Dorr and Cadillac Mountains, October 14, 2015, Acadia National Park

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.

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.

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.

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

Hadlock Ponds, October 12, 2015, Acadia National Park

Lunch spot on Lower Hadlock Pond

One benefit of the comparatively short peak hikes in Acadia is that I can be out and back by 10 or 11 AM, thus leaving the late morning and afternoon for another hike or bike ride on the famous carriage roads with K. We found the Hadlock Ponds to be a really neat figure eight-shaped, double loop hike, with nice vista points, wetland boardwalks, babbling brooks, and moss-filled forests. The hike could easily be extended with a trip to the summit of nearby Mount Norumbega and still bring one back to the parking area with no backtracking.

K on the boardwalks along Upped Hadlock 

The Hadlock Ponds Trail starts with a short elevation gain up to one of the island's many carriage roads and then down to the east side of the pond and along an extended boardwalk section. After skirting the upper pond, the trail recrosses the highway and passes through a pleasant section following the cascading stream that connects the two ponds. This second section of the hike completely circumnavigates the Lower Hadlock Pond. We looped around the pond from east to west, ending the loop at a nice rock outcropping that served as the perfect, pond-side lunch spot.

Lower Norumbega Trail

After the break, we finished the loop and got on the lower Norumbega Trail which skirts the east side of the peak through a pretty beech and birch forest with an almost totally-covered mossy floor. All in all, it was a nice little hike. The only downside was the road noise one encounters on the upper pond.

Destination: Hadlock Ponds
Distance: 3.2 miles roundtrip
Route: Hadlock Ponds Trail to Lower Hadlock Trail to Lower Norumbega Trail
Conditions: Sunny 55 degrees F

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