Maine: Day 5

Our final Maine day.  

I knew it would turn into a day immersed100% in beautiful Acadia National Park.  We began with hiking Beehive Mountain.  At a respectable 520 feet, The Beehive rises above the terrain near Sand Beach on the eastern side of Mt. Desert Island.  When you arrive at the Sand Beach parking lot
and look back towards the entrance, The Beehive is the dominant geological feature. Generally you will likely see people climbing it's face or standing on its summit.

The Beehive Trail is rated strenuous, and is approximately 0.8 miles long. The trail offers diverse climbing climates, through woods to exposed cliffs. There are iron rungs on the ledges due to steep inclines along the face of Beehive. 

Maneuvering along the rungs (or else I would fall off the cliff)

Dafuq are these rungs

Enroute to the summit

On the descent from Beehive, Patrick led us to The Bowl, a freshwater lake located among the ridges.  Stephen, Patrick, and I relaxed along the bank for almost an hour, taking our shoes and socks off and allowing the fish to nibble around our feet.  My feet became extremely cold, and I took them out of the water and sat like a baseball catcher for about five minutes.  During this time a leech attached itself to my foot! I looked down at my feet tucked into my groin and saw the bloodsucker.  Needless to say, I panicked and scared away all the fish. 

The Bowl

After I regained my composure from the leech, we followed a trail comprised of planks around the perimeter of The Bowl.  Towards the far edge of The Bowl we came across a massive beaver damn, and a nearby beaver lodge.  Patrick and Stephen decided to follow the stream protruding from the base of the damn down the mountain, aside from taking the trail.  

Far edge of the damn

 At first I was hesitant and nervous because 1) I didn't want to frighten the beavers and disturb their habitat, and 2) I saw the evidence of nearby trees toppled over, transformed into pencil -like objects.  I was scared a beaver might act irrationally and attack.  My anxiety ridden pleas were not taken into consideration from the Trail Blazer Frazer's, and so we began what would become an hour foraging our own path along the mountain.  Eventually the stream ran dry, and we were forced to find our way back without a map, cellphone reception, or any indication that humans had explored the terrain.  

How my fear of beavers originated

After about 40 minutes of walking through brush and climbing rocks, we came across a cairn that was different from an Acadia registered cairn (Acadia had numerous cairn's along trails that all resembled the same shape for hikers to know they were heading in the right direction).  Eventually, we came across another cairn  and another.  We knew that someone had left these marks for trail blazers like us to find our way to civilization.  We needed to climb a few hundred feet of exposed rock to reach whatever summit we could see ahead, and happened to stumble upon the summit of Gorham Mountain.  We had been in the wild for almost two hours, and were so relieved and excited to come across humanity.  

Ecstatic to find our way out of the woods

Our relief quickly dissipated as we came across the sober realization that we had trail blazed ourselves over a mile and a half away from Beehive, and more importantly, where the car was parked.  We began the descent down Gorham Mountain, and the trek along Park Loop Road to reach our car after an additional hour of hiking.  In all, we were hiking for roughly five hours with dead phones and no water, very thankful we found our way back onto a trail.

Once we returned to the Frazer Compound, we participated in our final customary cocktail hour and badminton match (at this point of the trip I had become an absolute ace & force to be reckoned with).  We wanted to dine where we could experience our last round of fresh crustacean and mollusks, and headed to the Burning Tree, located in Otter Creek.  The food was absolutely delicious, and we were fortunate to experience fascinating/unique art pieces while we dined.  

Super relatable art - I love spaghetti 

Clam Linguine served in a shell 

The painful process of packing our bags commenced following dinner.  Stpehen and I decided to wake at 3 am inroder to catch the sunrise at Cadillac Mountain, and make the drive to Portland (3 hours away) to catch our 9:15 flight back home.  The sun rose at 4:48 the day of our departure, and we were able to witness the anticlimactic majesty that is the sunrising (Call me biased, but nothing compares to west coast Florida sunsets). 

45° on June 21 – Summer Solstice

About 4:15 am - the start to a spectacular (although short) sunrise

An absolutely perfect way commence a vacation to the most beautiful corner of the United States - Mt. Desert Island.  If you are someone who experiences anxiety or plagued with worrisome days, please do yourself a favor and rediscover nature and it's grandeur.  Nothing can change your perspective/mindset like taking in breathtaking sights and landscapes you've only experienced through Google Images. As sad as I was to return to rainy, hot, humid, flat, South Florida, I'm so thankful to have the opportunity to have a fresh outlook to tackle the coming months.  

No truer words were ever spoken

-xx