Bubble Rock Hike

June 4, 2016

I heard that one of the more interesting hikes at Acadia was the Bubble Rock Hike. So, after I got back from the Pelagic Trip and ate an omelet for brunch, I decided to do this hike on the Eastern Part of Acadia, before heading to my campsite on the west part.

I had a map of the hikes and while I figured out where the hikes were and how long they were, I didn't pay a lot of attention to the difficulty of each. This hike taught me to also pay attention to the difficulty. The hike didn't look hard, so I didn't bother to take my hiking sticks and set off with just my water bag and my camera. The first part was easy with a few stairs and short elevation changes. The trail is short and the distance from the parking lot is only about half a mile. The views in two directions were fabulous and the bubble rock was amazing. T

The trail starts off easy

It leads through a woods interspersed with rocky outcroupings

Sometimes the trail is up and over the outcropping

The view from Bubble Rock is outstanding and the rock is amazing

It's hard to believe that the rock has been there for all these years

The view in both directions is fabulous - but the trail will take me to the edge of this lake

I think these are a male and female cone on a tiny tree alon

Loved the blooms on this little shrub

Then I continued on the trail to the place where it intersection with the Bubble Divide Trail. This is where the rock scramble, in places straight down, began. I took pictures of some of the hardest parts. The following day, my friend, Lisa showed me her marked map – the one she will be using to tell people about the trails. The last part of this trail is noted as strenuous. I traveled a lot of the way on the seat of my pants and, at one place, I had to dangle from a metal bar, while trying to find a foothold. But that stretch is only about three tenths of a mile long. Then I turned around and went back up another easy trail to the parking lot. 

Starting down from Bubble Rock on an easy, well-marked trail

Then it got much more adventurous and scary - but I kept following the blue slashes, even though I was looing straight down on several of them

There must be a trail there somewhere

Down this???

Looking back - I could barely squeeze through here sideways and then had to go backwards to find the last step

A very determined tree seemed to be growing out of solid rock

Suddenly the trail got easier and shortly after that I was on the shore of the lake and ready to take the bridge to a trail leading back to the parking lot

A stream bed led along the trail 

The entire trip was only one and a third miles but it probably took me an hour and a half to hike. After that, I was ready to go back to my camp, eat supper and go to bed.

I put this blog up while at Campobello Island. on last Friday.  We were promised a mix of sun of clouds today but we've only had about two glimpses of the clouds. So I'll have to come back and take pictures but I'm going to get some reportedly fantastic lobster bisque and take a couple of hikes. Thankfully this is only about sixty miles from my house.

A Foggy Pelagic Trip

June 4, 2016

I had a pelagic trip on my bucket list, so signed up for one at the Acadia Bird Festival. The weatherman had suggested that we would start with fog, but it would clear. I got up at 4:20 to get ready and then drove for about forty minutes to get to the pier in Bar Harbor. I was standing in line by 5:45 and we started boarding around six. After talks from the captain and the birding leaders, we got underway in a moderate fog.

I was probably about half way down the ultimate line - we could buy breakfast and coffee at the window just to the right

Loading up - I ended up at the very top 

A look at the harbor while waiting to start our trip

One of the leaders describing our trip

I usually stay outside, no matter what, when birding from a boat so I decided to go to the top deck. We went around the harbor a few minutes before taking off towards Grand Manan Island. Birds were few and far between and were mostly disappearing into the fog. We did several passes in front of Grand Mann and saw lots of puffins and razorbills as well as a couple of phoebes and a magnolia warbler. Our guide told us that fog makes migrating passerines  look for land wherever they can find it. He also talked about a time birds crashed to land and were landing on people. One person stuck her arms out and had fifty-two birds land on her. 

My brightest picture of the Grand Manan Lighthouse

Puffins were seen several times, albeit very dimly

Razorbills looking like penguins

A swimming razorbill

It was nice to see a double crested cormorant in breeding plumage- he was just lifting off

We also learned that Global Warming is causing Maine water temperatures to rise faster than the average. Fisheries are already changing and the phyto and zooplankton are starting to grow about two weeks earlier, causing fish to start growing earlier. This is resulting in puffins catching fish that are too large for their young to swallow so they starve in a place where there is plenty of food. And the fish that require really cold water are disappearing and other fish are spreading into Maine from the South. 

Later, when I visited the Nature Center at Acadia NP, I saw two menus for a local popular seafood restaurant. One was their current menu and the other was for an expected menu fifty years hence. Lobster had completely disappeared as had haddock and other northern fishes. But several new species of fish had taken their place. 

We passed lots of rocky shores and birds flying into the fog

While we were at Grand Manan we talked via a radio link to a lady that is doing research there and who writes the blog, Summer with the Seabirds. This was her second summer to do research there and she listed the number of nests for each species that nests on the island. Nesting season is just starting up so read the blog to find out how successful this year turns out to be.

This was pretty much our view of birds at the best light

We went on to Petit Manan and saw double cormorants, murres, common loons, common terns, lots of black guillemots. This island has a huge colony of terns, including common, roseate and arctic terns. But the fog, rather than lifting, got thicker and darker and I was no longer able to even see a little ghostly movement when the leaders called a bird. So I went into the lower cabin and read my much more engaging mystery in warmth.

 Black guillemots

Black guillemots in flight

A common eider pair

But I do have two free tickets to this same boat, which will mostly be taking people out to do whale watching, and I may get better looks at some of these seabirds. My friend, Terri, tried to buy me a ticket from a speaker at the Down East Bird Festival,  who works as a interpreter on this boat. Instead, he gave her two tickets after she told him I was working as a volunteer at Moosehorn.   

A few of the seals we saw

A very dim view of cormorants

Wildlife has to share with people

Almost back to Bar Harbor

I had lots of other adventures during the mostly cloudy weekend.  I have several more stories to share with you. And I had a great couple of visits with a friend I met while living at Outer Banks, NC. She is up here to volunteer at Acadia National Park for the summer.

I'm linking up with Wild Bird Wednesday.  Click the link to see lots more blogs. I was pretty amazed at the yellow-billed spoonbill.

Moose Cove Birding HikeII

My blogging is getting put on the back burner, both because I'm working a LOT - I was cleaning the bunkhouse and doing woodcock surveys around other work - and also moving from the Fire House to my own trailer, which I'm sure I'll like much better, now that the summer techs and interns are starting to arrive.  And our weather has been so rainy that I don't want to take pictures.  So most of my pictures are work related, and show the culverts I'm locating and the places where we need to remove fallen trees from out trails.  So, while I'm having a good time working, it doesn't make for a good story.

However last weekend I got to take part in the Down East Birding Festival. I helped with two refuge hikes and and a children's activity about how birds are adapted to eat different foods and live in different habitats. But I also got to take a hike to look for birds. It was a fabulous hike, and we got to see a lot of birds, at least for this area. But one of the things this Texas wasn't expecting was that we have to identify most of our passerines by their calls. The birds are mostly hiding high up in the now leafy trees. And the few birds we did catch in our binoculars were far away and moving around quickly in dim light - the day went cloudy soon after we started the hike and I got rained on just after I got back into my car. We did find 26 species.  If you are interested, click here to see my e-bird list.

Our leader, Eric, explaining where we'll be walking

The clouds were coming in quickly - this trip started at 6:30 A

Our first stop was this beautiful bay

Looking over the bay for seabirds

We got long looks at this cedar waxwing 

We traveled through a wide variety of habitats from open fields to deep woods and including hardwoods and evergreens

I thought this fiddlehead of Cinnamon fern was gorgeous

There is a loop here - we didn't do this part as it is harder to do

I love this new growth - but last Sunday I was helping with a Rhodes Scholar hike in rain showers so didn't have my camera while I was watching a porcupine sit at the end of a branch and feast on the little brown cones. 

We are walking along a ridge and getting views of the cove to our right 

A view across the cove

I loved the tenacity of this tree - I made a hook, crawled across the ground, and finally got to a place where it could grow in the sun.

Another of the many habitats through which we passed 

We finally reached the rocky shore of the cove - but across the way was a clammer on a mudflat

A herring gull flies off with breakfast

A white variety of a pink lady slipper

This hike was led by Erick, a staffer at Maine Coast Heritage Trust.  Click on the link to find all their properties and perhaps go explore some of their special areas. I'm planning to use this link for to find more hikes.

I  stopped to write this for Sunday's blog on the way to Acadia National Park. I didn't know they were also having their bird festival  this week but found out in time to register to go on a sea bird tour on Saturday.  And I brought my bike and hiking poles and plan to try and fit in a lot of activities between Thursday and Monday, in spite of a prediction of partly cloudy to cloudy skies and showers for all the days I'll be playing.  Stay tuned.