Ordinarily, a 3-4-hour hike might not meet the criterion of physically challenging, but the scenery in Acadia National Park on a sunny day far surpassed the mark for spectacular. And besides, there were bonus points for my hiking companion: Katy Bertrand.
Katy had come up from New York City for a long weekend, and we quickly agreed that we’d like to hike in Acadia National Park. We considered the prospect of heavy traffic on a summer weekend to a national park but decided to take our chances. We consulted Charlotte Stetson on the pros and cons of hiking Tunk versus Black Mountain. After she carefully spelled them out, we opted instead for the mountain that would put us within range of popovers at the Jordan Pond House after the hike.
Although the traffic down Route 1a was far lighter than we expected, parking at the Jordan Pond House reminded us that it was the peak of summer in Maine. After circling the parking lot several times, we lucked out on a spot and gathered our gear for the hike.
The trail from the Jordan Pond House to the summit of Penobscot Mt was 1.9 miles. As we began to scramble up rocks below the tree line, I had flashbacks to climbing this mountain over 30 years ago with Charlotte, Katy, Jacob, Ann Marston and her sons, and Janis Levine and her 4-year-old son. Shortly after the hike began, it became clear that the four-year-old wasn’t going to make it on his own, and Charlotte became his personal sherpa for the rest of the hike.
Half-way to the summit, we emerged from the tree line to a field of giant flat boulders interspersed with patches of grass and low shrubs. By 3 pm the sun was beating down.
Some half mile from our destination, Katy took the lead and kept a fast pace toward the top, leaving me struggling to keep up. After we reached the marker indicating the summit, she explained why she’d been in such a hurry. She’d promised herself she wouldn’t eat her lunch until she reached the top, and she was famished!
We took photos for two young women beside the marker and had them do the same for us. We then chose the route down that would be most direct and keep us in the shade. From the summit, the trail disappeared below the tree line quickly. No question about it. We had reached a turning point where Katy was clearly the faster hiker than Mom.
Some half mile later, we found ourselves back to the shore of Jordan Pond, though on the far end from the parking lot. We were on the same trail around Jordan Pond that we’d taken in 2003 on the weekend of Jeem Trowbridge’s 90th birthday. On a wintry day, the three Trowbridge sisters and their kids took advantage of visiting Acadia National Park while in Maine. Angie Wild was carrying Jack, less than a year old and bundled up in his snowsuit, in a baby carrier on her back. When we completed the 3.5-mile loop around the pond, Rob congratulated her on the great job and volunteered to take over (after the hike was done). We agreed that the trail was greatly improved by the wooden walkways carved from split logs that had been installed where needed to keep shoes dry and the marshland below protected.
As we reached the large meadow in front of the Jordan Pond House, we had to take the obligatory Bertrand photo with the Double Bubble mountains in the background. (We took a photo of our family with this same backdrop year after year as the kids were growing up.) We approached a random person nearby, and to our good luck, she insisted on getting just the right poses.
By the time we returned to the restaurant at the Jordan Pond House, Katy announced that she was too stuffed from lunch for popovers. We visited the gift shop long enough to add to Candelaria’s collection of t-shirts from Maine, then headed back to the camp at Holden.
I happily reflected on what a great day it had been and how happy I was that Katy had friends in Maine to provide the evening entertainment.
Yorumlar