Says Monkey: "Wet, Sweaty, Sandy Kids Equal Funk" (A Very Long Story, Part Five)

Day Four

The rain returned on Wednesday, but it was a showery day, leaving ocassional breaks in the precipitation. We decided to do some level walking, rather than climbing. The wet weather made it too risky. As a matter of fact, we did no more climbing the rest of the week. But, we made the best of what we had. After all, you can't stop the weather, you can only hope to contain it.

Our first stop on Wednesday's wet weather tour of Acadia was Ship Harbor Nature Trail, on the southwest part of the island. The walk here was misty and kind of windy in spots, but we were rewarded with close up views of yellow-rumped warblers, black-throated green warblers, and we spied a new life bird for me, common eider (a sea duck). The eider were hanging out on a rocky point just on the west side of the mouth of Ship Harbor, and a few were bobbing around in the ocean just off the east side of the harbor. It was great to get a new lifer, and dramatic to see these spectacular white and black ducks bobbing amongst the lobster buoys off the point. We followed the loop around, getting some great fog-bound-rocky-island views of the point and the cove. We got back to the car and decided the outgoing tide was a great opportunity to head north to Indian Point. Seals regularly rest at low tide on the rocks there.

The last time we were on Mount Desert Island, we went to see the seals, whose rocks are accesible through a portion of the Blagden Preserve, a Nature Conservancy property. That time, Monkey had a hard time seeing the seals. They were, admittedly, a long way off, but they were there. This time, either a) they were a lot closer, b) our binoculars were better, or c) we just knew where to look. It could have been a combination of all three. Who knows. Whatever the reason, finding the seals was easy this time. There, off about a hundred hundred yards to the left, two dozen or so seals were curled up on three different rocky islets. A couple leapt and swam in the water. The clouds hung low in the sky, and off to the right of the point we spotted one common loon.

It was still early, so we decided to travel the Park Loop Road and see what we could see. Our first stop was Sand Beach, which was part of the view from our first hike, The Beehive. In the rain, it was a bit melancholy, but as we approached the beach from the parking lot, a bus tour full of middle school kids were coming up off of the beach, looking like most middle school kids do after recess, their shirts sticking to them, their hair damp on their foreheads. In this case, they had the added details of rain-dampened pants and shoes, and Down East Maine sand clinging to them everywhere. The sight prompted the quote from Monkey from which the title comes, her point being, "I am glad I am not getting on THAT bus."

From there, we travelled a little ways down the road to Little Hunter's Beach, or, as our host MuffinMan, calls it, The Magical, Musical Beach. He's a little like Doug Henning that way. Any way, it is referred to as such, because, at high tide (which it wasn't, and wouldn't be for many hours), the waves over the smoothly rounded rocks produces a musical, wind-chimey effect. It is really quite cool, but we missed out on it this time around. We were just happy to see these amazingly smooth rocks. Monk took some pictures of them.

By now, it was near five o'clock. We went back to the inn and read for a little while, then, as we had been doing, went out and ate more fresh fish, crustacean, and mollusk. And some bread and veggies, too. And we drank some pretty good local beer. If you're ever in the area, try the Cadillac Mountain Stout--it's a winner. Literally. No, really, it won some beer contest. It said so on the label.

The rain was expected in earnest on Thursday, so we planned a drive down to Rockland to see the Farnsworth Museum. I slept like a smoothly rounded rock and dreamed of nothing, as far as I can remember.