Early morning trend continued on day 7 with our daughter waking up at 4:45am. Since it was nice and early and the weather forecast for the morning was good it seemed like the perfect day to hike up Cadillac Mountain. We headed out of the campground around 6:15 once we had woken up enough, brushed our teeth and made some peanut butter sandwiches for the hike. We hiked the Cadillac Mountain South Ridge Trail leaving from Blackwoods campground. The trail is fairly flat and moderate from the campground to the main trail head and involves crossing the main island road. There are some boards you need to walk across in the swampy areas as well.
Once you hit the main trail head the climb begins. The South Ridge Trail is the easiest of the trails leading up Cadillac Mountain but the trail could be challenging at times, especially with a little one on my back. It is recommended to hike up the mountain to be at the top for either sunrise or sunset. After hiking this trail in the light, I would definitely not want to hike this in the dark. They were working on the trail in a number of spots when we were hiking up to help preserve and protect the surrounding landscape. There are some fantastic views along the way. At the right time of year there are also a great deal of blueberries lining the trail so you could have a nice snack. Our daughter napped in the carrier for a large portion of the upwards climb.
Once we reached the summit we enjoyed a bit of a snack and a break before hiking back down. Many people will hike one way and take the Island shuttle back down. Nearing the final stretch is where you can meet the biggest challenge. It is rocky and a bit of climbing is involved. You reach this portion after hiking down a bit where there is a pond. The views are definitely something else once you are up at the summit.
As we started the decent back down Tessa had a run in with a porcupine. She would not let us remove the quills while on the trail so she had to hike back to the campground with them in her mouth and nose. We were back at the campground by 11:00 am, so Dave headed into Bar Harbor to take Tessa to the vets while our daughter and I made and had some lunch and relaxed a little. The vet told Dave that they have dogs in there at least a couple times a week who have had a run in with the porcupine on Cadillac Mountain.
After lunch we headed out of the park to grab a shower and get cleaned up. There is a private operation offering paid showers just outside of the campground located on the main road. It is $2 for 4 minutes since there are no showers within the campground.
Once cleaned up we headed back into Bar Harbor to pick up a few items, check emails and then pick up Tessa from the vets. Since Tessa was in no state to walk (she had to be put under to have the quills removed), we took a drive down to Bass Harbor to see the lighthouse.
The drive was nice and it was a great way to spend part of the rainy afternoon. Once we reached the lighthouse the sun decided to come back out.
After a little drive around Bass Harbor we continued on to Southwest Harbor to grab some dinner before heading back to camp. We decided to order take-out from a little place on the main street. Once I had ordered dinner I headed next door to check out Hatched On MDI. This is a gorgeous children’s shop carrying clothing, toys, etc that are not your run of the mill. She carries lots of the brands that I like for our daughter which are more unique and the woman who owns the store was a great help in choosing some outfits to take home with us. Once my shopping was done dinner was ready and we were back on the road.
We decided we would take our dinner to a freshwater beach we had passed on the way down. Paige was enjoying watching a family play frisbee on the grass while we ate. Then we let our daughter wade in the water and play in the sand.
We had trouble getting her out of the water to head back to camp. Once back at camp it was time for our daughter to head to bed and then we got ourselves organized and partially packed for the trip the following day.
To see what else we got up to on this trip check out the links below:
Up with the sunrise to greet the day (approximately 5:00 am). Since quiet hours at Blackwoods campground are until 8:00 am. We headed out of the site by 6:00 am, with Peanut Butter sandwiches in hand, so we didn’t disturb too many campers with our daughter talking up a storm. She was really taking to the camping thing by this point.
We headed out for a drive on part of the park loop on our way to Sandy Beach to hike part of the Ocean Path. It was the hi-lited trail of the week so we figured it must be worth checking out. It was so nice and quiet on the drive and we were able to enjoy some great views while we watched the sun coming up more.
Sandy Beach has large washroom facilities and change rooms which made us wonder if this beach gets pretty packed on a hot summer’s day. It was quite cool when we headed out so we were dressed in our sweats and hoods were up. There is a very nice beach down a set of stairs here which dogs are not allowed on. It was so peaceful standing at the top watching and listening to the waves crashing into the pink granite cliffs.
The ocean path is a relatively flat gravel path that follows the road for a portion of it. There are some stairs on trails leading from this path to lookouts along the way. You could probably do this path with a stroller as long as it was one meant for “off-road”. We decided to hike as far as Thunder Hole which is a 2.8 mi hike return. We were the only ones on the trail going out to Thunder Hole so it was so nice and peaceful. We reached Thunder Hole shortly after low tide and it was putting on an impressive show. Our daughter was a little uncertain of it when we neared the hole, so I mostly stayed up top while Dave and Tessa spent some time right down there watching the waves and the spray.
After our short hike we ventured into Bar Harbor. Our first stop was breakfast at the Ivy Inn located on the main strip as you are heading south out of town. The service was incredible, and the food was amazing. I had oatmeal with fruit compote and burnt sugar (never thought I would rave about oatmeal, but this was so good, even my husband who only like the instant oatmeal packets thought this was really good) with a bowl of fruit (nice fresh fruits and berries), and Dave enjoyed the local egg breakfast with a side order of praline bacon. If you enjoy coffee with your morning breakfast then you must stop in here. They have the best coffee I have ever tasted. The breakfast was quite reasonable for the 2 of us and our daughter enjoyed a little of our breakfast while chatting up a storm with some of the other guests.
After enjoying our breakfast we then thought it would be a good morning to browse the shops and maybe pick up a few items to take back with us. It was still early so many of the shops were not yet open, but as we made our way towards the harbour more were opening up. We picked up a couple locally written books for our daughter at Sherman’s books that were recommended by the staff there. Tessa also got a new lobster stuffed chew toy to play with.
Once we were shopped out we drove out to the Oceanarium to check it out, but you have to do the 1.5 hr tour (can’t pick to do only some of the sites) so we weren’t sure our daughter could handle that since she hadn’t yet napped.
So it was back into Bar Harbor for some lunch before heading back to the campsite. We tried Stewman’s which is right on the harbour. The service was terrible, the food was not very good (I ordered 2 piece fish & chips – one piece of fish was cold and soggy and the other was ok) and much pricier than many of the other restaurants around. Dave said that his lobster was cooked properly and he enjoyed the lobster. I would definitely not return here. The high chair they brought us was coated in dried food and when I asked for a cloth to clean it, the server told me I could just use the paper napkins sitting on our table.
The rain started while we were eating our lunch, so we made a stop at the grocery store and Natural Foods to pick up some groceries before we headed back to camp.
Since it was raining and our daughter had finally fallen asleep we dropped the groceries and headed out to Thunder Hole as they had told us the best time to see it was 2 hrs before high tide. Since it was bucketing down and our daughter was napping, Dave parked the car and then headed down on his own to see it. It was very busy, but Dave said that we had actually seen it put on a better show when we had been there early in the morning.
We then decided to drive down to check out Northeast Harbor. This is a cute little town and where you can catch the mail boat over the Cranberry Island. We stopped and enjoyed the view at the harbour until our daughter woke up, at which point we stopped at the hardware store to pick up a tarp then back to camp.
The tarp was to create a floor in our dining tent for our daughter to play on while we prepared dinner. She thought it was great since she could check out our camping bin and get her sillies out.
To read about what else we got up to on this trip check out the links below:
Again we were up about 6:30, grabbed breakfast (included at the hotel) and headed out. There was a light rain in the morning. We continued on Hwy 1 to be able to enjoy the coast and little towns along the way.
Our first stop of the morning was at the Rockland Breakwater Lighthouse. We walked out part of the way along the breakwater but after reaching about the halfway mark, we decided to turn around as it was harder going since the breakwater you walk out on is large stones piled together. I was nervous about taking a wrong step and falling with our daughter on my back which prevented me from being able to look around and enjoy the view. We stopped, took a couple photos and turned back where we spent a little bit of time on the sandy beach checking out the sea weed and shells as the tide was partially out when we were there.
Our next stop was Camden, Maine. This is such a cute town with an interesting attraction. The waterfalls that run into the harbour do so by running under some of the building on the main street. It is pretty neat to see.
We picked up lunch to go and took it with us to Camden State Park where we drove up Mount Battie to enjoy our lunch at the top. It gives you a great view of Camden and on a clear day you can see Mount desert Island. The cost was $4.50 per adult and we did not have to pay for our daughter. There is also a lookout tower you can climb to get an even better view.
As we continued on our drive we drove through Fort Knox, Maine where we saw this interesting bridge which has an observatory at the top. Maybe next time we do this trip we can stop to check out the observatory.
“Next stop Acadia National Park on Mount Desert Island, Maine. We set up camp for the next three nights at Blackwoods campground which is down at the south east end of the island. The camp sites have little to no privacy, are stone and quite a bit of water was running through our site when we got there. You are not able to reserve a specific site, but rather they are assigned as you arrive. When we checked in there were still quite a number of empty sites left. The washrooms were not the cleanest and Dave kept noting to me that there was no soap in the washrooms. I think we just got too spoiled when we camped at Silver Lake State Park that it made this site look worse than it was.
We wanted to take it easy after getting the tent set up so just headed into Otter Creek (first stop near the campground) to the general store where we picked up a few grocery items and ordered a pizza. The pizza took over an hour to be made on a grocery store crust so we ended up missing the evening program at Blackwoods campground (the other nights we were there they only offered the late program). So we just headed back to our site and relaxed and had a fairly early evening.
To read about what else we got up to on this trip check out the links below:
