Acadia National Park: Schoodic, Maine - October 7th and 8th, 2021
After spending four days in Acadia National Park taking in many of the sights and activities, we slowed the pace down a little. Our friends, Greg and Christy, lived nearby on Molasses Pond. This post covers the time they were our guides, showing us around the area near their house and the Schoodic Peninsula portion of Acadia National Park. Our previous post covers our time at Blackwoods Campground (Acadia National Park: Blackwoods, Maine - October 3rd to 6th, 2021) and a following post will cover our time in Seawall Campground.
Thursday morning, we drove from Blackwoods Campground over to our friends’ house. It was a beautiful warm and sunny day, so we helped them load up their kayaks on their car and we drove over to the pond just west of theirs, Scammon Pond. They had enough kayaks for all four of us. Yay!
Scammon Pond is in the Lyle Frost Wildlife Management Area. It is long and skinny. We spent the whole afternoon paddling along it. Part way down we stopped on a small island to have a picnic lunch. The colorful trees lining the banks beautifully reflected off the water.
Christy showed us where some pitcher plants were. They no longer had their flowers, but the bases of the plants were wearing their deep red fall color.
Returning back to their house, we shared a wonderful meal and wonderful stories. After dark, we gathered around the fire pit, sharing the warmth of the fire and more stories. The loons on the lake were joining in on the conversations.
On Friday, Christy and Greg became our personal tour guides of the Schoodic Peninsula, part of Acadia National Park that is on the mainland. We climbed around on the rocks along the shore at Schoodic Point. A couple of seals kept popping their heads out of the water not too far off the shore from us. What a special treat!
Then we hiked up to Schoodic Head. We followed the Alder Trail and then the Schoodic Trail on the way up and took the Anvil Trail on the way back down. When the Schoodic Trail crossed the Anvil Trail, we turned onto it. It took us a few minutes to realize we had missed the summit, so we backtracked. We continued a little ways past the summit to reach a nice overlook before heading back to the Anvil Trail.
The route we took was about 3 miles (including the doubling back) with an elevation gain of 532 feet which we completed in about an hour and a half. It was hike number 46 of our 52 Hike Challenge.
On the way back to our friends’ house, we stopped at a roadside lobster shack in Winter Harbor in front of the Fisherman’s Galley restaurant. This time Left Buddy (LB) had the cold lobster roll with mayonnaise. LB has decided he likes the warm lobster rolls with butter better, like he had back in Boothbay Harbor (link to previous post), but they both were delicious. Not being a fan of fish or seafood, Right Buddy (RB) had a sausage sandwich with peppers and onions while our friends both had the haddock sandwich. For dessert, we all had blueberry pie. It was all very tasty.
Back at Greg and Christy’s house, we took advantage of their nice warm shower before heading out. We wanted to get to the Seawall Campground before dark. First we stopped in Ellsworth for gas and groceries. While we were in Ellsworth, we stopped at Morton’s Moo of Maine for their homemade ice cream. Our friends recommended Morton’s Moo. Again, they did not steer us wrong.
We did not make it to the campground before dark. Along the way, a deer crossed the road in front of us. Then another deer just a couple of feet off the road startled us as we didn’t see it until the last minute. Luckily, we avoided hitting them. It didn’t take us long to get settled into our campsite, even in the dark, the advantages of a camper van.
Exploring national parks is exciting, but what can make it even more exciting is sharing the experience with friends. Our friends made our time on Schoodic Peninsula all that more special. Thank you, Christy and Greg, for all of your hospitality!
Check out our related video: Acadia National Park: Schoodic, Maine
(RB)