Acadia national park Maine family hiking 2010 vs. 2003
Way back in September 2003, before color photography was developed ;-) we brought two bikes, a trail-a-bike and a bike trailer to Acadia National Park, Maine. We put our 7 year old girl on the trail-a-bike and our 5 year old boy and our 3 year old girl in the trailer. My wife rode up the steep trail with the big girl and I pulled the other two up the trail around Eagle Lake. We had left our campsite at Mt. Desert Campground which was near this carriage road and had heard about this scenic overlook of the lake called Connor's Nubble. It's only a half mile off the carriage road. But we found out it was a nearly vertical hike in parts up a granite cliff face. But those little guys scrambled right up it. Then they ran around the top without a care or an ear to our admonishments to stay away from the edges. I took this picture of them with the digital camera unknowingly set to black and white.
In July 2010, we rode the free bus into downtown Bar Harbor from our campsite at Mt. Desert Narrows Campground and rented 5 bikes and put them on the free bike shuttle which brought us to the trail head at Eagle Lake. This time, the kids had to use their own leg power. We stopped a couple times on the way up, but finally we reached the trail. This time the vertical parts of the trail discouraged the kids a bit. But once we got to the top, all was well. Not only was the sky so blue and the breeze so refreshing, but the blueberries were in abundance and we spent as much time looking down at the bushes as looking up at the scenery. Those little mountain blueberries are one of my favorites. Even though small, they were juicy and refreshing especially for those of us who had drank down our water bottles on the way up.
After enjoying a break at the Nubble, the scramble down was easy and gravity made the ride down and around the rest of the lake easy as well.
In July 2010, we rode the free bus into downtown Bar Harbor from our campsite at Mt. Desert Narrows Campground and rented 5 bikes and put them on the free bike shuttle which brought us to the trail head at Eagle Lake. This time, the kids had to use their own leg power. We stopped a couple times on the way up, but finally we reached the trail. This time the vertical parts of the trail discouraged the kids a bit. But once we got to the top, all was well. Not only was the sky so blue and the breeze so refreshing, but the blueberries were in abundance and we spent as much time looking down at the bushes as looking up at the scenery. Those little mountain blueberries are one of my favorites. Even though small, they were juicy and refreshing especially for those of us who had drank down our water bottles on the way up.
After enjoying a break at the Nubble, the scramble down was easy and gravity made the ride down and around the rest of the lake easy as well.
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