Day # 15

Today, using three different tactics, my mother thinks I tried to kill her. I’m happy to report they all failed. I should really let her tell you the story:

We are being a little dramatic here, of course. First, Kaylyn got me up at 6:00 a.m. I am a late night person, not an early morning person. Getting up early is worse when I have to go out in the cold to the bathroom and retrieve my cold clothes from the cold truck. We drove to Bar Harbor and took a cold boat ride. Then we hiked on the edge of a mountain precipice. Somehow I survived the day.

This morning was whale-watching. And it was a success. We selected a seat on a protected deck of the three-deck boat, and I stayed put there. We passed the buoys for numerous lobster traps and learned that Maine has 4,600 licensed lobstermen, each of whom is permitted to set up to 600 traps. This has been an excellent year for lobster, so the price is down right now!

Whale flipper in water

We passed about five dolphins swimming. Then, about thirty miles out from Bar Harbor, the boat suddenly slowed.  A whale spouting had been sighted. Each different kind of whale has a different shape of exhalation – spouting. The marine biologist who accompanied us immediately identified the whale as a Right whale by the “V” shape to its spout. We kept watching, saw his back rise up in the water a bit, and then the flipper rise up as he dove. We saw this happen three times over about a half hour period. This is remarkable because there are only 450 Right whales in the world today, and we saw one of them! They summer in the Bay of Fundy and move south for the winter, though scientists are not exactly sure where they winter.  Every whale has a different pattern on his flipper, which is how they are identified. They are called a Right whale because they were the ‘right’ whale to hunt – which is why they are now so few in number.

We then proceeded to Mt. Desert Rock where we saw the heads of probably 100 seals poking out of the water, just floating about the island. About 500 seals live near the island.

With three sweaters, hat, gloves and a blanket over my lap, I survived the ride. On the way back we got chatting with another couple, both pilots. The man said he believes he has flown my cousin David on business trips!

Our next stop was the hike. When Kaylyn read about The Beehive hike, which is not particularly long but involves climbing around on rocks imbedded with metal rails and ladders to aid the hiker, she was all excited. I was envisioning my recent adventure with a broken wrist, not wanting to repeat such inconvenience.

We set out. Picture crossing a stream, stepping from one rock to another so as to not get your feet wet. That was the first section of the trail – stepping from rock to rock.

Picture a path comprised of steps, with logs to hold the dirt in place… lots and lots of them. That was the second section of the hike. Now picture huge boulders that you have to find ways to traverse. That was the third section of our hike. The trail is marked with blue spots of paint the entire way – you just keeping looking about the area to find the next one. 

We climbed 500 feet from sea level to the top of The Beehive. The view from the top was completely worth the climb. Like Cadillac Mountain last night, it was land and sea and island and beach and lakes and boats and waves breaking on shore. And dabs of color as the leaves are starting to turn.

After sitting on the top of the mountain and attempting to absorb the incredible view, we continued – down. I do mean down. Straight down. Where it is not reasonable to step to the next rock down, the park personnel installed iron rods, imbedded into the rock, to help the hiker. I’m sure some people ascend the mountain on its sheer face, and descend using the steps. I’m glad we did it the way we did. I was more comfortable backing down the steepest sections. I don’t mind climbing around on rocks at all. I don’t mind ladders. I don’t mind grabbing hand-holds to get down the rocks. I do mind that all of this was on the edge of a steep precipice!

The edge of the rock behind Kaylyn is a cliff!

On the way down the Beehive we hiked up more steps to a pond called The Bowl. We sat on the edge and drank in that beauty for awhile. Kaylyn declared, “Acadia is my favorite part of this New England trip.”

Back down on the road, we turned and took this picture. I inserted an arrow – follow it and you can see people at the top of this mountain. That is where we were when we were climbing about on the iron rungs! Kaylyn estimates we hiked a total of about 2.5 miles.

I survived Kaylyn’s agenda for the day! We drove to Jordan Pond Tea House. Yesterday there was too long a wait to eat. Today we were seated immediately. We enjoyed a cup of soup and afternoon tea with popovers, blueberry jam, and the house tea. We each drank two pots of the tea, and just enjoyed the moment. We recalled that on our Route 66 trip we also had afternoon tea – with scones – at an English tea house in Carmel, California.

Some shopping in Bar Harbor finished off the evening, and we headed back to our little Marshmallow, delighted with our day’s successes, and reluctant to leave beautiful Acadia.