a lot faster than I am. I got a bit closer, and the deer moved into the road, still watching me watching him. I rolled a little closer, and the deer flew off into the woods. What a beautiful sight!

My variation of Park Loop Road was a good ride, a start to my day's adventures. I switched to walking shoes and clothes and headed back in to the park. Walking along the coast, stopping to wander over the rocks, to watch the water, small waves creating white decorations. I was sitting, watching waves, playing with my camera, when another photographer came over to compare equipment and to chat. We saw each other several more times, not too surprising since we were on a one-way loop road. (Yes, Park Loop Road a second time...). And somehow, even when we switched to our cars to get a lift further down the road, we must have been on the same 'stop' schedule.

Back at the B&B, I quickly washed off the sweat of my day, then donned long pants and layers in preparation for my evening out. Sunset time was 7:19, and I wanted to head up Cadillac mountain to watch the sun sink over the edge. I grabbed a quick bite to eat, and then i headed up the mountain. There were quite a few people there, waiting, watching the sun slowly sink lower, watching it turn from yellow to a deep glowing red. Sinking, painting the sky with color.

When the show seemed to be over, I headed back down the mountain. I had to stop a few times though because the show really wasn't over. I would stop, jump out of the car, and attempt to stand still. It was hard to believe the wind. I found that I couldn't stand without getting pushed around! At first I wondered why I didn't feel the wind when I was sitting near (but not at) the top of the mountain, watching the sun. Maybe, just maybe, the mountain was blocking the wind at my back.

One more day... a part of a day in the park, and then I'll need to head home. Tomorrow's activity? I think I'll decide in the morning.

Friday, August 22, 2008

Photos: A few of the birds

Conversations...

...with a friendly dog

A five o'clock arrival in Bar Harbor...

It was still full daylight, and it was warm - in the high 70s or low 80s. After a week of mostly 60 degree temperatures, it felt quite nice. I actually like he 60 degree range for outside activity, but it felt so nice to be able to walk in very light clothing.

I thought about going for a quick bike ride. That thought didn't last too long when I realized that I really needed some food. I popped over to Siam Orchid for some Thai food. And then I walked.

I walked through (with?) throngs of people to the town pier. Then I headed out on the less busy shore path. I caught up with a woman (and her family) walking with a very friendly big dog. We started talking, and I asked what they had been doing. While they've done other things here, their primary actvity has been hiking. And as we mentioned that word, the dog looked as us, as if to say "Hiking? That sounds better than walking through town. Let's go!" Apparently dogs like hiking at Acadia too!

Jumping into Maine

...4 wheels rolling

I told Denise I'd pay attention during our drive to see if I could see anything to write about. After all she needed to pay attention to the road since she was driving - and I can bounce around the car and look out the windows.

We drove and drove and drove. It took about 5 ½ hours to roll from Fundy National Park to Bar Harbor - about the amount of time that Denise thought it would take.

The road leading out of Fundy National Park rolled up and down some pretty steep hills. One hill was marked as a 10% grade, and I thought that would be the steepest hill on our drive today. But guess what? One of the downhills on route 9 in Maine was marked at 12%. I think Denise was really glad that she wasn't riding her bicycle up those hills!

Last night Dense was chatting with Rick (our B&B host) about the St. Stephens border crossing. She remembers waiiting there in a line of cars for what seemed like an hour when we drove through New Brunswick on our way back from PEI back in 2005. It's really good that she mentioned that to Rick because he told her there is a second (tiny) border crossing just past St. Stephens. We were the only car crossing at Milltown, no lines! And apparently a new crossing is under construction just past there, along with a better road - one that doesn't require going through the downtown of St. Stephens. Hmmm... I wonder if that will be open the next time we go to New Brunswick. Oh, I don't know when that will be, but I don't think that Denise is done exploring there yet.

After we crossed back into Maine, we headed towards Bangor on Route 9, eventually angling towards Ellsworth and Bar Harbor. It looked like taking Route 9 would be a little shorter than Route 1 - but even if it was a little longer, Denise thought that it was a much better driving road. It kept switching from 2 to 3 lanes, with an uphill passing lane. There wasn't much in the way of towns, just a ribbon of road.

Ah, we're here! Where? At the Holland Inn in Bar Harbor, our home for the next two nights.

Tomorrow? I'm pretty sure we're going to be biking. If I know Denise we'll probably go back into the park again after our ride. After all she needs to keep the cameras happy too.

--- journal entry courtesy of Rover

Photos: Last glimpses of Fundy National Park

Up, down, lots of stairs

It was an oatmeal morning again. Yesterday's oatmeal and fresh fruit gave me such a nice start to the day that I decided that repeating it today would be a good idea. Happy stomach...

Food, conversations, and watching eagles soar across another impossibly blue sky, a prelude to walking...

I headed to Point Wolfe and started walking at the covered bridge. The trail was primarily stairs and boardwalks through the forest with views of Point Wolfe beach. I saw stairs off in the distance that led down to the beach. Those stairs looked to be further away than the length of the trail - and they were. The first trail ended at a parking lot, but at the other end of the lot I could see the start of another trail. Ah, that one leads to the beach. Of course I kept walking because I needed to visit one more New Brunswick beach before I switched to the rocky coastline in Maine. The trail wandered through the woods, trees decorated with sunshine filtering through through the leaves.

Once I hit the beach, I managed to stick to the rocks and the hard sand - there was just a little bit of mud, and somehow my feet skipped over the mud this time. That was good - I didn't need to look for a place to wash the mud away.

Back in the car, I started heading up route 114 toward the park exit. The road climbed quickly, and before long I was at the head of the Kinnie Brook trail. The description of this trail drew me in: 'steep-walled valley, disappearing stream, lush floodplain'. It was all true - even the disappearing stream. There may have been running water somewhere there, but I didn't see it. Yup, disappearing... It was a nice trail, even without the stream. Oh, and while most of this trail wandered through woods on a normal trail surface, the end of the trail was stairs and stairs and more stairs. No, I didn't count them, but there were a lot!

My goal was to spend the morning in the park, and I certainly managed that. I finished my last hike right at noon.

Ah, time for that long drive to Acadia number two for this trip.

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Photos: Fundy National Park

No, my camera isn't crooked. It's the stairs. I don't remember a harder set of stairs to traipse up and down. Crooked, slanted, made me feel like I was going to tip over!

Would you believe that this is the trail?

Sections of the trail were easy walking, and sections (like this) were much, much harder.

As much as I wanted to get closer to the edge here, I didn't think it would be too smart to step on these very narrow roots. It was a very long way down to the water...