Acadia Day 1: A Three Rainbow Day

I spent most of Saturday acquiring Julie.  I had to drive to Portland and run a few errands, play a little, then collect her and haul her back to Acadia National Park. We stopped for supper and got back to camp past my bedtime.

Consequently, we got a late start to go paddling. The ranger suggested we NOT paddle Long Pond, which had been my choice, but rather to paddle on Eagle Lake, which was a much shorter paddle.  This was because Long Pond was going to be really windy. So Julie and I decided combine a paddle with a hike, since we could access the Carriage Road around Eagle Lake, then hike to Conners Nubble, and back on that the North Bubble Trail to our landing spot.

Boat launch site on the north end of Eagle Lake

It was almost lunch time by the time we put in.  Paddling we pretty easy, since we were mostly blown down the lake by the wind. We soon came across an old foundation with what may have been the wall of a basement that had beautiful arched doorways in it.  We stopped there to explore it and eat lunch.

Happy paddler - by Julie

Julie

A view through  one of the three arches in the front of the foundation 

This looked like a gun slit

Then we paddled to the south end of the lake, before angling a little towards the north end as we paddled  towards the far shore, letting the wind help ferry us across. The landing was easy to find and not to hard to find a way to shore through the rocks.

Julie at the landing for the trails

The carriage road is very easy hiking as it is mostly flat.  But when we turned off it, the path soon started climbing, then rose steeply through a rocky bluff.  But in only about a tenth of a mile, arrived at Conners Nubble which gave us  three hundred and sixty degree views of a mostly sunny sky.  While we were still enjoying the view back over Eagle Lake, a rainbow appeared from a dark cloud. The trail down to the edge of the lake was mostly easy, with only a few places where we had to leap down rocks, or pick our way.

The steep part of the trail looked like this for a tenth of a mile

Reward time - at Conners Nubble

The rainbow over Eagle Lake from Conners Nubble

View down to Eagle Lake

Beginning of the hike down to the boats

I waited until Julie left, so I could take pictures of her.  As I watched her turn around a point and head back to our put-in, another rainbow appeared.  After I took lots of pictures of that, I spent several minutes trying to remember the path I had taken through the rocks and backing my canoe out into navigable water.  Soon after that, I was paddling into a fourteen mile wind so didn't take any pictures.

Rainbow number two over Julie

But just after we got back to the put-in and were loading our equipment, the third rainbow appeared, this time a full one.  But it was too close to us for me to get the entire rainbow.

Rainbow number three  - from the boat landing

I had also put the previous picture on Facebook and gotten the comment that there was a second rainbow forming. So I almost had a four rainbow day.

We had just enough time left in the day to drive to Cadillac Mountain to watch the sunset.

Sunset was mostly cloudy - and windy and cold - but still enjoyable

A bit of sunlight snuck through the clouds

Bar Harbor and a cruise boat

Then it was back to camp for salmon patties and grilled squash from my garden all cooked by Julie over her campfire.

It was a very good day.  Our next adventure will be to bike and hike at Schoodic Peninsula.