In Training in The National Parks - Part 1: Bar Harbor
After our gastronomic delights and gentle activities for the first few days in New England, we were now ready for some action - and started to feel the need to work off some of those clam chowders. In addition, we had our 4-day South American trek to train for, and had not really worked on this since Puerto Rico. We therefore decided to head off to explore some of New England's national parks and do some serious walking.
Our first stop was Acadia National Park on the Bar Harbor peninsula in Maine, a beautiful drive heading north along the coast. When we got close to the peninsula, we stopped at the Acadia visitor centre to ask for maps of the park and information about walking routes, but the place turned out to not be the visitor centre at all. Although it looked like a visitor centre (nice information desk, stuffed bear in the corner, photos on the wall and plenty of leaflets for hotels), all the lady at the desk could tell us about hiking in the park was to "be careful as it gets slippery when it rains". And she knew nothing about walking routes. In fact, she looked at us as though walking was a strange thing to want to be doing. The same thing happened at the next couple of 'visitor centres', so we were quite relieved to finally reach THE official visitor centre of the Acadia National Park, which had plenty of maps and walking routes. You could tell it was the official visitor centre as it had what we had started to call 'the video'. All American national parks seem to have it: a short film about the history of the park and its main features. A nice introduction when you arrive, although the booming voiceovers, dramatic music and waxing lyrical poetics (and don't forget that American flag) were sometimes a bit too much for us non-patriotic foreigners.
After watching the video and stocking up on maps, it was time to sort out our accommodation. Determined to find that elusive cheap American motel, we decided to stay just outside the National Park entrance, and found what we were looking for: cheap cabins on a lawn overlooking the sea, although they were not quite as American as we thought. The lady at reception was originally from Scotland (born in Skye and proud of it) and was delighted to welcome visitors from, in her words, "the motherland". At this point we decided that James should fill in the booking form so as to not disappoint her. The lady did not really like it in Maine (although she had been there for 27 years) and longed for Scotland. She therefore hires a bag pipe player each Saturday night to come and play on the beach. As it was a very misty Saturday when we arrived, there was a risk he would not be playing this particular night, but we did not hang around to find out. Instead we went into Bar Harbor village to find a bit to eat.
The next morning, we headed into the park. The Bar Harbour peninsula used to be the playground of the rich at the end of the 19th century when the likes of the Rockefeller family built huge, ostentacious villas along the coast. These rich and famous also clubbed together to buy up most of the Bar Harbor land when they got worried it would be over-developed, and subsequently donated it to the government, which was nice of them. Judging by the photos, these villas were an impressive sight, but as they all burnt down in the 'Great Fire' of 1947, there was nothing left for us to see of them. However, Rockefeller Jr was a fan of roadbuildign and also built a carriage road through the Bar Harbor peninsula so that he could share his favourite viewpoints with his friends and the nation. This road did survive and is still the only road through the national park today.
And I have to say, Rockefeller did have an eye for nice coastal views. We decided to start off with a 'medium' rated walk and then move on to a harder one if we had time left. Walk ratings in the US vary massively from park to park, and this 'medium' walk turned out to be much harder than the 'hard' walk we did in Puerto Rico (which admittedly was not that difficult). Should we be worried? The walk was great through. 
After a steep climb on a path, the way to the top proved to be a scramble and climb over huge boulders and steep rocks. But the views were fantastic. The way down involved more rock work, rivers, and slightly confusing sign-postings, but we eventually made it back to the car park we started at. As the heavens looked about to open and we did not quite feel up for a 'hard walk', we decided we'd done enough training for a day and headed into town for a late lunch.
The weather held though, so we rounded off the afternoon with a game of crazy golf. The 'golf course' was all pirate-themed and wound itself around and through a pirate's ship and related water features. It was really well done and a fun way to spend a couple of hours.
By now, the weather had actually become quite nice, so we went back to Bar Harbor harbour to watch the sunset. Bar Harbor was one of the larger towns we visited in New England and it felt quite lively, so we decided to go for a drink before going for dinner. One drink turned into two, but it was still only just before nine when we headed over to the Thai restaurant we had spotted earlier, looking forward to our first spicy food in a few weeks. Unfortunately, the town's liveliness had lulled us into a false sense of security. This was New England, where dinner is available in restaurants from four in the afternoon and restaurants start emptying by eight o'clock. Although Bar Harbor was a bit livelier than that, most restaurant kitchens had already closed, and the restaurants only had a few people left in them. The Thai, the Cajun and the French bistro all turned us away. So instead of Thai delicacies, it was the brightly-lit pizzeria or the burger place for us (as these do conveniently serve food non-stop). We opted for the pizza place, which was actually quite nice when we discovered the slightly more scenic lighting in the upstairs bit.
Part 1 of our training completed!
Our first stop was Acadia National Park on the Bar Harbor peninsula in Maine, a beautiful drive heading north along the coast. When we got close to the peninsula, we stopped at the Acadia visitor centre to ask for maps of the park and information about walking routes, but the place turned out to not be the visitor centre at all. Although it looked like a visitor centre (nice information desk, stuffed bear in the corner, photos on the wall and plenty of leaflets for hotels), all the lady at the desk could tell us about hiking in the park was to "be careful as it gets slippery when it rains". And she knew nothing about walking routes. In fact, she looked at us as though walking was a strange thing to want to be doing. The same thing happened at the next couple of 'visitor centres', so we were quite relieved to finally reach THE official visitor centre of the Acadia National Park, which had plenty of maps and walking routes. You could tell it was the official visitor centre as it had what we had started to call 'the video'. All American national parks seem to have it: a short film about the history of the park and its main features. A nice introduction when you arrive, although the booming voiceovers, dramatic music and waxing lyrical poetics (and don't forget that American flag) were sometimes a bit too much for us non-patriotic foreigners.
After watching the video and stocking up on maps, it was time to sort out our accommodation. Determined to find that elusive cheap American motel, we decided to stay just outside the National Park entrance, and found what we were looking for: cheap cabins on a lawn overlooking the sea, although they were not quite as American as we thought. The lady at reception was originally from Scotland (born in Skye and proud of it) and was delighted to welcome visitors from, in her words, "the motherland". At this point we decided that James should fill in the booking form so as to not disappoint her. The lady did not really like it in Maine (although she had been there for 27 years) and longed for Scotland. She therefore hires a bag pipe player each Saturday night to come and play on the beach. As it was a very misty Saturday when we arrived, there was a risk he would not be playing this particular night, but we did not hang around to find out. Instead we went into Bar Harbor village to find a bit to eat.
The next morning, we headed into the park. The Bar Harbour peninsula used to be the playground of the rich at the end of the 19th century when the likes of the Rockefeller family built huge, ostentacious villas along the coast. These rich and famous also clubbed together to buy up most of the Bar Harbor land when they got worried it would be over-developed, and subsequently donated it to the government, which was nice of them. Judging by the photos, these villas were an impressive sight, but as they all burnt down in the 'Great Fire' of 1947, there was nothing left for us to see of them. However, Rockefeller Jr was a fan of roadbuildign and also built a carriage road through the Bar Harbor peninsula so that he could share his favourite viewpoints with his friends and the nation. This road did survive and is still the only road through the national park today.
And I have to say, Rockefeller did have an eye for nice coastal views. We decided to start off with a 'medium' rated walk and then move on to a harder one if we had time left. Walk ratings in the US vary massively from park to park, and this 'medium' walk turned out to be much harder than the 'hard' walk we did in Puerto Rico (which admittedly was not that difficult). Should we be worried? The walk was great through. After a steep climb on a path, the way to the top proved to be a scramble and climb over huge boulders and steep rocks. But the views were fantastic. The way down involved more rock work, rivers, and slightly confusing sign-postings, but we eventually made it back to the car park we started at. As the heavens looked about to open and we did not quite feel up for a 'hard walk', we decided we'd done enough training for a day and headed into town for a late lunch.The weather held though, so we rounded off the afternoon with a game of crazy golf. The 'golf course' was all pirate-themed and wound itself around and through a pirate's ship and related water features. It was really well done and a fun way to spend a couple of hours.
By now, the weather had actually become quite nice, so we went back to Bar Harbor harbour to watch the sunset. Bar Harbor was one of the larger towns we visited in New England and it felt quite lively, so we decided to go for a drink before going for dinner. One drink turned into two, but it was still only just before nine when we headed over to the Thai restaurant we had spotted earlier, looking forward to our first spicy food in a few weeks. Unfortunately, the town's liveliness had lulled us into a false sense of security. This was New England, where dinner is available in restaurants from four in the afternoon and restaurants start emptying by eight o'clock. Although Bar Harbor was a bit livelier than that, most restaurant kitchens had already closed, and the restaurants only had a few people left in them. The Thai, the Cajun and the French bistro all turned us away. So instead of Thai delicacies, it was the brightly-lit pizzeria or the burger place for us (as these do conveniently serve food non-stop). We opted for the pizza place, which was actually quite nice when we discovered the slightly more scenic lighting in the upstairs bit.
Part 1 of our training completed!
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