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| Cadillac Mountain, the View from Dorr Mountain Summit |
They say that the Dorr Mountain Ladder Trail is one of the best workouts in Acadia. It has a few of the iron rungs characteristic of the other ladder trails, but the real challenge is the unrelenting set of stone steps that runs straight up the eastern side of Dorr Mountain from the pond/wetland known locally as the Tarn.
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| The Tarn at dawn |
I arrived at the Tarn parking area at daybreak and started out along its western shore (a trail known as the Kane Path) with a headlamp. Once past the Tarn, I turned west onto the Ladder Trail and, as expected, had to negotiate hundreds of steep steps up the cliff side. A total of 650 feet of elevation is gained rapidly and I soon found myself taking a much needed break on a rock outcropping looking down on the highway far below. From there, the Schiff Path leads to the treeless summit of Dorr Mountain.
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| Boulder break after the granite steps |
After another break on Dorr's summit, it was steeply down into a col and steeply up to Cadillac Mountain - the highest point in Acadia National Park. Whereas most of my summit experiences on Acadia offered total seclusion (no one seems to wake up for early AM start times), my arrival at Cadillac brought me into the mass of tourists who drive up there (yep, there's an auto road like on Mt. Washington) to experience the stunning sunrises. Upon arrival, I did a quick loop on the paved path to the true summit. Once I spotted the cruise ships in Bar Harbor, I figured it was time to get back into the woods.
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| Loop trail on Cadillac Summit, View to Bar Harbor |
Since the gorges (
gole) of Abruzzo rank among our most favorite places to Hike in Italy, I wanted to descend via Acadia's aptly-named Gorge Path. True to its name, the Gorge Path makes its way through a dark, shadowy gorge hollowed out by the steam that follows the trail pretty much the whole way. After that, I turned east onto the Hemlock Trail, which eventually becomes an old forest road and connects with the Jessup Path leading back to the Tarn.
Peaks: Dorr Mountain and Cadillac Mountain
Elevation: 1,265 feet and 1,529 feet
Distance: 5 miles roundtrip
Route: Loop, Kane Path to Dorr Mountain Ladder Trail to Cadillac-Dorr Connector to Gorge Path to Hemlock Trail to Jessup Path
Conditions: Partly cloudy, 50 degrees F
