Acadia and surroundings, warning, it's huge post!

We got a slow start due to the weather, but we tried hard to make up for it when we finally got a break.  Acadia National Park is one of our favorites, it has so many things.  Scenery and viewpoints abound with the spectacular Maine coast; tons of hiking, 158 miles worth; 45 miles of carriage roads where you can walk and bike, and even horseback ride; with 7 peaks over 1000'.  

Even with the damp, blustery weather we did a little exploring in the truck.  I'll tell you, the Maine coast is amazing, I personally don't think any other coast can beat it, now I will admit, the water is cold, but otherwise, it's sensational.  In fact, in our opinions, Maine is a terrific state.

Idyllic harbors

Our bleary, yet beautiful coffee spot

Once the weather broke we wanted to hike the Ocean Path in Acadia NP, it starts at the Sand Beach and follows the coast by Thunder Hole and continues 2.2 miles around to the Otter Cliffs, and as you know Jan and I like to do these early before the crowds.  In fact we had breakfast at an overlook first, then on to the hike.  Funny we had never done this hike before.  It was wonderful, even as it was a bit overcast and we even got rained on a couple times.  It is an easy 4.4 mile hike, very little up and down, but with fantastic views.

Looking back at Sand Beach, the start of the hike

Nice easy path

Beautiful, even if it is overcast

The granite walls break down in square segments and the waves
eventually wear the cubes into balls

Otter Cliffs
Some climbers getting ready to descend
It is a very popular place for rock climbing

Some instruction going on

A damp, but happy Jan

After clocking so many miles, we decided to explore the next day back in the truck and took off for Deer Isle, and a lunch place we had heard about, yeah, I know.  

Quite the bridge over to Deer Isle

Our lunch destination

It's a beautiful remote spot with picnic tables all around
What you can't see in the picture is the chilly wind

But lunch was superb!
Fried whole belly clams, onion rings, and a scallop roll

By this time the weather was improving very quickly and we were able to take advantage of our incredible waterfront site.

Low tide

Every low tide there were 3-6 people out digging clams right in front of us

A view of our site from across the water
2 clam diggers working

Another hike we wanted to do and one familiar to us was the Jordan Pond loop, it is 3.3 miles around the pristine Jordan Pond.  It is fairly easy although there is one section with quite a bit of rock climbing and a 3/4 mile section of log boardwalk, a wonderful hike.

Jordan Pond

Clear water

A little bridge at the north end

2 happy folks!

Part of the boardwalk

It was such a gorgeous clear day that on the way back, we went up Cadillac Mountain, 1530', the highest point on the east coast.  Quite windy up there but got some great views.

Bar Harbor from the summit

We decided the Jordan Pond hike was so nice, we would go back the next day and do it again in the opposite direction, we went even earlier, saw only 4 people, and finished up around 9am.

Mother nature is pretty incredible

Our private pathway 

A pristine morning!

And this little guy even said hello

Now the next thing on the agenda was to go get some lobsters, they are quite cheap here this year, about $7/lb.  We decided to make our own lobster rolls, and steal Doug and Nancy's excellent lobster BLT recipe.  We bought a few steamed chickens, those are what 1 lb lobsters are called, cleaned them, and created our own sandwiches.  Delicious!

Lobstah BLT

Lobstah rolls

So we wound up our week at Narrows Too on the water with glorious weather, cocktails, and a nice evening.

What a spot

A nice last evening

So now we are farther up the coast at a new National Park campground, Schoodic Woods, on the Schoodic Peninsula, another small part of Acadia NP.  It is a very nice place, water and electric only, but huge sites, easy to maneuver, and all paved roads.

The campground Schoodic Woods is just south of Winter Harbor

Our site

And I included this to show how humongous our site is

We went out to a nearby fish store and bought some fish for dinner and while out we picked up some local seasonal fiddlehead ferns for dinner.  Doug and Nancy, while we were there asked us if we ever had them and said they were quite delicious.  They are only available for a short time and we thought we'd give them a try, they were delicious, something we missed out on while living in NH for 20 years:-)

Fiddleheads
We sauteed them in some olive oil and garlic, tasty!

There are several bike paths and hiking trails that go right out of the campground here so we hit the "easy" Lower Harbor Trail, a 1.1 mile trail along the water.  We got an idea that our "easy" and their "easy" was bit different as we descended 100's of feet to the water over rocks, tree roots and mud, but it was nice and very quiet in the trees.

Beginning of the trail

Along the shore

Thinking about climbing back up the hill to get back:-)

Very pretty!

We, happily, ended up coming back up a different way and returned to the camp site on a bike path making it an all-in-all nice 2.5 mile hike.  After lunch we took off on the one way loop road all the while talking about how we had never been here before.  We missed the unmarked road to Schoodic Head the first time around so went back around to get there, it's only 12 miles all the way around, and up the dirt road we climb to the parking area on the summit, and as we pull in, we both look at each other and exclaim, OMG, we've been here!!  I guess we are losing it, but seriously, we have been to so many places in the last 25 years all over this wonderful country that we have to admit it does run together now and then.  Just remember, it has nothing to do with us getting older!

Surfs up on the loop road

Egg Rock Light

A nice view from the top

Now, I hope you have been able to get through this very long post, but I am going to leave you with one last thing.  We had heard about a little restaurant here called the Pickled Wrinkle, strange name we thought, turns out a Pickled Wrinkle is a old Downeast Maine Delicacy, I'm quoting here.  "They are large carnivorous sea snails, or whelks, which are pickled and marketed locally as Pickled Wrinkles. Unlike herbivorous periwinkles, which inhabit tidal zones, wrinkles are larger and inhabit areas below the tide line. Lobster fishermen find wrinkles in traps they haul from the ocean floor. In tough times, wrinkles were relied on to help feed Maine families, and pickling was a great way to preserve the protein packed morsels." 

So the deal is they serve them as an appetizer, and everyone has to try them, right?  So we did.

Pickled Wrinkles

This is our statement, we are glad we tried them, a bit chewy, a bit fishy, and a bit pickly,  and we would not order them again.  Head up to Winter Harbor, actually Birch Harbor to the Pickled Wrinkle and give them a try for yourselves....