Sand Beach
5 September 2026
The morning of August 23 was foggy and misty.
I made coffee in the room with a burr grinder and French press. Heddy and Ginger stopped by for a cup. I didn't have any milk or sugar, and the press wasn't quite large enough for three people.
The shrubs on the walkway from the Main Lodge to Birch Point via the pool were loaded with sheet weaver webs that showed themselves in the mist.
This sign warned outdoor diners to guard their food.
The hotel's breakfast room, in a small building called Birch Point, was packed. Unlike the hotel in Portland, the Bar Harbor Inn has a large spread. They always have some sort of yogurt; this year, they even had fat-free plain, which is perfect for someone like me who needs a wallop of protein to start the day. There's always sliced melon, pastries, meaty and cheesy stuff I ignore, oatmeal (made with butter -- yuck), cereal, hard-boiled eggs, and fresh fruit, and some sort of chia overnight oats thing. At this point, I know how to make a precision strike and get out of the melee.
Our plan was for the eight of us to catch the Island Explorer, the free shuttle, to the Ocean Path inside Acadia National Park. Jack, the ninth, would putter about town on his own. There was a bit of confusion when Jim texted that he and Regina were already on the Ocean Path, until he realized he'd meant the Shore Path (that's the one in front of the hotel). Rickety and Cheryl were having pancakes at the new pancake restaurant near the shuttle stop on Village Green.
We agreed on a time to meet on the corner of Main and Mt Desert so that we could walk across Village Green together to catch the bus. When Rickety and Cheryl didn't show up, Regina called. Cheryl answered that they were still having breakfast. That's when I noticed her up on the patio of the restaurant. After some confusion and waving, she said they'd catch the next shuttle and meet us on the path. They'd start from the far end and work their way towards us.
The guides at the bus stop sorted us out with paper schedules and we boarded the shuttle bound for Sand Beach. We were settled in when Elaine appeared, causing some confusion because half the folks in our group didn't know who she was. I was confused, too, because, although I knew she and Frank had rented a house for the month, I didn't know she was coming with us today. She wasn't, it turned out. She and Frank had been in their car when she saw us and leaped out. I wondered what the rest of the passengers thought about our loud group up front.
The Ocean Path runs along the cliff between Sand Beach and Otter Point. It's an out-and-back sort of thing that mostly parallels Park Loop Road. Sand Beach is down the hill from the path. The shuttle dropped us off at the lower parking lot. From there, we had a short walk to the shore.
Somebody had written "Bar Harbor 2026" in the sand.
There were a lot of misty webs on a dead tree by the upper edge of the beach. I couldn't find who might have been living there.
A set of long, shallow stairs led back up the hill to the Ocean Path.
Aha! A sheet weaver!
So much for a view of the ocean. No matter. It's pretty anyway.
Ocasionally, the fog would be thin enough to reveal a bit of shoreline.
There were side trails that lead to rock outcrops for ocean views.
Park Loop Road was foggy too.
"A lost sole!" Jeff explained.
Somehow, Rickety and Cheryl found us near Thunder Hole. Thunder Hole was where the crowd was.
I walked down to see if I could catch the waves banging against the rocks. I've never been there when the water is at its most thunderous. Today, there were boomlets, which was good enough.
I found a Zygiella atrica tucked away near her web.
Rickety and I both took pictures of this dead tree.
The path veered from the road and into the woods, where the surface became rougher.
We had to walk on rocks for a bit.
The path led back to the road at the part where it splits into high and low sections that meet again around the curve.
When the path led back into the woods, the consensus was that we'd seen enough. It was time to find the nearest shuttle stop and head to the Jordan Pond House for popovers.
There were fields of lichen along the road.
We were lucky enough not to wait long at the Otter Cliffs shuttle stop. The Jordan Pond House was, as always, crowded. We stood in the we-didn't-make-reservations line and Jim became the Keeper of the Beeper. We were told we'd have to wait about 20 minutes. We retreated to the brick-lined vestibule outside the restaurant, where Jim announced that he would stay put and holler when the beeper went off.
I saw Rickety aiming his camera at various angles over a horizontal tree branch near the entrance. I decided to give it a try too.
A few of us wandered into the gift shop across from the restaurant. We were in there maybe five minutes when Jim's voice boomed, "Hill SLUGS!"
And again, "Hill SLUGS!" I was near enough to him then that I saw people next to him cover their ears. We had to run back into the shop to summon Regina, and then we were seated.
Before we left, I went out to the back, where, in better weather, people can sit outside with a view of Jordan Pond and the Bubbles (a pair of mounains that resemble boobs so much that a now-defunct store in town called Bra Harbor used them in their sign, cleverly covered by a purple bra).
The Island Explorer system, with its multiple shuttles making loops all over Mount Desert Island, becomes a bit of a puzzle when one wants to get from point A to point B without having to change buses at point C. We could either wait an hour for a direct ride or hop on another one that would take us all the way to the Hulls Cove Visitor's Center several miles north of town (we were now several miles southwest). We chose the indirect route and had time to go into the visitor's center for a few minutes before boarding the bus back to Bar Harbor.
Heddy, Ginger, and I didn't go directly back to the hotel from Village Green. We went to Choco Latte instead, because Princess needs her coffee. I sampled the blueberry lemonade.
We walked back to the hotel via the Shore Path.
I noticed dozens of webs on an iron fence and made a note to myself to come back later with my lantern and SpiderCam.
This is Balance Rock:
The five of us decided on McKay's for dinner. We went back down the Shore Path to get there, stopping to look at the renovations at Party House and the sameness of Exile House along the way.
After dinner, on the street, we ran into Rickety and Cheryl, and in short order, Jim and Regina. I asked if we could see Atlantic House. We all went back there and hung out in the living room for a while.
There was ice cream after that, Mount Desert this time. I tried their take on blueberry, which was in combination with something else I don't remember. It was good, but not as good as their lemon poppy jam flavor they didn't have this time.
When we reached the hotel, I went right back out again with SpiderCam and the lantern. The cruise ship looked ghostly in the fog. I used my phone with and without the nighttime settings to see what I could get out of it.
Then I crunched along the path, keeping an eye on the greenery for any sign of webs. I didn't find a thing (this year has been apocalyptic at home too) until I reached the fence.
There, only a few of the dozens of webs had anyone in them.
Those that did were Zygiella atrica.
I found one Cheiracanthium mildei (I think) wandering about.
And, off to one side, where the metal fence met a stone post, was an Araneus diadematus.
My trip felt more complete now that I'd seen some Ziggys and a diadematus. It's okay if you don't get this. It's a nerd thing.
Opposite the water, the moon appeared between clouds for just a few seconds.
I was only out for about half an hour, but it felt longer. I still had time to load the day's photos and get my spiders up on iNaturalist before bed. The weather for the next day was unsettled. We'd have to figure it out in the morning.
