Aug 31, 2010

I stayed in most of the morning until my grandmother invited me over to have some food. She had corn and potatoes with chicken so I had corn and potatoes. It was really good actually. I stayed there for a while trying to find an unsecured wireless network to no avail.

I went up to Westby to help Alex with her project and found strange statues all over campus. I don't think I like them. Also, Alex wasn't able to get started on her gallery setup yet so we just hung out in the computer lab talking while she edited some videos.

Once it was time for Iron Man 2 to start at the intramural field I went over there. Joanna joined me for some of the movie but I wanted to get food so we went to Wawa, which was closed (!?) so I went across the street to a new pizza place and got their last, old slice of pizza. It wasn't bad. I met up with the other Alex after that and hung out at her place for a short time before walking over to Westby to get my car.

We drove around for a little while listening to music before I dropped her off and went back to the computer lab where Alex was still editing videos. I hung out for a bit until she was ready to leave and then I went home as well.

Aug 30, 2010

After sleeping in since I went to bed so late in the morning and not doing much for the few hours I was up, I met Ryan and Erika at the gym. We did a series of exercises with the kettle bells that started off easy and got a little harder each time we repeated them. We did a short obstacle course after that and ended it.

Chuck suggested Asian food and that sounded good to me so we went to Kawa (after we found out the Viet place is closed on Mondays.) I got spicy tofu curry which was delicious.

We decided to head up to Landmark after that. We watched some sports on tv and went down the list of bottled beer to find the funny and tasty ones.

Shannon showed up later with some friends. This was around the time I felt like dancing so I did. One of these events made Chuck start drinking more.

We stayed until they kicked us out again. It was a fun night.

Aug 29, 2010

We got up and packed up the tent and all of our gear to pack in the car, checked to make sure the bumper wouldn't fall off, had some food and then headed out.

This reflective pond was one of my favorite things we drove by often while we were there so I stopped to take some shots before we left.

We were on back roads for quite a bit longer on the way back but we eventually got to 295 and then 95 South.

The ride started seeming really long around the middle. I think I forgot we had to go through Massachusetts. Through Connecticut it seemed like it was dragging on and I was getting tired. We stopped for some Taco Bell and found a detour around the George Washington Bridge which I think saved us a lot of time and then it was smooth sailing back to Jersey from there.

I met Katie at Corson Park and hung out by the tennis courts talking for a few hours. The weather was perfect and there were some guys playing tennis well after midnight who were quite entertaining as well. They kept running off the courts when cars came by because they thought it was the cops coming to kick them out.

Somehow after being tired in the car I managed to stay up until almost dawn after being out talking and then watching TV when I got home.

Aug 28, 2010

We began day three with the intention of only doing a couple strenuous hikes and an easy or moderate one. Then we went to Dorr Mountain.

Does it look like the steps are neverending? That's how they seemed. Every time it seemed like we got to the top of something there was another set of steps in front of us. It was extremely exhausting. Maybe it's because it was the third day in a row of us doing strenuous hikes, but it was a lot of steps.

The hike description mentioned ladders and metal rungs which only appeared very briefly in one spot. I think they need to revise their description. It was just more stairs and steep mountain after this.

I was feeling it when I got to the top.

Ryan was still doing okay but I could tell he felt it too...

The view was quite nice from up there too. I took some time to rest/enjoy it.

As we headed down the other side it seemed like we stayed on the top of the mountain for a while without descending. Eventually we started heading down into the forest. We made a turn and the path began heading up again. This went on for a while, but we seemed to be on the right path so we just kept following.

The path only got more steep, with stairs and steeper flat rock faces than we had encountered anywhere else. We just kept pushing on until we reached a sign where we realized we had gone the wrong way at the turn. We had to hike all the way back down the couple of miles of crazy steep trail we had just come up. The way down made us realize how much we really climbed up and how steep it was. It felt good to finally get to the bottom and see the car so I could sit down and have a good drink of water.

We decided to call it a day for hiking after that experience so we went to the Seawall picnic area for lunch. Everywhere you go there are awesome views. This was nice to look at while eating.

We pulled out Scrabble and finished our game from last night while a seagull stared us down, waiting for us to drop food. Unfortunately a fed seagull is a dead seagull.

In the interest of taking it easy we went down to the lighthouse so I could check it out. We went out on the rock and Ryan read while I shot some nice pictures of the water crashing onto the rocks.

We went back to the camp where I got some reading done as Ryan took a nap. We got ready to leave for dinner and as I was pulling out of the parking spot my bumper got hooked on a small tree stump which pulled it right off the front of the car. We spent some time figuring out how it was attached and put it back on as best we could.

We went to a cool little cafe near our campsite that is open during the summer season and uses the profits to fund a soup kitchen for the needy during the winter. This was our view from the window seat. There is no bad view here.

We got a tasty pizza and I had a root brew. It's always nice having hot food after you've been eating mostly trail mix and sandwiches.

We made a fire when we got back that didn't want to stay lit. I had to get down and give it some air, which brought it roaring back to life and it burned hot all night after that. Just needed some lovin'.

Our last night was a good one. There was no shortage of exhaustion on our only hike and the rest of the day was relaxing and enjoyable. I love Maine.

Aug 27, 2010

We got up ready for a full day and cooked oatmeal on the propane stove. I chopped up a banana to make it taste a little better. It was a hearty breakfast that got me ready for hiking.. right after the half hour drive to the other side of the park.

We pulled up to the precipice, parking along the road because all of the parking spots were already taken up. This is the hike we had been looking forward to since we read about it.

The very first thing you see on the trail are signs saying that it's not a hiking trail and people have been seriously injured and killed on the trail. That's just for people that don't know what they're doing.

This is a view of what we would be climbing up. It looks pretty intimidating.

It began with mostly small rock climbs and then we came to this large boulder field. It's not as difficult as it looks. It's actually a lot of fun navigating the boulders and finding a path over them.

The metal rungs and guide bars began shortly after. Some of them were necessary to get up certain rock faces but we avoided others because they were just for extra help and we wanted to do it on our own. This part of the edge had a little bridge over it. It was steep so the help was appreciated in this case.

We came to some parts where the ladders started to take us straight up. There was a hold up at this point because some people decided to bring their young children on this hike. There were definitely parts where I felt a little iffy so I don't think I'd bring my children. Something about Maine causes people to be neglectful parents.

Once the jam let up we climbed up the rungs, ladders and steep rocks higher and higher.

There was one spot that was really narrow on the edge. There were guide bars but it was still a long drop off the side.

Not long after, while still being continually held up by the family in front of us, we made it to the top. The view was amazing.

We took a break and took in the beautiful scenery while we had some trail mix and water. The climb was a lot of fun and the view was a great payoff.

We took a different way down which was generally easier but there were some narrow rock steps which are always harder going down.

We headed right down the road to another strenuous hike called The Beehive.

This hike was similar to The Precipice but it didn't have as many ladders or obstacles. The climb seemed steeper at times but the overall hike was not as far.

The view from the top was nice as well but it was nothing compared to the last one we saw. We didn't spend too much time up there before we headed down.

We had some lunch in the car before we headed back to the other side of the park and found our next challenge: Acadia Mountain. This hike was more wooded than rocky though it was still quite steep at points.

It was a nice hike to the top and the view was amazing from there.

This was definitely my favorite view of the trip for some reason. You couldn't see the farthest but just the things you could see looking down to the bay where the sailboats were ambling across the water and seeing out to the endless ocean created a great scene.

On the way down we made some slight detours to add elements to our hike. Besides jumping from rock to rock like we were the day before, we added a log walk to the fun.

We also decided to take a trail up to the summit of another mountain when the trail branched off. I think we regretted it a little bit once we started climbing up but there was no turning back. The view from this one was not much more than trees but it felt good to be there so we could start heading down again.

We stopped at the general store for showers on our way back to camp since the park doesn't have any showers. It felt good to be clean. We headed back to camp and fired up the burner so we could make soup. My creamy mushroom soup with Ritz crackers was amazing after a long day of hiking. I was so hungry.

We got out the travel Scrabble and played until it was too dark. Luckily, we could just fold it up and start again where we left off later!

We stacked some kindling and got a nice big fire going once it started getting dark. It was nice to have a fire and no rain this time.

We sat next to the fire reading and just enjoying time to relax after the long day.

I wasn't tired but I was so exhausted I fell asleep soon after I got in my sleeping bag.