wet wanders
What a funny day! It was dry as Denise and I headed for the quiet side of the island. We followed the Ship Harbor trail to the turnaround point and then it started raining. Oops! Luckily Denise stuck an umbrella in her camera pack so she just needed to pull it out. We walked back in the rain.
Before we started driving we looked at the map to find our next wandering spot. It needed to be flat; hiking up a mountain in wet and foggy weather didn't seem like a good idea. Denise decided we should head back to Park Loop Road.
We drove back to the eastern side of the island, parking at the Fabbri picnic area which is in the middle of a narrow peninsula. It's on the road right after the point where the open section of Park Loop Road ends. We headed out on the closed to cars section of the road, walking around Otter Cove, then turning back and making the long loop back to Otter Point and then past Otter Cliff. We passed from the closed section of the road back to the section where cars are allowed. There weren't too many cars today, and we only ran into one other person during our walk. We wandered on the rocks again. Denise was careful - she thought the rocks were just wet, not slippery, and she wasn't that close to the ocean so I thought she would be fine. No slipping today! I did a little bouncing on my own when the rain stopped but when the water was dripping from the sky I rode in Denise's camera bag. I could always poke my head out to see where we were wandering.
When we turned inland from the coast the fog lifted and the clouds did too. Since the road up Cadillac Mountain opened today we decided to drive up the mountain to see if the top was above the clouds. It wasn't. Oh! that was a very foggy drive.
After we emerged from the fog we took a minute to look at the map. Denise found a short hike to Compass Harbor, one that was new for us. She didn't remember seeing the trailhead before, and we drove right by it at first. It was right before a private road called Old Farm Road. Denise knew we missed it when we got to Schooner Head Road so we turned around and the tiny parking lot popped out at us. It was an interesting loop hike through the remains of George Dorr's estate. Oh, you want to know who George Dorr is? He was known as the father of Acadia.
It was a quiet day, very relaxing.--- Rover
photo by phone