Southwest Harbor Weekend

We had a great long weekend up in Acadia over Labor Day, filled with good hiking, friends, fun times and good food. It was an awesome way to wrap up summer!

Friday, I ran a mellow 6 miles on the roads before we packed up and headed north. Traffic thankfully wasn't much of an issue so, after lunch and ice cream in Bar Harbor, we headed over to Sieur du Mont and hiked a really fun loop on the Jessup, Hemlock, Homens and Emery Paths, stopping in at the Wild Gardens of Acadia at the end so that Sam could complete the junior naturalist scavenger hunt, before we checked in and set up camp. A great little hike with lots of neat stone steps plus a cool activity and garden tour on a nice afternoon!

Very cool boardwalk along the Jessup Path

Neat grasses

Loved the birch trees

Long leaf asters

Yellow garden spider hanging out on the aster

Headed up Homens Path

Lots of steps

Ribbit!

Down Emery Path

Wild Gardens of Acadia junior naturalist scavenger hunt - a cool way to explore the garden!

Pitcher plants!

Fireweed

Saturday was a day off running for me so Ryan got up and out for a run while Sam and I had a mellow morning around camp. Around 11:00, we met up with the Wade family, who also happened to be camping in Southwest Harbor for the weekend, over at Echo Lake for a fun family hike up Beech Cliff. Once she warmed up to them, Sam had a great time with Ethan and Emily and having the three kids together kept them all entertained! The trail boasted more stone steps, and there were several ladder sections along the Beech Cliff trail that had both Joanne and I white-knuckling a bit, but of course, the kids charged right up ;) The cliffs had a lovely view out over Echo Lake and beyond. We looped back around on the Candia Cliff trail and then had a picnic lunch on the beach. The sun was warm but the wind was chilly! This did not stop the kids from taking a swim however, and having friends to get in the water with was great for Sam! :) A really fun way to spend the day and great to hike and hang out with friends!

Up the Beech Cliff Trail

Cool seat in a tree across the trail

Ladders!

Up up up

In the lake

Sam and Emily enjoying the (cold!) water - so cute!

After stopping in town for some ice cream, we had dinner back at camp and started our fire nice and early, enjoying the warmth, the flames and some sparklers too as it got dark!

Sunday morning, I was up and out at 6:30 for my own mountain explorations. I ran down the road to the Echo Lake entrance and took the Candia Cliff trails over to Valley Path to connect up with the Beech Mountain Trail to the top of Beech. Although it was an overcast, low light kind of morning, there was some lovely light up there at 7:20 am. From there, I went down the Beech Western Ridge Trail to Long Pond, where I went along the lake for a few tenths before heading up Mansell on the Perpendicular Trail. I decided on the way up that I would name this weekend the weekend of stone steps, as there were once again an amazing amount of stone steps carved into the rock slide and along the cliffs. Truly amazing stonework.

The top of Mansell didn't boast any views, but there were a few nice look-outs on the way up. From there, I headed down into Great and Little Notches before topping out on Bernard, another view-less peak. These trails seemed far removed and quiet, with some really rugged stretches but also some lovely pine needle cushioned stretches along treed ridges, surrounded by thick bright green moss. Truly lovely. The Bernard Mountain Trail was a really nice descent and put me down at Mill Field, where I ran about 2.5 miles on the gravel roads back to Echo Lake Road. Sam and Ryan nicely picked me up there so I didn't have to do the 2.5 mile pavement miles back to the campsite. I was more than happy with 11 rugged, rooty, rocky, quiet, low light miles in these western mountains. It was fun to explore some new to me summits and trails, and a great way to start the day!

Roots? I see no roots...

Cool light atop Beech

Views on the way down

Long Pond

Perpendicular Trail

More stairs...

Nice views on the way up Mansell

Beautiful cushioned trail between Mansell and Bernard

Cranberry and moss

Bernard

The forecasted rain kept being pushed further and further off into the evening, so we headed out mid-morning for a short hike up Beech Mountain to the fire tower. More steps ;) and some awesome views all along the loop and from the fire tower, which was open and manned by a ranger for the morning. Very cool. It was a short but sweet little hike!

Beech Mountain Trail - we took the short, steep way up.

Overlook

The fire tower was open and we had a nice talk with the Ranger!

Beautiful 360 views

Headed back around on the rest of the loop

Beautiful views out onto Long Pond

Lovely trail

One of the more fun things was that all the hikes we went on this weekend with Sam were on trails that neither Ryan or I had been on before. It is always great to explore new trails, and even better to do so with Sam :)

Later in the afternoon after some relaxation around camp, we suited up in rain gear and headed over to Seawall to check out the shoreline as the rain began to fall.

Tidal pool reflections

We were treated to a bald eagle flying overhead - so cool!

We capped off the day and the weekend with a fun laughter- and seafood-filled dinner at Beal's Lobster Pound with the Wade family and Jamie and Kate. It was pouring and blowing quite a gale by the time we got back to the tent, but we stayed nice, dry and cozy all night.

A great weekend to cap off summer!