BLOG - The Sun And Moon Over Acadia

    I’m getting over my cold but Jaime’s is unfortunately just beginning. We had planned on going to Acadia today but when she started getting sick last night I knew that wouldn’t be happening because last week it was me canceling. But she woke up at 10:30 and decided she didn’t want to be laying around the house all day because it’d only make her feel worse. So we headed out a little late, surprisingly remembering to pack everything in our last minute rush, except for the walkie talkies. It’ll take a little while before we get used to having them but man are they great.

    I hadn’t eaten anything and amazingly they had all my favorites at Circle K, the broccoli and cheddar bites, the fried green beans, the macaroni and cheese bites and the onion rings. Jaime wasn’t hungry due to the cold so didn’t really get anything, just some blueberry bread because the banana was gone. We stopped at the Bear Brook Picnic Area for lunch, the weather was absolutely perfect. It was in the 70’s, a nice breeze, barely any clouds, that’s part of the reason we decided to go in the first place.

    After eating I decided to run up Robin Hood Hill to see if I could get some good pictures as mine from last time sucked, mostly due to the overcast day, partly due to the limited views from the previously unnamed peak. Running up didn’t go quite as planned, the cold was still kicking my ass so after coughing and wheezing for a good minute, I caught my breath and walked the rest of the way at a normal pace. The pictures came out fantastic on the bright and sunny day so Robin Hood Hill isn’t getting kicked out of my upcoming book like we thought it would.

    From there I wanted to head over to Schooner Head Road since it was just about low tide. Last time I was almost positive I spotted a sea cave in the distance that was under water at high tide. Of course it was from a distance so what looked like a cave was most likely just a small rock overhang that created a shadow but I had to find out for sure. So I made my way out around the huge patch of poison ivy and down to the barnacle covered rocks below the tide line. Even from a few hundred feet away, it sure did look like a cave. I carefully picked my way across the rockslide at the base of the fifty foot cliff where there was a cool overhang next to what had to be a cave.


    Yes, there was an overhanging rock ledge and a small hole that both could have been mistaken for caves from a distance, and then there was the real deal, an actual sea cave, partially underwater even at low tide. It was huge, maybe 25 feet high by 15 wide, waves echoing from inside the giant chamber. A narrow rock ledge rounded the corner into the cave, giving me just a few foot shelf to stand on. From my perch near the roof of the cave I could see that it went back roughly 30 feet , maybe more as part of it was obstructed from view. The floor was covered in
battered stones that rolled around with every wave that crashed against them. I tried to find a way down but the rocks were too smooth to be able to climb them. I think in order to get into the cave I’ll have to go back at low tide on a calm day and swim my way into it. Unfortunately there’s no good place to tie a rope to so it’ll be a somewhat dangerous mission but I won’t be able to stop thinking about that cave until I get inside. There are also some amazing bands of quartz rock on one of the boulders that fell from the cliff, it looks almost like an exposed geode so next time I’m bringing my hammer and chisel to see if I can get a chunk.

    After spending more time than I intended down there I climbed up the nearby peak I’ve named Highseas Summit and got some good photos from the top to replace my dull ones from last time, another destination in my book that got saved from the chopping block due to a few incredible pictures. Not having the walkie talkies really sucked because we couldn’t stay in constant communication, I hate it when Jaime’s in the car worrying about me. They really do come in handy and we’ve only used them on two trips now, I’m not sure how we ever survived without them.

    For our next stop Jaime decided to escort me. The fresh ocean air helped with her breathing a bit and we explored an area I’ve nicknamed Thrumcap Ledge. Last time it was raining and getting dark so I had to cut my exploration short so this time we went down an abandoned side road that brought us out to the shore where there was a rocky beach and a huge rock outcropping jutting out into the ocean that we climbed up. Found a few cool rocks along the way too.

    We planned on circling around and hopping back onto the park loop road but the street we needed was closed off for construction so we headed out to Day Mountain instead where I continued my search to re-find the caves. After two failed attempts I began to question how I was going to write a book directing people to awesome destinations if I couldn’t even get to them my damn self, and I’d been there before. So after exploring the side of the mountain the hard way, I finally found the caves. When I first went to the caves a couple years ago with my parents, there had been some recent rain and one of the caves required climbing a rope to get to it but it was too wet at the time. And the real cave of Day Mountain, an honest to god cave, was incredible, but my pictures weren’t. So I brought my tripod with me to get some better photos this time around.

    Unfortunately the rope into the first cave is gone and I wasn’t able to free climb my way up to the fifteen foot high entrance with my limited rock climbing ability. Maybe if someone had been with me, but not alone on the edge of a cliff. So I gave up on that cave early on and spent the majority of my time in the real cave. I took a bunch of measurements for my book and got some good photos and video as well.

     I knew I was in there for awhile but I looked at my phone and it said two hours had gone by. In return I said oh shit and knew I’d have to run back, Jaime would be worried and probably out searching for me, thinking I got hurt or lost. No cell reception whatsoever. So I took note of where I was and found a much easier way to get to the caves so now they’ll be easy to find. I ran along the carriage path and got back to the car in record time where Jaime was waiting patiently, reading, not the least bit concerned. As I huffed and puffed, trying to regain my composure from my run, I apologized for being gone so long. She said it wasn’t all that long and sure enough it wasn’t, the clock in the car was an hour slow. Turns out my phone switched time zones and thought we were in Canada.

    From there we drove a couple minutes to an abandoned cliff trail along the shore that my parents and I stumbled upon about a month ago. I had some great pictures of it but with the moon coming out early tonight, I figured some shots with the moon would be great. Plus, there was a section I wanted to explore further but it required some free climbing which I don’t like doing unless Jaime is below me to tell me where to place my feet on the way down just in case I need help. So we found a better parking area for the hike that cut out almost all of the 0.7 mile trail, making it an easy five minute walk.

    Aside from the nearly full moon there was also an enormous cruise ship that had docked in Bar Harbor earlier and was now headed out to sea, making for some perfect photos of it directly beneath the moon. With Jaime by my side I easily climbed the small ledge and got to explore the upper half of the abandoned trail. It’s amazing that after well over a hundred years, even with no maintenance, the iron railings are still standing strong. She got some video footage of me climbing the ledge and then some amazing pictures of me at the railing with the sunset over the ocean. We had a blast but the breeze had completely died off which brought out droves of mosquitoes.

    After taking a bunch of pictures we made our way back to the car but with the moon illuminating the sky, I ran down the new trail to an overlook and got a ton more photos of the moon over the ocean, reflecting off the water. I’m not usually by the ocean at night so this is the first time I’ve had a chance to photograph anything like this. With my new camera the pictures came out incredible. There was also a huge split in the rock cliff, creating what must have been a 40 foot drop as waves crashed inside the narrow crevice. Had it not been dark I would have explored it a bit more, maybe someday I’ll make it down in there during low tide.

    So I only made it to a couple of my destinations but we had a great day anyway. On our way home I had a craving for Chinese food so we stopped at Asian Palace right before they closed and I had a delicious supper. My legs were a little sore the next day, mostly my quads, but man was it worth it. The pictures came out perfect, now it’s just a matter of narrowing it down and picking the best one from each spot. The book was complete at 40 destinations but I decided to bring it up to 50 so only a few left to go. We’ll try to get there next week before our New Hampshire vacation, so much to look forward to, I love it.