Acadia National Park, Maine — Thesis Stop 2
Beehive Trail, Thunder Rock, Cadillac Mountain, and Jordan Pond
I hadn’t ever been to Maine, but I had wanted to go for a while. Coronavirus has made traveling difficult, but not impossible as long as you’re willing to listen to the rules and show other humans basic decency. I went with my friend from undergrad, Laura, who also loves adventure and it was honestly a great time.
We camped at little campsite (that wasn’t my favorite, but it made do for what we needed it for), woke up incredibly early everyday to beat the crowds, and saw some absolutely amazing things.
We drove to Acadia from Buffalo with a pit spot in a small town on Route 1 for the best seafood bisque either of us had ever had and some mojitos. We quickly learned that Maine was not only known for it’s fresh seafood, but also for blueberries (and it’s true — these blueberries where like nothing I had ever tasted before). Our whole drive was probably about 11 hours which is super doable in a day since I LOVE to drive. I made Laura rip me off the steering wheel for about 5 hours for safety and sanity reasons.
We got to camp, set it up, and cracked open some beers around our campfire ready to unwind after our drive. We got to bed rather early because we had an early morning on the Beehive Trail the next day.
We woke up around 6:30 am to get ready to leave for the trail. We left by 7 am and got to the trail around 7:30 am. Acadia is a one-way lane loop around the whole National Park, which I didn’t realize at first and definitely went the wrong way for a little bit [whoops]. There were a decent amount of people already lined up / some coming down, but we were prepared with our masks and hand sanitizer! We didn’t really run in to anyone until the end (closer to 9 am), we probably wore our masks for the entire ending because there were a lot of people going up.
This was one that I was really excited about because it’s on the shorter side, but it also involved literally climbing up iron rods to the summit. It was challenging but rewarding. You got mountain, climbing, trees, water. This hike really had it all.
The National Park System actually had a decent amount of reading on the Indigenous Tribe, the Wabanaki people, on their website so they were a great resource for me this time around. I really found it interesting that they talked about how a lot of the trails used by the Wabanaki were turned in to trails. This type of preservation I think is really important to note when it comes to Acadia and it’s something I kept in mind on every trail we were on.
The Beehive trail was the most beneficial to my project, but walking around rocks on Thunder Rock, driving up Cadillac Mountain, and walking around Jordan Pond were all absolutely lovely experiences. I will say, however, that Jordan Pond had the worst social distancing I had seen on the trip — Laura and I wore a mask for probably the last mile and half people almost everyone who passed us (in big groups!!) weren’t wearing masks. Even though we were wearing masks we would pull off to the side, and face the water until they passed. It got really annoying by the end and took away from it a little which is a bummer.
One last note about Maine — swing by Portland on your way home and get some beer from Allagash!!!! I love love love sours and they have some of the best. Estate Cherry Sour Ale literally rocked my world. I wish I could have it again.
Here are some images from the Jordan Pond Trail too
