Bubble Rock
13 September 2026
I woke up without my alarm at dawn, but there were too many clouds to catch a sunrise. I woke up again, before my alarm, at 6:30 a.m. I opened the curtains and the window to take pictures, because I needed to lean out a little to see the Margaret Todd.
Then I tried to put the screen back into the window. I couldn't get it to fit no matter what I did. Giving up, I put the screen back against the wall by the desk. I could try again later.
The plan for breakfast was for all nine of us to meet at Cafe This Way.
We didn't have to wait long for one of the outdoor picnic tables. I had time to photograph a couple of house sparrows.
Jim surprised me and Heddy with birthday socks. Heddy's had coffee pots. Mine had Medusas. "Because of my hair?"
"Of course!"
None of the Atlantic House folks wanted to join Jeff, Ginger, Heddy, and me on a hike to Bubble Rock.
"I have unfinished business," I explained.
We took the Island Explorer towards Jordan Pond. On the way, Jeff pulled out a map that had better detail than mine, and we went over the route. I got confused with the trail names (Bubble Rock versus Bubble Divide versus Bubbles Trail), and began to doubt which one we'd mistakenly taken last time. Jeff looked at the elevation change lines for the Bubble Rock and Bubble Divide trails at Jordan Pond. They looked a lot alike. "Last time, the Bubbles Divide trail was closed," I said. We figured out that the route I'd chosen last night should be the one to try. "If we end up on the trail we took last time, we'll turn around and go back the way we came," I said.
Jordan Pond was fogged in.
We started up the eastern side, passing the Bubbles trail I'd mistakenly led Jill, Ginger, and Heddy up last time before realizing we were not on the right trail and turning around. This time, we were looking for the "Jordan Pond Carry" trail sign.
Ginger, as always, sent photos of us en route.
We found the Jordan Pond Carry Trail sign, which was adjacent to the Bubbles Trail sign (wait, are there two of these?). This must have been the one Cheryl meant when she said "go right," because the one on the left looked like the one we took that ended in our aborted rock scramble. The carry trail would be the long way around, and far less steep.
There were carefully-laid stairs, shallow and spaced far enough apart that I had to take two steps for every one.
We passed a marker for the trail to the parking lot on Park Loop Road. It wasn't as clear a trail as the one we were on. Then we arrived at a crossroads marked "Bubbles Divide." We went left, assuming that this would take us directly to Bubble Rock.
It did lead to a rock, and, at first, I thought we'd arrived. I was elated, and Heddy hugged the rock.
But the layout wasn't right. Bubble Rock protrudes from a rock face that one can see from Park Loop Road. This one was too far back for that.
The trail continued. We came across another sign that pointed to Bubble Rock. The trail was blazed with blue marks, and we had to scramble across rocks to follow the markers. "This is like what we did last time," I said, "only not as steep."
And at the top was the rock we sought.
Getting down to the rock required some more scrambling. I worried that I might succumb to vertigo, but I didn't.
There was so much fog now that we couldn't see Park Loop road. We could see the fog moving, though. Within ten minutes, the fog began to clear. We could see, to the north, Eagle Lake.
It was getting crowded up here.
Jeff was at the top, waiting for us. He started down and we hurried after him.
We retraced our steps to where we'd seen the sign for Bubble Rock. Now we turned left, onto the Bubbles Divide trail. If this were the way we'd gone last time, we'd run into big rocks soon. We didn't. We found more stairs.
It was a relief to arrive back at Jordan Pond without having to scramble.
But we weren't where we thought we should be. We were nearly at the northern end of the pond, close enough that we debated whether to continue on the loop or go back on the eastern side. We chose the latter.
"I am so confused right now," I told Jeff.
We expected to see the Jordan Pond Carry Trail sign any minute, but we didn't.
We spent a few minutes in the gift shop, where I steered Jeff to bags of the blue-coated blueberries (too expensive here though) and I found a moose sticker like the one Heddy got on Cadillac. I put the sticker in my wallet, in front of my employee photo ID.
Jeff and I used the shuttle ride back to town to try to figure out what we'd done. Last time, I'd taken the Bubbles Trail, which is the rocky one that leads to the South Bubble and then Bubble Rock. This time, although I hadn't wanted to come back that way, we would have, except that we ended up following the Bubbles Divide trail back to the pond instead. In hindsight, this was the far better option. What got us confused were the markers in the woods. Jeff agreed that they were confusing, and that a signpost at the top would have helped. Looking at the map, we figured out where we'd gone wrong that ended up being right.
Ginger, Heddy, and I went for lunch at the Village Green Cafe, which used to be the Independent. I explained how shops in Bar Harbor wink in and out of existence. (For example, I have two t-shirts I got cheap in 2024 that have the logo for the Black Moose, which was there in 2016 and not when I returned a year later and I still am not sure what the Black Moose was.)
We did a bit of shop-wandering after lunch. I found a moose I hadn't seen before. Jack texted that we could jettison our luggage to take it home.
This moose has not yet winked out of existence. We've seen it every year recently, although it has moved from the shop's doorway to a corner. We don't know if it has a name, but Jack and I call it "Twiggy the Moose."
Heddy was shopping for a sweatshirt. She found one that she liked and showed it to me. "It doesn't have a moose on it," I judged. She ended up with one that did have a moose, and I found one with a moose on it too.
Now we all had to clean ourselves up and start packing.
I still couldn't get the screen back into the window.
I loaded the car as much as I could, but not the bikes. There would still be more stuffing to do in the morning.
We decided to go back to McKay's for dinner and made reservations for the five of us. The Atlantic House people then texted to tell us there were leftovers, but it was too late. I replied that we could stop by after dinner.
When I asked later if it was okay for us to visit, they answered that they were too busy cleaning the house. That's not how I would have wanted to spend my last night in Bar Harbor. I was happy to be paying double for the luxury of goofing off.
We walked down to Jordan Pond Ice Cream instead, and then lounged in the wicker chairs in front of the Bar Harbor Inn.
I loaded the car some more. Then I went over to the Shore Path.
In the stillness, I watched the moon go behind the clouds.
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