Bar Harbor sunrise
8 October 2024
The events in this post took place on August 29, 2024
My alarm goes off fifteen mintues before sunrise. I needed sleep, so I'm cutting it close. I have to get dressed and walk down the blocked-off entrance to the Shore Path to see the sun come up over the Porcupines.
When I step oustide, I look up to see banks of puffy clouds. I'm five minutes too late. The clouds are already going from pink to orange.
I run down the path to the water.
Oh. My. God. This has to be one of the best sunrises I've seen in eleven visits and countless pre-dawn wakeups.
I've got a good view of Egg Rock lighthouse from here.
Taking a few photos with my phone, I text the folks at Party House: "Good morning!"
Jeff is awake. I tell him that if he hurries, he can catch the rest. He says nah.
The moon, a sliver, is still up.
As always, even without my hearing aids, I hear the motors before I see the lobster boats leaving the harbor. As always, that gives me time to set up the shot.
Sun's up. Time to go back to Exile House and maybe sleep for another hour or two.
I wasn't going to join the group for breakfast at Cafe This Way again, but I really liked the oatmeal with wild blueberries in it. At the last minute, I meet them at the chairs.
We're going hiking today. Glen is aiming for the Precipice, the most difficult trail in Acadia National Park. Frank and Elaine are going to take a different trail and meet him somewhere at the top.
Jeff, Lonnie, Jill, Ginger, Heddy, and I are doing something far easier. We're going to follow the Jordan Pond trail. It's only a few miles around. I noticed yesterday that there's a trail to Bubble Rock off the Jordan Pond loop. I think I want to climb up there. It's only half a mile. There's a closed trail up at the top, so we'll have to return the way we came.
We drive to the Hulls Cove Visitor's Center to take the Island Explorer to Jordan Pond House. I've never taken this bus. It doesn't start running until mid-June, after Jack and I have come and gone.
The driver is trying way too hard to be funny. People are groaning at his bad jokes. I notice everyone on the bus is wearing a floppy hat to hike in. I do not own a floppy hat. I'm not a hiker. Today will be my second hike this year, already twice as many as I usually do. I have boots, and now poles. I'm carrying a Camelbak with something less than 2 liters of water in it. I have a bandana and a couple of energy bars. And my camera. Always my camera. But no floppy hat.
It's a perfect day for a hike. The air is coo and dry.
We start by taking in the view at the southern side of the pond, by Jordan Pond House.
We take the eastern side of the trail.
When we reach a trail marker that reads "Bubble Rock," I assume this is where we start climbing. Jeff and Lonnie decline. It's steep, he warns. I have no idea what that means.
Heddy, Ginger, Jill, and I start up the trail. We cross Park Loop Road.
There are stone steps.
We're ascending, which makes sense.
But then we're descending, which doesn't.
A hiker is coming towards us. I ask him how much farther we have to go to reach Bubble Rock. He tells us we're on the wrong trail. To get there, we can turn around, take a different path, and walk in the woods for a few miles, or we can go back the way we came, walk a mile on the road, and take the Bubble Rock trail from there. Or we can go all the way back to the pond and take the trail I'd meant to take all along.
We decide to go back to the pond. When we get there, I see what was on the other side of the trail marker. We were halfway up Pemetic Mountain, apparently.
Toward the northern end of the pond, we find the correct trail marker:
It's all rocks. Jill turns back. She'll meet us at Jordan Pond House. Heddy, Ginger, and I start climbing.
The higher we get, the steeper it is. We're picking our way over rocks, trying to keep the trail markers in sight.
A man coming down the trail tells us, "Good luck. It's rough. There are chimneys. Kids are getting scared."
What's a chimney?
Now, whenever I see someone, I ask how much farther it is to the top. "Still a ways to go," they tell me.
We reach an outcrop where two people are sitting. It's not the top, but it seems to us to be close enough. We clamber up and take in the view.
"There's Park Loop Road," I point.
"That's a carriage road down there."
This is an important rock.
After we have our snacks and water, and feel rested enough, we set off again. Above us, a youngster is wedging herself in a crevice to descend. I guess that's a chimney. It looks crowded over there. We decide we'd rather go back to the pond than scramble up any further.
Descending is almost as difficult as ascending. I'm using my upper body as much as my legs at this point.
We keep trying to text Jeff to tell him where we are, but there's no cell signal.
From the northern end of Jordan Pond, I try to figure out how close to Bubble Rock we got. I can't tell.
Where those people are doesn't look like where we were.
The trail is rocky on the western side.
We find ourselves in a hiker peloton.
There's a long stretch of boardwalk. The peloton picks up the pace.
I fall behind by taking so many pictures.
Somehow, we find Jeff, Lonnie, and Jill in the crowd of diners on the Jordan Pond House lawn. They'd waited an hour for a table and had just sat down.
Blueberry lemonade and popovers.
Jill says to me, "You're a hiker now."
Back at Exile House, I do yet another load of laundry. If I come home with a suitcase full of clean clothes, that'll be one less thing I need to do when I get back.
One of the quirks of Exile House is the side entrance. It's up a step to the door. The door opens into a stairway. To the left, it's two steps up into the kitchen. Directly ahead is a staircase down to the basement. There are handles on the wall because any direction requires a quick pivot. There's a sign on the wall above the baement steps warning of low clearance. Duck!
Finally, we get to McKay's for dinner. We need two tables to accommodate the seven of us (Frank and Elaine having chosen the Bar Harbor Inn's Reading Room instead). After dinner, there's talk of continuing the ice cream experiment. We choose Ben and Bill's again, but at the last minute, everyone but Glen decides to go back to Party House instead. Glen and I go to Ben and Bill's because one has to have ice cream when one is in Bar Harbor. It's the rule. He agrees.
Back at Party House, we sink into the squishy chairs. Should we have another Uno death match? We can't seem to muster the energy. Eventually, I pull myself up and walk back to Exile House.
Heddy and Ginger are leaving tomorrow morning. The rest of us have one more day. I've come up with a bike route on the carriage roads. Jeff is going to borrow Frank's gravel bike rather than renting again. I check the forecast before I go to sleep. It's going to be completely clear at dawn. I'm going to skip the sunrise and sleep in. I like a few clouds with my sunrise.
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