Maine Hiking Trip – June/July 2021

We may look back on 2020 as a demarcation – BC and AC (Before COVID and After COVID). Elizabeth and I decided to make our first AC vacation a hiking trip to Maine – specifically to visit Acadia National Park, which has been on our bucket list. The following is a brief summary with a “photo of the day” from each day of the trip. The most difficult part of this blog was choosing the “photo of the day.” There were so many beautiful shots, but exercising some discipline was necessary to keep the post relatively short.

We were scheduled to start our trip on Thursday, June 24th, but American Airlines cancelled out flight. No worries – we drove into Richmond and spent that evening with Jack, Olivia and Carter at the movies. When you travel a fair amount, you learn “to go with the flow.” We ended up having a great time. So, we got to Boston on mid-day Friday and spent the rest of that day with Davis, Bridget and James in Brookline. We took a long walk, spent time in a local park with James, ordered takeout, and enjoyed good fellowship, as evidenced by the photo above.

On Saturday, June 26th, I ran six miles to Jamaica Pond and back, took a long walk with the gang before Lizzy and I picked up a rental care and drove to Portland, Maine. During our visits to Brookline, one of our favorite activities is long walks with James, as evidenced by the photo below. On the way to Portland, we dropped Davis and Bridget’s niece off in York. She had been visiting them in Brookline. While in York, we stopped at a roadside cafe and enjoyed our first lobster roll – the first of many we would have on the trip.

After our first night in Portland, we spent all day Sunday exploring the city, which serves as the economic center of Maine. It is also a big beer and foodie town. Our favorite activity of the day was the mid-day foodie tour that I found on Viator, which is my favorite app to locate foodie tours in each city we visit. We stopped at four establishments and had four courses – one at each establishment. They included a seafood chowder (the best I have tasted), haddock tacos with a local beer, lobster roll (no butter or mayonnaise served cold) with chips and beer, which was also excellent, with a last stop at a local chocolatier. While on the tour we walked along the wharf – a highlight being the Harbor Fish Market. It is shown in the background in our Portland photo below.

The next morning, Monday June 28th we started the Backroads part of our trip, where we would hike our way up the coast of Maine to Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park. After meeting the other 18 hikers on our trip, including our friends Pete and Ali from Charlotte, NC, we drove to Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens near Boothbay, where we enjoyed the gardens, large wooden trolls and a beautifully prepared lunch on the grounds of the park. After lunch, we shuttled to Rockport, where we walked on a near mile-long breakwater into the gulf of Maine to a beautiful lighthouse, where we caught our ride to Camden. The photo below captures the breakwater, the lighthouse, and our ride, which was a fully restored 1927 57-foot windjammer. Also captured in the photo is my close friend Pete and his girlfriend Ali. Sharing this trip with them made the trip even more special.

We sailed into scenic Camden Harbor, disembarked, and walked through one of the most scenic towns on the Maine Coast to our hotel for the next two nights – Camden Harbor Inn – where we enjoyed the best dinner of the trip.

On Tuesday, June 29th, we spent the early part of the day in Camden State Park where we hiked up to Maiden Cliff and the top of Mt. Megunticook, where we enjoyed our boxed lunches. The photo below shows the view of Camden Harbor and the town of Camden from the top of the mountain. Later in the day we walked around town, had beers at a local pub while watching the Euro Cup Soccer Tournament, and dined with our hiking group. A note on our hiking group – out of 20 participants, 10 were doctors – no lie. And although New England and the Northeast were heavily represented, we also had folk from Colorado, Nevada, Tennessee, Michigan and California. Despite the heavy representation of doctors, our group was a diverse and interesting bunch.

The next morning, Wednesday, June 30th, I spent the early part of the morning exploring Camden before returning to our Inn to have breakfast with Lizzy, Pete and Ali. The sunrise over Camden Harbor was spectacular. I was glad I had gotten up early to catch it. So, I am breaking my rule and sharing two photos from this day.

After breakfast, we shuttled from Camden to Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park to hike around Jordan Pond, up to Bubble Rock, back down to Jordan Lake and up to the Summit of Mount Penobscot. As the photo below shows, Jordan Pond was beautiful. The hiking that day was the longest, most technical, and most strenuous. However, it was also glorious. Unlike the summit of Cadillac Mountain, you cannot drive to the top of Mt. Penobscot, so I was able to enjoy the magnificent views in solitude, which was very special. After hiking, we spent time walking around Bar Harbor and later met Pete and Ali for a low-key, but enjoyable dinner.

On Thursday, July 1st we shuttled back to Acadia National Park and hiked up to the summit of Cadillac Mountain, which allows you to see the sun rise earlier than any other spot in the United States. Although a long up-hill hike, it was not as technical as the day before, and it offered many photo-ops. If you look past that lovely couple in the photo, you can see Bar Harbor and Bar Island in the background. After our hike, we returned to Bar Harbor and spent some time at our rooftop pool looking over the harbor, before enjoying our farewell dinner with our Backroads hiking group.

We awoke Friday morning, July 2nd to a cold rain. The high that day was going to be upper 60’s compared to highs in the 90’s two days earlier. So, we enjoyed a leisurely breakfast and walked along the harbor and into town one last time before loading into our shuttle for Portland. Halfway to Portland, we stopped in Belfast for a picnic lunch beside the bay. As can be seen from the photo, Backroads does great picnics!

We finished our journey to Portland, said our goodbyes, and headed to Kennebunkport with Pete and Ali in our “SUV.” A funny story – when we got to our car, it must have been the world’s smallest SUV. Pete had to sit in the front seat with a suitcase in his lap and Ali and Lizzy barely had enough room in the back seat because we had to shove Ali’s large suitcase between the two of them. It became a challenge to see if we could compress ourselves and all of our luggage into this small vehicle, but we did it, and we laughed about it during most of the 40-minute drive into Kennebunkport.

A special surprise awaited us in Kennebunkport. Davis, Bridget and James met us at our hotel, where Pete was able to meet James for the first time. Afterwards, we had a great dinner with our special guests before they headed back down to York to Bridget’s parents’ summer cottage.

On Saturday, July 3rd, Elizabeth and I spent most of the day in Kennebunkport before heading down to Ogunquit, our base for the next two evenings. While in Kennebunkport, we walked to St. Ann’s Episcopal Church, where the Bushes worship, past the Bush compound, and had an early lunch at Hurricane, a restaurant in town. Our marvelous lunch included Lobster Bisque, raw oysters and Pepper Beef Carpaccio, washed down with fresh local brews. The photo below shows the outdoor worship space of St. Ann’s, which overlooks the Kennebunkport Harbor.

After lunch we walked around some more before heading south to Ogunquit. I really like Ogunquit. If you are ever in Maine, stop in Ogunquit, enjoy a wonderful coffee at one of their many coffee shops and walk the Marginal Way. And if you have time, visit the Ogunquit Museum of American Art. The outdoor sculptures on the grounds are beautiful. After checking into our B&B, we headed to York to visit with Bridget, Davis and Bridget’s family, before enjoying a wonderful dinner at Clay Hill Farm, just outside of Ogunquit.

On Sunday, July 4th, I started the day with a 6-mile run through Ogunquit, along the beach and onto the Marginal Way (see photo below), which may be one of the most scenic walks along the Maine Coast. Because it is mostly paved, it becomes very busy after 8:30 a.m. So, if you want to run it, do so before 8 a.m. Afterwards, Elizabeth and I drove to York, where we spent July 4th with family.

I have to say this about Facebook. It connects people. Because I had posted that we were in Maine on FB, some friends of ours from Christ Church, David and Karen Soule, messaged me that they were anchored in York Harbor on their sailboat. They had sailed up from Virginia on their new boat and were spending most of the summer in Maine visiting family. So, on Monday morning, Karen met us on the dock in York Harbor with her dingy and ferried us to their beautiful 46-foot sailboat, where we enjoyed coffee and danishes and just enjoyed catching up. I must say that fellowship with old friends on a beautiful sailboat in scenic York Harbor was a great way to end our New England vacation.

After spending time with the Soules, we drove back into York, said our goodbyes to Davis, Bridget and our grandson, and headed to Boston to fly back to Richmond. In York, we picked up Eavan, Bridget’s niece, who travelled back to Richmond with us. As an energetic, intelligent, and curious 14-year old girl, having Eavan as a travel companion was a treat.