Penobscot Mountain, October 12, 2015, Acadia National Park

Sunrise at Mount Penobscot

Although its peaks are hopelessly low in terms of total elevation, Acadia National Park offers some of the most dramatic mountain vistas on the East Coast. Many of the summits are above the tree line, offering rocky, barren landscapes reminiscent of the Presidential Range. Heck, that's how the island on which the park is situated - Mount Desert Island - got its name. Since the whole park covers only 47,000 acres, many of the hiking trails are short. But at Acadia, short doesn't always mean easy.

Blue blazes along the Jordan Cliffs

I started off the week with one of the so-called "Ladder Trails." Acadia ranks its trail difficulty with four ratings - easy, moderate, strenuous, and ladder. The latter, ladder trails are the most difficult and are named for the iron rungs needed to clamber up vertical escarpments. If you want to do the ladder trails, the time to visit Acadia is in the Fall. Several of these trails are closed in the Spring and Summer since peregrine falcons use the precipitous cliff faces for nesting. 

Jordan Pond from the Cliffs

I arrived at daybreak at the Jordan Pond parking area and found only one car in the large parking lot that K and I had experienced at overflow capacity just one day earlier. Probably best to avoid Acadia on Columbus Day weekend, we noted. A quick jog on the Spring Trail across two carriage roads brought me to the warning signs for the Jordan Cliffs Trail - signs which cautioned about the open ledges and iron ladders along the route. As expected, the trail hugged the cliffs high above Jordan Pond. For most of the way, tree coverage to my right screened the steep drops down to the water.

Iron rung, vertigo-inducing section on the Jordan Cliffs Trail

At one point, however, I had to drop down a rocky outcropping and negotiate a narrow ledge with nothing but open air blocking the vertical drop. After inching along the ledge, the trail then goes straight up two sets of iron rungs with an unobstructed, wide open cliff behind. At that point and that point alone, I understood why the signs were needed. After this one vertigo-inducing section, the trail soon connects with the East Trail leading to the open, rocky summit of Mount Penobscot. I spent a good half hour on the top. Encountering no early morning arrivals, I descended along the ridge line to the south on a pleasant trail that serves as the summit approach of choice for those wishing to avoid the cliffs.

Peak: Penobscot

Elevation: 1,196 feet

Distance: 3.2 miles round trip

Route: Loop, Spring Trail to Jordan Cliffs Trail to East Trail to Penobscot Mountain Trail to Spring Trail

Conditions: Sunny, 50 degrees F