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With our love of hiking and biking, we tend to make use of a couple different apps: All Trails and Singletracks. These are typically good at showing us the trails in an area and give us an idea of what the terrain will be like. Not that these apps still haven’t been working well for our stay here in Maine, but we have discovered a couple web sites that have been extremely valuable as we look at different options. If you find yourself in the area, these are definitely worth a look.
The first is https://www.mainetrailfinder.com/trails. This site documents well over 800 trails all throughout the state of Maine. Each trail has a pretty decent description of what it’s like, where to park and where the trailhead is. The second site is specific to Mount Desert Island and Acadia National Park but is even more thorough in the description. https://www.citrusmilo.com/acadiaguide/ brings you to Joe’s Guide to Acadia National Park. This site has tons of photos and great suggestions for what to see and do while you are in the area. It would be nice if all the places we visit had such great resources available.
The weather here has been pretty nice but we did have a rainy day that kept us inside the rig most of the day. It’s nice being in a place long enough that we can wait out a rainy day. Those that only come here for a few days or a week would feel obligated to get out regardless of the weather. With the Friday of Labor Day weekend upon us, we suspected Acadia might be crowded so we head west. We had noticed a handful of geocaches in the town of Castine and discovered they were in a place called Witherle Woods. It’s only 22 “crow” miles west, but with all the bays, coves and other waterways in the area, it looked to be close to an hourlong drive. Before heading out, I realized we would be close to another county in Maine if we just crossed over the Penobscot River. Chris puts up with my desires to find geocaches in other counties as long as it doesn’t add too much to our route.
As we neared Waldo County on US Highway 1, we come along this pretty impressive bridge over the the river. There was was some sort of commotion as we crossed the bridge but we managed to get past the vehicles pulled over on the side of the bridge. We later found out that a man had just jumped off the bridge. I noticed a viewing area on the opposite side of the river and headed there to take a few pictures before heading a mile or so to get the geocache I had picked out. The viewing area turned out to be the entrance to the prior bridge. There were multiple plaques and signs talking about the bridge but it didn’t take long to realize most of them were referencing the former bridge, not the present bridge. The new bridge was opened in 2006 and contains an observation area in the one tower. Intrigued, we looked it up and discovered it was associated with a state park just down the road from us. Fort Knox State Park is the site of Fort Knox - no not the fort associated with gold in Kentucky. It was only $8 each to visit both the fort and go up into the observation tower. It wasn’t in our original plan for the day but sounding like a great diversion.
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| Penobscot Narrows Bridge |
As we paid for our tickets at the entrance booth, the attendant told us to tour the fort first instead of the tower since it had closed temporarily due to the recovery efforts. We have done a few other old forts during our travels so it will be nice to see how this one compares. Construction of the fort started in 1844 and continued for 25 years but was never completely finished. The fort only saw military activity twice and both times was just used to house troops.
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| Outside Fort Knox |
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| Main Entrance to Fort |
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| View of Old Cannon Battery |
Nowadays, the fort is open from May to November and is surprisingly open for exploration. There were very few closed rooms or hallways so it was fun to just walk all over the place. Had we known, we would have brought a flashlight along with us to be able to explore some of the darker tunnels and rooms. The place is big and has pretty remarkable construction. With all the granite found in this part of Maine, it’s not too surprising that the bulk of the fort is made of local granite. Many of the interior ceilings are arched and made of brick. The effort that must have been needed to build the fort might explain why it took so long and never was finished.
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| Large Stone and Earth Berm Protecting Fort |
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| Close-up of Stone Wall |
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| Fort Knox Seen from Battery |
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| Gun Slots to Shoot Invaders |
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| Bridge Tower Seen Through Gun Slot |
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| Arches Galore |
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| Huge Arched Ceiling |
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| Looking at Interior Courtyard of Fort |
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| Courtyard from Above |
Only a few of the various sizes of cannons are still on site. A few of them are truly massive. The 15” Rodman could fire a 450 pound cannonball over 3 miles! There were a couple of hot shot furnaces that could have been used to heat cannonballs to the point that one shot into a wooden ship would set it ablaze. Several long hallways flank a dry moat that was intended to protect the fort from land assault. Even though there were a fair number of visitors, we found many of the more remote portions of the fort were completely empty. While we were there, a mowing crew was tending to the grounds. This led me to sing the song “Mow, mow, mow your fort...”. After exploring the full fort, we headed to the small picnic area and had our lunch before heading over to the observation tower.
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| Hot Shot Furnace |
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| Large Cannon |
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| Another Large Cannon |
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| Bridge Beyond Cannon |
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| Cannon Inside Fort |
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| Mow, Mow, Mow Your Fort... |
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| Looking Up Two Step Alley |
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| Refurbished Gun Powder Room |
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| Hallway to "Long Hallway" |
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| "Long Hallway" is Long |
The bridge itself is quite impressive. The two towers are 442 feet tall and each supports the bridge deck below by a system of 20 cable stays. In total, there is over 2500 miles of 1/5 inch diameter wire holding the bridge up. They have an example of one of the 181 concrete segments sitting on the hill next to the bridge. Even though the segment is hollow, it weighs in at 300,000 pounds.
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| Sample Cross Section on Display |
We head into the base of the tower and hand the attendant our tickets. The elevator got us to the top in under a minute and from there we have a couple flights of steps to get up to the main viewing area. You definitely get a commanding view of all directions. They have signs to describe the various features of the surrounding area to help people get their bearings straight. When we first arrived, there were only 3 other people in the viewing area and they only stayed for a few minutes. We took probably stayed up there longer than most people do but we likely won’t be back so we wanted to take it all in. Once back. At ground level, I looked up the interior of the tower to see the emergency staircase that might get used if the elevator were to fail. Fortunately we never needed to try it out! We pulled out of the park three and a half hours after we first crossed the bridge! It turned out to be one of those unplanned but fun diversions for our day.
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| View of Suspension Cables |
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| Shadow of Bridge |
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| Inside of Observation Tower |
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| Fort Knox Seen from Tower |
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| Sign Showing Landmarks |
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| Looking Up Tower Interior |
We still had plenty of daylight to do what our original plan had been. We headed back over the bridge and went south to the small town of Castine. Our destination was Witherle Woods Preserve. This was another of those places we wouldn’t have found if not for the handful of geocaches hidden there. There is a small parking area and a sign signifying we were in the right place. The trails are in nice shape with signs along the way to reassure us we were on the right path. We mainly stayed on the outer trail that ends up giving a great view of Penobscot Bay along most of it. While finding geocaches along the way, we checked out a couple of the side paths to observation areas and were glad we did. It was nice to get in some real hiking after spending the morning and early afternoon touring the fort.
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| Entrance to Witherle Woods |
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| View from Overlook |
Just down the road from Witherle Woods is Dice Head Lighthouse. The 51 foot tower was built and first lit in 1828. By 1937 the light was replaced by a steel tower closer to the water. A storm in 2007 destroyed the steel tower and the old lighthouse was refurbished with a new light and recommissioned. Visitors are permitted to walk the grounds but the tower isn’t open to the public.
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| Dice Head Light |
Not everyday ends up being some “epic” adventure. We’re trying to avoid the major crowds during Labor Day weekend, we spent the three days just checking out a handful of lesser known spots. The Morgan Bay Zendo Contemplative Path would definitely be lesser known. Chris discovered it on Maine Trail Finder. It is a short walk to a Zen garden. There are lots of mosses and was quite peaceful since we were the only ones there. Just down the road from this were a few nature preserves: Carter, Furth and Talalay. All three can be accessed from one parking area. We only had time to explore one so we randomly picked Talalay Nature Sanctuary. At just over a mile loop, it meanders through an old growth forest with mosses galore. We spotted some interesting mushrooms along the way.
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| Quiet Please! |
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| Statue at Meditation Area |
We also timed our visit in this area to head to a bridge over the inlet to Salt Pond as high tide was occurring. The water rushes into the pond with pretty impressive velocity. Enough so that a few kids were there with their boogie boards, although we must have been a little late since we didn’t get to see any real surfing going on. It was still a pretty spot.
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| View Opposite Salt Pond |
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| Water Rushing into Salt Pond at High Tide |
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| Statue in Surry |
Back on MDI, but on the quieter, western side, we headed to the Maine Granite Historical Museum. The nondescript building houses quite an array of granite working tools, photos and samples. We arrived with one other person and the guy running the place came out to greet us and give us a bit of a tour. The owner was a wealth of information. He started with a geology lesson explaining how the granite that makes up much of the island was formed hundreds of millions of years ago. The island had been a huge source of granite since the early 1800’s. We were amazed at just how many of the monuments and buildings around the country have been constructed from granite quarried in the area.
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| Pictures Galore |
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| Assorted Stoneworking Tools |
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| Pneumatic Stone Surfacer |
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| Mr Spock, Are You There? |
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| Lots of Granite Samples |
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| Large Granite Block Being Shaped |
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| Lots of Excess Tools and Granite |
In Somesville is the Somes-Meynell Wildlife Sanctuary. There is a mile long loop trail that starts in the woods and eventually comes around to Somes Pond before heading back to the parking area. Another one of those quiet, peaceful walks that you can’t find at Acadia. Next we headed to the southern end of the island. Ship Harbor Trail is within Acadia and was somewhat crowded. Like many of these hikes, the parking lot adjacent to the trailhead isn’t big enough to accommodate everyone, but people find room on the sides of the road and we do the same. This was a nice trail that sort of forms a figure eight. Half the trail goes along the water and the other half is inland a bit going through the woods. There is access out onto the rocky coast and as long as your somewhat careful, it is easy walk around without incident. I can see why this walk is one of the favorites.
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| View at Somes Pond |
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| View Along Ship Harbor Trail |
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| Rocky Coastline |
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| Waves Crashing |
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| Waves and Tide Pools |
One Labor Day itself we head further west and go to Deer Isle. It’s about an hours drive but it turned out to be an incredibly interesting day. We are finding that Maine seems to have a large number of nature or wildlife preserves. I had picked out a few of them on Deer Isle based on either geocaches or trail descriptions. There is a neat bridge on the way there that crosses over into Little Deer Isle. I had stopped for a photo op but after driving across, we spot a small boat launch/picnic area on the south side. At low tide, the boat launch was of no use but it's still a pretty place to stop.
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| Bridge to Little Deer Isle |
The first real stop was at Shore Acres Preserve. The 1.5 mile trail heads through the woods and goes out along the water at Greenland Cove. Along the way, I spotted more unique looking mushrooms and nice views of the cove from the shore.
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| Shore Acres at Low Tide |
Next stop was Settlement Quarry Preserve. A former granite quarry that was quite busy in the early 1900’s. It produced the granite used in many bridges and buildings in NY City and Boston as well as the JFK Memorial in Arlington National Cemetery. Little did we know when we were in Arlington about two years ago, we would make it to the source for the granite. It’s possible to follow the old road about 1/4 mile from the parking lot to the top of the quarry or as we did take the Glacial Erratic trail through the woods at just over 1/2 mile. The quarry overlooks what sounds like a very active port. The morning fog was just burning off when we got there. It was fun to explore the various spots in the quarry. Some of the old equipment still sits there today slowly rusting away.
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| Fog Lifting at Settlement Quarry |
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| Rusty Old Equipment |
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| Quarry Has Plenty of Granite Left |
Crockett Cove Preserve, our next stop, turned out to be our favorite stop of the day and would even rate as a must see if you are in the area for any length of time. We parked at the southern entrance which didn’t have room for more than a couple cars. As we walked into the woods, we were presented with a nearly magical feeling. Other than the the trail, the rest of the forest floor was covered in green undulating mosses. The pictures aren’t able to convey the feeling we had while walking in such a wonderful place. All sorts of colorful mushrooms in all different sizes and shapes were around every turn. We definitely took our time doing the nearly 2 mile walk.
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| Undulating Moss at Crockett Cove |
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| More Moss |
It was late afternoon by the time we finished this walk so we started back home. At the very northern end of Deer Isle is Scott’s Landing Preserve. Part of a former homestead, this preserve has several trails with some in woods while others are in open meadows. There is even a beach area with a view of the bridge to Little Deer Isle. It was an okay stop but not nearly as good as Crockett Cove. In all, our visit to Deer Isle was a good way to avoid the holiday crowds.
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| Bar Harbor with Sandbar to Bar Island |
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| Bird Counters |
From here we head down to Jordan Pond. Parking here is extremely difficult and had tried coming here before Cadillac Mountain but gave up. This time there was a spot that opened up as we pulled in. We opted to do the perimeter walk around Jordan Pond. This is just about a 4 mile walk and a pretty easy one at that. The path on the eastern side is next to the water almost the whole way. There is an interesting pedestrian bridge over a creek at the northern end. Much of the western side is set back from the water ten or twenty feet and 1/2 mile or more is on a thick log boardwalk. A section of the boardwalk is being replaced but they had a path through the woods to get back to Jordan Pond House.
The next day was great from a weather standpoint so we put the bicycles on the rack and drove to the visitor center at Acadia. Just before we get there, we detour to look for a geocache at an oddball sculpture garden. There are some people camped out only feet from the hiding spot, so we walk the grounds to see the sculptures but don’t look for the cache.
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| Large Tricycle |
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| Colorful Sculpture |
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| Rusty Car |
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| View from Duck Brook Bridge |
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| Duck Brook Bridge |
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| View Along Carriage Road |
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| Our 15 Mile Carriage Road Bike Route |
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