Summertime!: Week #2

A busy beginning of the week followed up with a fun camping trip to Acadia! Good to get in our tradition end-of-the-school-year start-of-summer visit even if things are not quite typical!

Monday: Didn't want to get out of bed. But after another crazy day of working at home complete with way too many conference calls, I was happy to get out for an afternoon run while Sam rode her bike. The kid is getting way too fast for me to keep up 😂 but thankfully she at least has to stop and walk across the road crossings and stopped for me at the stop signs 😉 First three with Sam, then an additional three solo to finish things up. Happy to get the miles in. So sweaty! (6.0 miles)

Tuesday: Work is busy, I had a 5:00 conference call, didn't get out to run, feeling stressed and trying to get packed up so that we could get out of the house mid-day on Wednesday. Gah. But Sam and Ryan got out for an early evening 4 mile bike/ride. I think Sam will be ready for a full bike path out and back soon!

Wednesday: Finally managed to get myself out of bed for a morning run 😆😁 Foggy, heavy and very humid. Kept it pretty mellow, or as mellow as one can with 100% humidity and deer flies circling! Ran a mishmash of the cart paths, Heath, back road and powerlines. (7.0 miles)

Blueberries are beginning to ripen out along the powerlines!

Then it was home to do a quick grocery shopping, clean the house, get the car packed up, and get ready to head north! Arrived in time to set up camp and get a fire going before dinner, with plenty of time for cornhole, s'mores and sparklers. Yay camping!

                                    

Thursday: We got a bit of a late start, in part because we made pancakes and bacon for breakfast - yum! - and partly because I ordered a parks pass online but then neglected to print it out - duh! - so we headed to the visitors center to see if they could give us a physical pass since all we had was digital proof. Turns out that due to Covid, they weren't processing those there, but the ranger was super nice and told us if we did happen to get a citation that all we had to do was send along a PDF of the digital pass and we'd be set. So I at least felt better about that!

So, in the end, after all of that, we didn't start our hike until around 11:00. It was warm and humid and sunny, but there was a lovely breeze at least! Our plan for today was Norumbega Mountain, which despite not getting credit for the typical Acadia views, really did have some sweet vistas and some lovely ridgetop walking along rocky ledges, and some fun scrambling on the Goat Path too! It really was quite a nice hike. (3.9 miles hiked)

We started through the woods along the Hadlock Pond Trail

And then up Goat Path

Along the ridge, hiking to the summit

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And then we wandered back along Lower Hadlock Pond at the end of the hike. Lovely.

Once we finished up our hike, we had a late lunch in the shade on the rocks along the edge of Upper Hadlock Pond, where there were numerous bull frogs and many, many tadpoles! A perfect picnic spot!

Then we headed down to the road to Asticou Garden, only to find the gardens had just closed. Stop #2 was Thula Gardens, but alas, that too was closed, so we decided upon the Charlotte Rhodes Butterfly Garden outside of Southwest Harbor, which I had always wanted to stop at. A lovely little park with some nice gardens and a few out over the water. (0.2 miles walked)

Then it was back to the campsite for showers followed up by a few games of cornhole, a delicious dinner of pizza from Little Notch Bakery and another roaring campfire. 

Friday: Got up early and headed out for a run. Ryan had gotten in a short run before his shower on Thursday and discovered that the small trail off Hall Quarry Road, that I had been wondering about for years, connected to the Acadia Mountain Trail. Nice! So that was where I headed. Only about 1.6 miles from the campground to the top of Acadia, which was pretty sweet. And such a glorious morning with an undercast down in the sound and beautiful light. Oh, and very humid too 😂

From the summit, I "ran" down the backside and up to Valley Peak, taking in the views along the ledges en route. Then it was up to St. Sauveur and back through the pitch pine forest to the base, where I looped back up to the ninja trail and returned to the campsite. Pretty nice way to start the day! (7.0 miles)

Sunrise over the Quarry on the way out of the campground

Ninja trail off Hall Quarry Road

Beautiful undercast, looked like the islands were floating in the clouds

I really thought Sam would enjoy the scramble up the backside of Acadia, so we set out to hike the loop I'd run in the opposite direction. Despite an earlier start than Thursday, the heat and humidity were quite apparent and Sam was feeling rather fatigued as we made our way slowly up St. Sauvuer and along the ledges of Valley Peak, even with lots of stops for snacks and water. She was a trooper though, and even though she wasn't feeling great and we didn't end up doing the entire loop we had planned, opting to come in via the old Man 'o War gravel road versus continuing on up and over Acadia Mountain, we got in some solid miles and it was really nice, albeit warm, summer day for a hike with some great views! (4.0 miles hiked)

We headed back to the campsite for lunch and to cool off for a bit, but it was too early to just hang around so we headed down to Seawall to walk on the rocks and look out at the open ocean. It was quite windy and actually fairly chilly down there, which was a radical change from the temps up in the mountains! Felt kind of nice, at least once we got used to it, and of course, it is always fun to meander the shoreline, look in the tide pools and watch the waves crash.

Then it was back to the campground for a short walk down to the dock and to check out the campsites right along the Sound (0.8 miles walked), before showering and then enjoying lobster and fried food from Beal's for dinner before our final campfire of the trip. 

Campground dock views

Lobster!

I love the cat ears hat and flip flops 😍

Saturday: The fourth Saturday in June. Last year, I was running through the snow in the mountains and the (relative) heat in the canyons at Western States. I know many others were thinking of the race on Saturday, much like I was, especially as it, like many races, was cancelled due to Covid-19. So, I donned my WSer shirt and headed up Acadia again for a short morning run. Different place, different adventure, but still pretty sweet 💗 Added on a few extra road miles at the end and got back to camp while everyone was still asleep. (5.0 miles)

Then it was time to pack up camp and head out. But it was yet another beautiful day, so we once we got things all set, we headed out for a hike on the Ships Harbor Nature Trail. Much cooler out along the coast and we enjoyed a pleasant and mellow wander on the trails and along the rocks. Such a pretty spot! (1.7 miles walked)

Big burl!

Cool tidal pool colors

After take-out from Eat a Pita eaten in our camp chairs in the shade at the edge of the Echo Lake parking lot 😆, we headed over to Asticou so that Sam and I could tour the gardens before they closed for the day and so that Ryan could get in a run before we made the trip back home. The garden had definitely morphed into mostly summery greenery but there was still some nice color to be found and Sam and I had fun wandering around together. (0.7 miles walked)

All in all, a really nice trip to Southwest Harbor! The campground and trails were fairly quiet, take-out was easy, we wore our masks when we had to and overall, we had no issues. Always good to get up to the island - it truly is a special place!

Sunday: Ah, summer. Headed out around 7:00 am for a run in 100% humidity with low fog and no real air movement. Had hoped to get in a June 20 miler but honestly, I just didn't have it in me, so I settled on a very soggy 15 instead to round out the week 😁😂😃 Ran the cart paths and around the Heath, before heading out onto the bike path along the Connector and venturing onto the Highland trails. Then I looped around to the Riverside trails and back along the powerlines. Two deer, three groundhogs and a ton of spiderwebs seen. The fog burned off partway through the run and it got rather roasty toasty. (15.0 miles)

Peek a boo, I see you in the fog

Partridge berry blooming

Alpaca friends out at the end of the powerlines

Milkweed is in bloom!

The rest of the day was spent relaxing, doing laundry and getting re-organized to gear back up for next week! Happy to have been able to get away for a few days and do some camping and hiking. It is always fun!

Summertime!: Week #1

Summer in our house started this week. This ultimately means a bit more free time, and also a bit more boredom for Sam, but what can you do? We're just rolling with the cards we've been given... We've got a list of creative projects to work on, and she'd doing her reading and some of her summer workbook, but the reality is that that still leaves a fair amount of time each day to just hang around. Sigh. I really wish we could send her to camp and to do some of the fun things we had planned this year, but alas, it is not to be. And of course, Ryan and I still have to work... That being said, I am taking some random days off here and there to break things up, and next week, we are going camping Wednesday through Saturday, which is exciting!

Monday: A really busy workday for me, complete with two interviews for a vacant position. I started working at 7:30 and pretty much worked straight through until 3:30, by which time I was DONE. It was a really nice afternoon so Sam and I headed outside for some fresh air. She did three laps around the block on her bike while I walked 1 1/2 laps (there's no keeping up with her on foot now unless we run! 😆), and then after that, we continued on for a walk across the street. Beautiful, warm and sunny out! (2.1 miles walked)

Tuesday: Up and out early for a run on the cart paths and around the Heath. Pretty morning, cool and sunshiney. (7.0 miles)

The colors of summer

Went into the office for the day, during which I had three conference calls and one interview. Gah. The world of working remotely just seems to have exacerbated the need for meetings... 

Came home, and the three of us headed across the street for our first family bike and run excursion! Sam was really excited and did a GREAT job! Of course, I am not an afternoon runner at all, so my body was a bit confused by this adventure 😉😂 and I had no chance at all of keeping up with Sam on the bike on even the slighest downhill, but it was fun. Warm and sunny! (2.1 miles)

Wednesday: Another really nice morning. Ran a mishmash of trails and roads for a rather random loop around home. Legs felt heavy. (6.0 miles)

During her afternoon non-screen time, Sam finished up the cool Hogwarts Clock Tower lego set that Irene and Dana gifted her early on in these pandemic times. She did a great job working on the whole thing by herself, and it really is a pretty sweet completed project!

Then while I sat in on a finance committee meeting at 4:00, Sam and Ryan went out for a 3 mile bike ride/run 😃

Thursday: Took the day off today to break up the week for Sam and get out and do something fun with her. Headed out early to get a short run in. Ran a loop around town on the roads this morning. Nice, calm morning with plenty of sunshine and a whole lot of humidity. So sweaty! (6.0 miles)

Once I got back, I quickly headed to Hannaford to get the weekly grocery shopping done so that we could enjoy the rest of the day at the beach! In a twist of fate, Kristen messaged yesterday to say that Phil was taking the girls to the beach, wondering if we wanted to come. Too funny! 😂 But it was awesome, because a beach trip is much better with your best friend than just with your mom! And the girls had an absolute blast. The water was FRIGID but it did not stop them from spending at least 2 of the 3 hours we were there out in the waves, playing and boogie boarding. I put my toes in a few times and that was more than enough 😉😆 

It really was the perfect day for the beach! Warm and sunny, with a cool breeze, and we lucked out and things didn't really start to get busy until soon before we decided it was time to take our sun-cooked selves home. And with friends, it couldn't get much better 😀

This pretty much sums these two besties up 😂😊💕

😍😍

Such happiness!

Found a cool little fish

Ahhhh, summer 

Friday: What can I say? I had planned to get up and run in the morning but going back to sleep for a few more hours just ended up being more appealing, so that's what I did 😉 and frankly, then it was just too hot for me to want to head out later in the morning, so Friday turned into a rest day. Not that I sat around... Went up to the Six River farmstand in Bowdoinham to pick up some fresh produce and strawberries, picked up books and the summer reading program info at the library, cleaned the house, did laundry, emptied the dishwasher, helped Sam go through some of the stuff that has been accumulating downstairs in the living room, made blueberry muffins and chocolate chip cookie bars, and Sam and I took a short walk across the street mid-afternoon to watch the Woodside Teacher Parade. It was really sweet, and a nice way to say our goodbyes to some of Sam's great teachers from the past six years 💗 And while, we were waiting in the shade - so hot! - Sam found a four-leaf clover! 🍀 (1.0 miles walked) So a busy, but productive, rest day!

Saturday: Knew it was going to be another warm day, so was up and out early to get in some miles. Ran around the Heath and along the fringes of the Cathance out to Head of Tides before continuing onto the powerlines for a loop around the Lovers Lane snowmobile trails. 

Pretty morning, but warmed up quickly and very humid! So sweaty! Saw one deer and two baby groundhogs. The deer flies are definitely out. Managed to kill a couple, the rest were just sort of circling, but not super aggressively. The heavy air was sweet with the smell of hay scented ferns and blackberry brambles. Felt decent but I am definitely not yet acclimated to the heat atop the humidity. It had gotten up to 80 degrees by the time I got back around 9:00 am. (15.0 miles) 

Head of Tides view, complete with a Heron and a family of geese

Pretty columbine growing out at the edge of the lawn at Head of Tides

Love the smell of these ferns 💕

Ryan ran once the heat really came up but I still wanted to get Sam out for a bit of fresh air, so I cajoled him into going out for a short hike after lunch. I know, I know, but hey, isn't it better that I want to hike than go to the mall?? 😉😇😆 We settled on Higgins Mountain in Georgetown, a 1 mile+ loop that sounded pretty cool. OK, so yes, it was 90 degrees and yes, we were sweating, and yes, the fam was less than thrilled with me, but it really was a lovely little hike with a nice open ledges with views out to the ocean and some nice meandering through the pitch pine forest. And we followed it up with ice cream, so it wasn't all that bad 😁🍦(1.3 miles hiked) 

How they really feel about me dragging them out for a short hike on a 90 degree day 😂😂

SMILE! 😎😎

Sunday: Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there, especially Ryan, Dad and Dana! We are incredibly lucky to have you as such strong forces in our life. We love you! 💗 

Slept in as much as the cats allowed and then headed out around 7:30 for a run. Mid-60s but incredibly humid. Ran the powerlines, adding a Riverside loop along the Androscoggin and then a few of the Gone Fishing trails for additional distance. Nice and sunny, and oh so sweaty! 💦 (10.0 miles)

Love the bright pink of the sheep laurel against the summer greenery

Going to be a good blackberry year, I think! 😋

After lunch, we headed back down to Harpswell to check yet another Harpswell Heritage Land Trust trail system off the list - time the Bowdoin Coastal Studies Center. Ryan and I had been out there eons ago, although neither of us could remember when, and honestly, I don't remember the trail system being so cool. This a really nice piece of property out on a peninsula, surrounded by water and rocky ledges on both sides. We meandered out along the edge of the fields into the woods to walk the perimeter trails, taking our time and going out onto the ledges and rocky shoreline here and there for some exploration. It was warm, but much cooler than Saturday and there was a lovely breeze. Saw two horseshoe crabs and a pair of osprey in their nest, along with a number of black ducks farther out in the water with some little ducklings. Definitely a nice place to hike! (2.8 miles hiked)

Osprey nest

Then it was home for dinner and strawberry shortcake to wrap up the day, and a good start to summer!