Acadia: Bubbles, Cliffs and Girl Scouts

The view on Jordan Cliffs

This morning I was sitting on the porch of the cabin (one room with a bathroom) and I was thinking how awesome it was to have access to this awesome park that has had so much work go into making it what it is and maintaining it.  Most of the time I sit around complaining that I get nothing for the taxes I pay.  Well this is a case where all I need to do is take advantage of some of the things this great country has to offer.  Today marks 8 days without even seeing a TV.  Sometimes it’s really nice to get away from the TV and the election ads and just enjoy this great country.  And that what I was doing this morning as I watched the rain fall and smelled my coffee brewing.  Don’t let anyone tell you different.  Things are rough in some ways but there are still lot of great things about this country.  

The four of us at the top of the Bubble Trail

Enough about that.  Remember when I said that I thought one of the things you needed to do was to make a positive impression on folks when you travel?  Well we had that opportunity yesterday.  We started out on the Jordan Cliffs trail which is another that we have never done due to the falcon nesting.  That was a great trail that has a ton of exposed cliffs and ladders/rungs.  The last part of that trail was actually a little more exciting (scary) than the Precipice.  As I walk the precarious edge of the cliff, holding the iron guardrail I thought how great it was that in this overly litigious country we were still able to take chances and have some personal responsibility.  It was great, and it led us to the trail up to Bubble Rock.  

As we headed up the trail to the top we ran into a couple girl scouts and their leader who was suffering from a terrible cold and was struggling to make it up the trail.  There were two very nervous girls who were hiking up a mounting with a pencil and a notebook without a leader.  So we escorted them to the top, which came to a very narrow notch with a climb in the middle.  A notch is a narrow squeeze that for folks my size is quite a challenge.  Add into that a climb up during the notch and you have a difficult section.  We went on up and as we turned around there was a single leader with the remaining 5 girls.  They were scared.  Time to make an impression! 

So we took up stations along the notch and the cliff ledge and started helping and encouraging.  It was so fun!  The girls were so excited to make it and so appreciative.  When we finally got to the top after all of them were there, they told us “Hey, we beat you guys!”  It was a really fun thing.  The leaders were appreciative too.  We made an impression.  We were tourists but the impression was positive!

By the way Bubble Rock is pretty cool.  I’m not sure how the rock stays on the ledge, but it is not because of anything I was doing to hold it there despite what you might see in the picture!  

Bubble Rock getting some help from me!

We headed back to the cabin, built a great fire and ate some hot dogs and beans (Blazing Saddles anyone?).  It was a fun night, but the most interesting thing of the night was yet to come!

About 1:30 AM I heard the rain.  We had our firewood exposed, so I thought I would get up and move the wood under cover so it wouldn’t get too wet.  So I did… Fine.  Right?  Well, not really.  As I laid there I remembered I hadn’t taken the trash to the trash can.  There was a bag of trash out there that had an empty chili can, a couple uneaten hotdogs and a few uneaten beans.  I had a bad feeling I should get up and take it.  But is was cold and it was raining.  20 minutes later I heard a noise.  And another noise.  I decided I needed to chase off whatever was in the trash and then bring the trash in.  So I turned the porch light on and headed out to chase this thing off.  As I stepped out and got to the edge of the picnic table, the perpetrator was there.  And it was a SKUNK!! I was 10 feet from a skunk.  I was petrified.  I headed back in the cabin thinking all the time I was going to get sprayed!  I couldn’t get back to sleep for the adrenaline.  I was way more scared of the skunk than the porcupine earlier in the week.

It was a great day.  The weather was awesome.  And we managed to do a good thing.  

Here’s my challenge for today.  Find a National Park.  If you can’t find one of those near you, find a State Park.  Just go visit it.  See what there is to offer.  You might be surprised!  And do’t let the news make it seem you want to move to another country.  This is an awesome country full of awesome things you can’t find anywhere else in the world!  So far we have camped and hiked in 2 different state parks (Vermont and New Hampshire) and a National Park (Acadia) and they never disappoint! We met a couple from Germany here to enjoy the same parks you have access to everyday!  

This is a notch!

Acadia: The Precipice

Every year that we have come to Acadia, the most popular trail has been closed.  The Precipice Trail at Acadia is the most popular trail for good reason.  The views are spectacular and the challenge is great.  But alas the peregrine falcons have prevented us from climbing this trail for the past 2 years.  But not this year!  Due to the time of year we had to come this year, the falcons were gone.  And that meant the trail was open!

The view from the bottom.  Yes, you are headed to the top with the Precipice Trail!

This is a trail with several areas of iron rungs (some completely vertical), some exposed cliff walks, rock climbing and even some "tunnels" where you have to squeeze through some tight spaces!  It was ranked one of the top 10 scenic hikes in America!

It starts off with more rock climbing and tunnels.  It is pretty strenuous and not for the faint of heart.  But if you think the first little bit is bad, you best turn around.  In fact we saw a couple that did exactly that.  Climbed for about 10 minutes and then said... No Way!  Not us though!  We were in this for the long haul!

The first set of rungs!

It quickly escalates into ladders and some cliff walks.  I don't really know how to describe it to be honest.  I felt like I was a kid again, climbing on the cliffs and paying no attention to the dangers around!  I have no idea how real the danger really was, but there were points when I felt like I was in a little over my head.  Pictures don't really do it justice, but I'm going to post a few anyway...

But the entire way up you are working along this cliff face that looks out over the harbor.  The views are spectacular the entire way up, if you can take your eyes off the trail and not succumb to fear or nervousness.

A small "tunnel" that you have to squeeze through!

There really is no way to even describe this trail.  Especially the second half which is so full of cliffs and rungs that is seems you never really get to just "hike"!  And to think I never really expected to ever get to do this trail!  Like the picture, there are several of these sets of ladders and rungs that you have to climb to get to the top.  And going down is simply not an option (for me at least).  The ranger advised us not to go down, but we did see one guy that was going to try it.

After we finally finished and made it all the way to the top (1052 ft) we headed down a much simpler trail to Sand Beach.  this trail was long (2.6 miles) but not really technical or difficult.  But it was enjoyable.  Sometimes a member of the party would head off the trail and hide for a few minutes just to "get away from the other people".  It was a really great experience!  I don't know if there is any trial at Acadia that can live up to the experience that the Precipice gives but we are going to try and find out.  There is another trail called Jordan Cliffs that is typically closed as well.  We are off to that trail soon!

Rhonda on one of the many exposed cliff walks!

One of the many sets of rungs on the Precipice!

These are the views the whole way up the Precipice!

Finally in Maine

So I had hoped to do a blog every day on the way up. But it simply isn'y possible for me to accomplish that and get to see and do everything.  Oh, and once we crossed into Vermont, there was little or no cell coverage much less internet.  So, this will serve as the trip report after we left Pennsylvania.  

Camp all set up in Vermont!

We started what I consider the worst day of the trip up on Monday.  A long day from Hershey to a campsite just south of Burlington, Vermont.  Normally highlighted by the best ribs in NY, but as you know they closed for the season.  So we re-routed through Cooperstown to catch a dive called Jerry's Place and visit a distillery there since none of us had ever visited a (legal) distillery.  I must say the drive up through NY is not that amazing.  The trees are were changing the way we had hoped and the drive is just a lot of the same look.  Nothing much to see, and we are mostly stuck on the interstate due to the length of this day.  

Louis and Leanne ordering at Jerry's Place

So we finally got to Jerry’s Place, hungry.  Very hungry.  And we would come to find this was a good thing.  Unfortunately the food at Jerry’s Place didn’t live up to the hype from Yelp.  Some poor fellow who obviously had never had a hamburger prior to the one he reviewed at Jerry’s Place actually said it was the “best burger he had ever eaten”.  Seriously.  This guy needs to get out more.  The buns were great.  The toppings were great.  The fries were great.  The burger wasn’t good.  Or beef.  It was bad.  But the place was decorated great, the milkshake was pretty good and the people were nice.  So not a total loss.  

The Cooperstown Distillery didn’t disappoint.  The plan was decorated nice, the fellow selling the wares was really nice.  We tried a few samples and made a couple purchases.  It was a fun stop with a look at one of the most impressive copper stills you have ever seen.  It was fun! 

The big still at Cooperstown Distillery

We headed up the road past Lake George to Ticonderoga NY.  Here we took a cable drawn ferry across into Vermont.
It was a beautiful crossing that actually put us in Vermont halfway across the lake.  It’s these kind of things that you really can’t catch if you stay on the interstates.  The people were really nice and in the 7 minutes it takes to cross I found out who 2 people (including a ferry worker) were voting for and why.  It was clear…  But it was really fun.

We arrived in the campground on the lake there in Brandon and it was fabulous.  The site looked like it could hold a group of cub scouts it was so big.  And we threw the tents out and headed into town for some pizza at the local pizza joint!  The lady working there was fabulous (as was the pizza) and even agreed to let me an Louis catch a picture with her!

The next day was spent in Burlington which is a VERY picturesque town right on the banks of Lake Champlain.  We grabbed some coffee from a quaint coffee shop on Church Street (the street to visit in Burlington) and the we walked the waterfront only to find the elusive Maple Creemee! 

Rhonda and her maple creemee!

It seems Vermont folks believe the Creemee is something different than soft serve ice creme.  And they almost had Rhonda convinced.  But let me say, different or not, the Creemee with a hint of maple flavoring is unreal good.  We finished up the visit with a trip to the local Taqueria where we had a great lunch. 

We headed back for a short 3 mile hike to the top of some mountain with a trail in the state park we were staying.  There were gorgeous falls and unreal views and even a very closeup view of a porcupine!!!  honestly, he let us take a ton of pics before he strolled up the mountain.  It was a great hike, even though it was a little tough, climbing 1220 feet in a mile.  We all though maybe we weren’t ready for Maine!  

Sunset from the top of the mountain in Vermont.

There was something the next morning at this campground.  I woke up and while I was sitting in the campground, I heard an elk bagel in the distance.  I had to look it up to make sure that’s what it was, but it was.  It was a very cool moment.  

The next day is a great day.  It is short, and full of fun stops riding through Vermont.  We started by heading to a place we had seen on a great PBS show about pie (A Good Piece of Pie).  Poor House Pies is a place that sells pies out of shed in their yard. Honestly.  And so we trekked up there to find a Vermont Maple Creme Pie.  We tore into that while we sat there and I have to say I don’t think I ever enjoyed a piece of pie more!  We also grabbed an apple for the road.  We met one of the sites (a rock star to us of course) and talked to her for a while.  It was awesome.  We moved on from there to head across to Stowe.  But we didn’t take the interstate.  We headed across the mountain through Smuggler’s Notch.  And I didn’t know what a notch was until this.  And it did not disappoint! Look it up.  It’s pretty cool.  We grabbed some maple syrup from the place we have always gotten it and headed across Vermont to Cabot to see how cheese is made!  And again, that did not disappoint!  We got to see a working factory and saw all forms of cheese in the making.  We learned a lot about the dairy farmers and their relationship with Cabot, and how without the cheese factory many of them wouldn’t exist.  It was a great visit!

The pies at Two Fat Cats!

We grabbed our normal campsite in New Hampshire just in time to grab a bite and get back to go to bed.  It was a cold night in the tents (about 41F) and we all woke up glad the campground didn’t have any shower facilities.  None of us wanted to walk to the bath house for a shower in that!  We drove down for a quick walk through Portland Maine and a visit to another pie shop we saw on the same show, Two Fat Cats.  We grabbed some awesome pumpkin whoopee pies and walked the waterfront.  We left there, headed for a tour at Allagash Brewing and on to the cabin in Maine.   

Breakfast in a little town in Vermont!

It was a great few days.  Full of adventure, food, boredom, and great fun!  But now the best part of the vacation starts: Hiking Acadia in Maine!

The lake at the campground in Branbury, Vermont.

Phase 1 - Pennsylvania Amish Country

Sorry this post is delayed.  I wrote it sitting around the campfire in Hershey but the service when you are tent camping is spotty at best.  A good thing if you are wanting to unplug.  A bad thing if you are trying to keep people posted.  I will try to do better!  Right now I am sitting in a wonderful coffee shop in Burlington VT!!

*******

Well, the first two days are in the books and I have to say it has been a much nicer start to the trip than we had last year.  No rain, cool weather and a lot of sunshine has been the norm.  And camping in that weather is much nicer than monsoon camping.  

We got a quick start on Saturday, and decided to try and find somewhere to grab some breakfast along the way.  Rhonda and I had tried when we were on this trip a couple years ago and hadn’t had a lot of luck.  But this year we decided to try to find a nice diner in a little town somewhere along the way.  And gas and our stomachs pointed to Emporia, Virginia.  And it was a good stop!

Rhonda and Leanne in Logans - All Smiles!

Emporia was having their annual peanut festival.  So as we pulled onto Main Street in search of Logan's Diner we found rides, booths and streets lined with folks eating on the parade!  So we decided to park a block off the street and grab some breakfast.  The place was exactly what I like to find.  A local place where everyone seemed to know everyone (except us).  We sat at a table close to the door and it was a constant “Good Morning” and “See ya’ later” the entire time we sat there.  Most of the time it was followed with a name since they seemed to know everyone.  So we ordered, grabbed some coffee and watched out the window as a stream of old tractors paraded by headed up the street to the parade starting location.  So the food was ok.  I wouldn’t see it winning any awards, but it was good.  But the people were friendly.  And when a elderly man and his son sat down next to us (he ordered herring) we decided this was our first chance to make an impression.  So when we finished we asked the waitress for his check and paid for their breakfast as well.  Nothing was said.  We just told them to have a good day.  So I don’t know what his reaction was.  But we all felt better for doing it!

Chris and Louis enjoying the weather and food!

We headed on up the road taking the back rods instead of the main drag and were amazed at the amount of country there is so close (an hour outside) to Washington DC.  We stopped for a quick bite at a brewery just south of the PA line called Flying Dog.  The weather was awesome and we all enjoyed some nachos made out of tater tots (only the best will do) in the magnificent weather!  70 and sunny is almost perfect.  We made it to Hershey, sat up the tents in the dry and in the midst of a ton of other campers.  It had never been that crowded when we were here.  It was a nearly perfect day to start the trip.  

Day 2 would not be so perfect.  But it would also not be all bad.  We had planned to head to Philadelphia on Sunday to get a “real cheesesteak” and to see some cool stuff like the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall.  But alas the tour guide had made a major mistake.  Instead of checking the train schedule for the weekend, I just looked at the schedule for the week.  And there were no SEPTA trains running, which means we needed Amtrak into the city.  And… It was sold out.  No way to get into Philly.  Well, actually just no way to get home.  It was a disappointment, but it ended up working out.  Downingtown (where we were going to catch the train was having their Fall Festival and so we just spent the morning walking around the booths, sampling hot sauce, apples and some “fair food”.  Then we drove back through the middle of Amish country and saw some of the most beautiful country I have ever seen. 

One of the many Amish buggies we saw while visiting!

We stopped and wandered around a little town called Intercourse, PA.  Yep… And then we drove back, past numerous buggies and yards full of Amish children playing.  It was a great drive, and a great way to spend the afternoon.  

Rhonda's Plate - Hotdogs of course!

Tonight we just decided to cook here and sit around the fire.  In the meantime I started to plan the drive up to Vermont and time the stop at my favorite dive on the trip… The Big Dipper BBQ in NY.  And there came the largest disappointment of the trip.  The Big Dipper is a seasonal dive.  And it seems that Sunday was the last day.  And we were headed there on Monday.  It really is a huge loss.  I love that place.  But hopefully we will find some other cool place we like just as much!

From here, the next stop is Vermont.  Just south of Burlington.  With a trip through the White Mountains and a ferry ride in Ticonderoga.  Let’s see how this leg goes!!

A Fresh Start

The Big Dipper BBQ - Home of the best ribs I ever tasted.

What and Why?

So I wanted a way to share some of these awesome trips with others.  I had a blog that I had used to chronicle motorcycle trips, but it didn't seem perfect for the camping, hiking, eating, driving and general "dive worship" that we do on a regular basis.  So I decided to try my hand at a new travel blog.

So this is going to be focused on our trips.  And if you are looking for fancy trips loaded with expensive dining, lush accommodations and extravagant side journeys you can probably just go back to Google and search for that.  Because you won't find that here.  Not that I think those things are bad, but we simply can't afford it and we like the "fun of the hunt" in finding new ways to have a blast on the cheap and discover hidden gems in the greatest country on earth!

Now I fashion the trips after Clark Griswold.  Looking to take it all in.  Setting expectations that are too high.  Overcoming rain, sleet, heat, or cold with a smile sometimes or a fit other times (where's the Tylenol).  But in the end, it works out.  And here is the "mantra" that helps make the trip special.

The Trip Should Be Special

Most people travel for the destination.  But traveling on the motorcycle (and the pain of sitting on it for more than 2 hours) has made me change my view of the trip itself.  Gone are the 700 mile "we are only stopping for gas" days of my youth (and sleeping kids).  Now we try (and fail at times) to limit our travel days to 450 miles and take all day to do it.  We search out excursions along the way.  We read road signs and just turn if we see something interesting. We never know exactly where the day will take us.  

It is reminiscent of the trips with my family when I was little through the mountains of North Carolina and Tennessee.  When the 2 lane, winding roads would take us past some tourist trap with a sign that said "Baby Rattlers".  We would stop, petrified to look over into the pit that was teaming with little toys that babies shake to make a rattling sound.  We would go in and get some candy and maybe a coonskin cap or a book of Redneck Jokes that our parents would grow to hate over the next week.

Those were the trips of my youth, and they are now the trips of my future.

Big Balls of String Are Cool, Interstates Not So Much

Ok, so we haven't seen the worlds largest ball of string.  But we have taken a sharp right turn (too quickly) in Vermont because we saw a sign for a covered bridge.  And there we found the most quaint  general store where the "Express Checkout" was a guy who didn't talk to you (10 words or less it said) and the "Regular Checkout" guy wouldn't stop talking.  We stopped beside the road to get maple syrup and learned more about how its made from him in 15 minutes than you could get from a PBS documentary.  And I swear he was still talking to us when we went back the next year.  

We don't travel from exit to exit.  We try to stay off the beaten path as much as possible.  We pull over when we see something cool (like the stream that is the backdrop of this blog).  We even use a paper map!  Its all about seeing as much as possible along the way and not being concerned that we "ain't gonna get there on time". 

Get Outside and Expand Your Horizons

This also grows out of the motorcycle trips.  Especially the one to South Dakota.  We weren't sure we could do it or even if we wanted to do it.  But we just left, prayed and tried to have a good time.  When our 25th Anniversary came along, we couldn't afford a cruise or a trip to Europe.  We had 2 kids in college and a piggybank that was pretty light.  So we put a 2 man tent in the Jetta and we started a 2 week adventure to Maine.  Never camped before.  Never been to Maine before.  We had no idea what it was even going to be like.  And now its an annual trip.  

You can do more than you give yourself credit for.  You will survive overestimating yourself (most of the time).  So don't rely on everyone else to tell you what you should do!  Plan a trip, take a chance and see where the journey leads.

Make Memories, not Time

The goal should be to remember the trip, not to make it in record time.  The entire trip should be about making memories for you but not just for you.  You should also make memories for the people you meet.  Be nice, joke, tell people where you are from, tell them how much you love their town, ask them about their town!  People are going to remember you.  Just make sure they remember you for the right reasons!  One time we bought a dessert for the elderly group at the table next to us because they said they weren't going to try it and it was so good I felt like they needed to! 

But the best way to make memories is to change your perspective.  From the time you get in the truck, change your mindset.  If you're doing this right, there are going to be things that don't go as planned.  And those things are going to make the biggest impression on you.  View them not as failures or problems but memories.  Like last year.  We took along my sister and her husband for what we promised would be the "trip of a lifetime".  Camping, eating, drinking and hiking.  But we provided one unexpected thing the first night in Pennsylvania.  Drowning.  Well, almost.  The first night when the tents were just setup the most wicked monsoon set in.  The tent they had (which we had loaned them) flooded.  Not leaked.  Flooded.  And in the midst of the monsoon we drove through hail to a Gander Mountain to get a new tent.  When we woke up the next morning the campground was empty.  We were the only ones that had stayed the night.  We were wet for 2 days.  And since that time what do you think is the thing we have laughed and talked about the most?  It was those 2 days.  We made a memory.  A lasting memory.  If we had bolted to a hotel and watched a rerun of CSI, we would not have had that memory.

The Food Should Be Fun, Not Fast

Nope, I don't want to get dressed up.  Nope I don't want a cloth napkin (unless a towel counts).  Nope I don't want a franchise.  I want a dive.  Thus the name of the blog.  I want a place where the locals eat.  I want the people to look at me when I walk in and think "He's not from around here!" and wonder what brought us to their little slice of heaven and wonder if we've exposed them to anyone else.  

We plan the trip around each days places to eat.  We drive 30 minutes each way out of the way for the best ribs in New York (Big Dipper BBQ).  We go back to the same places sometimes.  We try new ones other times.  We strike out sometimes.  This year we are going out of our way to get a slice of pie from a shed outside a house in Vermont (Poor House Pies).  Because we saw it on TV.  

And if I can get a chance to watch a Sunday School class of Seniors (and not the high school kind) shoot their big bras over a light fixture at the same time I'm getting this good food, then all the better!!  (Honestly, that happened)  Its about the experience and some good home cooking.  And everyday brings a new dive.  

So come along.  Join us as we travel "One Dive at a Time".