Days Three and Four

* This time I wrote the post and Karol edited/gave input and also has some comments in parentheses.  We are still fiddling around with formats for the blog.  Honestly we might never be consistent, sometimes one of us doesn't want to write or sometimes we both really want to write, so yeah it will be random. *



Day Three (Friday, September 2^nd)

Acadia National Park

It was cloudy and looked as though it might rain when we woke up, and we just decided to de-camp and hit the road. Acadia was roughly an hour away and we were hungry. Unsure of where we could use our stove for oatmeal, we decided to splurge and have breakfast at a restaurant. I googled what was nearby and found a place called 2 Cats in Bar Harbor. 

2 Cats in Bar Harbor, ME

The hostess was very nice and we sat outside (immediately realizing it was a little chilly but I got our sweaters and we ordered tea (which didn't completely help)). She joked how it was cold for us but to the locals not at all - she was in a t-shirt and perfectly comfortable. Unfortunately, our waitress was far from cordial. She did not make eye contact and used as few words as possible. She was also clearly irritated that she had to come back three times to get our order (sorry not sorry, everything on the menu sounded great). She seemed hungover or something (Karol thought). Oh well. There will be unhappy people wherever you go in this world. The food was redeeming.  Between us we had corned beef hash, eggs, spicy hash browns, biscuits, and a side of strawberry butter (YUM). Everything was delicious and we felt well nourished (LOL funny phrase -Karol) for the day ahead.

We drove to the Visitor's Center of Acadia National Park and went to purchase our America The Beautiful Pass, another suggestion from my friend Jabir who told us about freecampsites.net. It was only $80 and it gets you into all the National Parks for a full year. Some of the more popular parks have a $25 entrance fee, so just three visits will get you your money's worth. We would be visiting way more than three parks so this saved us a lot of money (another HUGE thank you to Jabir). Acadia National Park provided a shuttle bus that takes you around the park to many of the major sights and trail heads. We hopped on one and, per Karol's suggestion, got off at the first stop, the North Ridge Cadillac Mountain trail. He had been to Acadia before and said this was a great hike. He wasn't kidding – 

Making our way up Cadillac Mountain

I loved this trail and when we got to the summit after a few hours (I think it was less than 2) I looked around and smiled. It was such a gorgeous view. Here's a video that might not work at all:

There were a ton of people at the top, most of them drivers, not hikers. One of the popular things to do is to drive Park Loop Road – a 27 mile road that patrons (heh) can drive along with parking lots at some of the most popular sights. The peak of Cadillac Mountain was one of the stops that you could drive up to and the parking lot was full at noon when we had reached the top. 

We looked down upon the land as we ate some snacks and hydrated, then looked at a map to see which trail we wanted to take back down. We preferred not to return the way we came, and we found a trail that would take us down to Bubble Pond where we could hop (like rabbits) back on the shuttle bus. This route required that we first get on the South Ridge Cadillac Mountain trail (we could have taken this all the way back down but it would have been longer than the trail we just hiked) and then take the trail that split off to Bubble Pond. It would be shorter than our ascent so we thought it would be perfect to have time for another short hike afterward. Wrong. So wrong. While it was in fact shorter (well, allegedly, I didn't track the mileage myself) it was extremely difficult. It could hardly be classified as a hike in my opinion, it was closer to rock climbing. And we were going down, so there was a lot of sitting and then hopping down off of steep rocks. 

Scooting down the rocks

A little after we started our descension we caught up to another couple and we ended up finishing the “hike” together. The guy was from Spain and she was from England, but they both lived in London. His combination Spanish/British accent was really cool, I had never heard anything like it before. Not that hers was not, I admire the sound of a British accent on its own very much. They were both really friendly and I was glad to have stumbled across them on the hilariously difficult climb down the mountain. 

She even offered her hand on several occasions as I struggled to get down, and I couldn't help but think that many Americans would not be this kind (terribly small sample size, yo). They were visiting New England for two weeks, which was roughly only a third of her vacation time. She heard that Americans receive little paid time off and when we confirmed this and told her exactly how much time off we got at our previous jobs she couldn't believe it. She had like 40 days. We appreciated the humor in our situation the whole climb down. One of us periodically commented on just how ridiculous and unexpectedly challenging this descent was. It took us a grueling 2 hours to go less than a mile and a half (going DOWN the mountain!) but we finally reached the beautiful pond. We only stayed long enough to take a few photos and we proceeded to wait for the shuttle together – we were taking different routes so we said our goodbyes and wished each other best of luck when their bus came first.

Quite a beautiful photo of Bubble Pond courtesy of Karol Cyrklaff

When we got back to the visitor center it was around 3 and we were pretty exhausted. Our plan to do another short hike seemed overly ambitious and we decided to find where we were going to sleep that night instead and just drive there. We could go back to the free beach campsite we stayed the night before, but it was an hour away and we were going to come back to Acadia in the morning. We were eager to shorten our drive to wherever we would be sleeping. The free campsite map listed a Walmart parking lot where people were welcome to park their RVs. It was only 25 minutes away and we figured we could handle one night sleeping in the car to avoid 2 hours of driving to and from Acadia. There were lots of RVs parked and it seemed legitimate to stay there so we parked in the way back and laughed. We were going to sleep in a Walmart parking lot! 

It then occurred to us that it was pretty early in the evening and we had about 4 or 5 hours until our new bed time (9 o'clock) – we now sleep 9-5, not work 9-5. We were quite hungry. We had already eaten out that day, but the thought of cooking in the parking lot was not particularly appealing and we also had time to kill. Google to the rescue again, we found a restaurant called Ruth and Whimpy's not too far away. I am pretty cheap and was panicking a little about eating out twice in a day, but Karol reminded me that after Acadia we would be spending two weeks at family friends' and would probably not be spending a whole lot of money. We would just be eating all of their food (sorry L & D). It would be nice if we could have a dinner out in each place we visit just to sample the local cuisine. I felt a little better and the food was of course exquisite which also made it feel worth the money. We had some beers (super cheap and delicious, only $3 each). Mine was a blueberry beer and Karol had a different kind of light beer (light in color, I don't drink shitty beer -Karol) and both were excellent. We started with calamari and lobster chowder. 

Calamari was good, not exactly noteworthy, but the chowder was soooooooooooo(oo00o00oo0oo00oo -Karol) good. It was creamy and delicious with potatoes and big, succulent pieces of lobster. For entrees I had pulled pork with thin, crispy onion rings (more like onion straws) and Karol had the Surf and Turf burger, a burger with lobster on top (oh my god so good -Karol) and curly fries. I definitely recommend this place if you're near Acadia. The menu was huge and had something for everyone, even if you don't like seafood. But you know, you're in Maine so you should probably try some seafood (obv -karol). Too full to try their blueberry pie (it seems that blueberries are a big thing, I saw blueberry everything advertised on the drive to the Walmart), we drove back to our sleeping spot. There was some light left and we played Boggle until we could no longer read our words – 

we then slept not so soundly in the boatmobile. Yeah I woke up like 65 times (or maybe just twice) – krl (fuck it, no more capitalization and no more vowels or punctuation)

Day Four (Saturday, September 3^rd)

^{More Acadia / L & D's}

We were up at around 5:30 and went into the Walmart to use the bathroom, brush our teeth, and wash our faces. We considered cooking oatmeal in the parking lot but we weren't particularly hungry yet so we just drove back to Acadia. This time, we thought we would drive the Park Loop and stop at places we wanted to hike or see. There was another really cool trail I read about online that Karol had done already called the Bee Hive trail. 

We parked in the Sand Beach parking lot which was right near this trailhead and had some crackers and power bars. There was a woman cleaning up trash in the parking lot and she brought up the irony of people wanting to come see these beautiful parks but trashing it. The Bee Hive trail is even less of a hike than the Bubble Pond trail we descended the previous day. It really is a climb, but I at least knew this going into it and that was part of the appeal to me. 

Climbing Bee Hive

I almost fell just kidding

There are metal rungs appropriately spaced around this mountain and you had to climb them much like a ladder at times. Other times you just had to work with the rocks to get up to where you needed to go. 

Rungs on Bee Hive

Climbing Crazy Eyes

 

It was quite scary when you observed how little space there was from the pathway you were on to the mountainside that you could so easily tumble down. (i was kinda shitting myself a little -kl)  I hadn't had an adrenaline rush like that in a while and I thoroughly enjoyed it. As much as I enjoy hiking, I am certainly not in great shape at the moment and I found it the perfect level of difficulty - challenging but not so challenging as to make it frustrating and unenjoyable. I think this is currently my favorite trail (that I've hiked, not just at Acadia) - though I have a feeling that will change in the coming year. There were several people at the summit and we sat down just as the other two couples had, but far enough away to give them some space. 

Bee Hive Summit

View from Bee Hive Summit

A father/daughter duo came running up from the other trail (the one we'd be taking to get down). Karol and I talked about how scary it would be to have your kids do this Bee Hive trail, but this little girl seemed like a hiking pro (i imagine they might have competitions with each other to see how fast they could sprint up a mountain -k). After a few more minutes and some gulps of water, we got on the trail going down. We knew that we would cross to The Bowl trail and that that was the way to return to the car. As we stood assessing and confirming the correct direction we needed to go, the father and daughter bolted down to where we were at the sign. They glanced at the sign for only a moment before sprinting off in the direction we intended to go. 

Switching to the Bowl Trail

I was quite impressed. They already passed us on their way back down and we lost sight of them immediately. We got to the car and drove on to Thunder Hole, another popular destination along Park Loop Road. 

At high tide (around 3pm) the ocean crashes into a cavernous hole and causes a monstrous wave. 

There is a staircase leading down so you can stand right next to the hole. We were not expecting any thunderous waves since it was morning, but it was still a beautiful spot. Karol and I climbed up onto a rock and watched the ocean while the others stood looking into to the very not thunderous hole. I laid down in the sun for a while - the temperature was perfect and the sun felt warm and inviting. 

Next to Thunder Hole

Looking like a goober basking in the sun

Some cool looking green fuzzy stuff in the hole

Very unlike the sweltering humidity we were dealing with in New Jersey before we left (yeah fuck that guy what a smelly boy -k). After a few more minutes of basking we went back up the stairs and decided to walk the Ocean Path down to Otter Point instead of driving. I was really glad we did this because if you went left off of the pathway you could walk on the huge rocks that littered the shoreline. The pictures Karol took here are some of my favorites thus far.

Blurry Ocean

Off the Ocean Path

Gorgeous cliffs off the Ocean Path

Including the silly and ridiculous "Charlotte does yoga" sequence.

I'm really just stretching

definitely not doing yoga

no yoga here

still no yoga

Returning to the Ocean Path, we walked briskly along, trying to pass some of the other strollers (babies -) taking their dandy old time and not being aware of the fact that they were holding many people up (not just us). We successfully went around them and quickly got to the Otter Cliffs and then up to Otter Point. The view was really nice, but honestly I enjoyed the rocks we climbed on along the way to Otter Point much more.

Otter Cliffs

More Otter Cliffs

We walked back to the car and figured we could have some lunch at the visitor's center and then drive to Lorette and Darrel's house (family friends I've known since I was born) who live further north in Maine. We found a picnic table at the visitor center and used our camp stove to make some pasta. (then we played a game of fly bits or pepper! -) Spoiler alert it was fly bits and we ate it anyway.

Pasta with fly in it

We filled up our water bottles before departing and cued up Dune for our three and half hour drive to Mars Hill, Maine. (fuck yeah 75 mph speed limits -)

Highest speed limit on trip thus far

We stopped on the way to get a view of Maine's tallest mountain, Katahdin (which we found out was like 4 times higher than cadillac wtf -).

Mt. Katahdin (or, as the locals say, Katahrdin)

We arrived around 5 and it was so great to seem them, it has been a long time since I saw them. I was an angstful teenager the last time I had been at their house and obviously I've changed a lot. I now greatly appreciate their lovely farm house and the beautiful land they maintain.

Tons of apples

Mushroom ball, half as big as it grew to be

View of the road, fields for days

Garden rays of sun

Beautiful trees

All the world is green

They showed us our room and the spa-like bathroom that we would be able to use (jacuzzi tub, ohhh yeahhhh). We took a bath first thing since we hadn't bathed in 3 days and then enjoyed the bolognese pasta Lorette made for dinner. After eating we watched Pineapple Express before retiring to bed.

Days Zero, One, and Two

* For this post, we're trying a format in which we each type a couple of paragraphs and just paste it all in together without editing or combining. Some stuff invariably will be repeated because we typed everything independently, but you will get both perspectives in one post. Let us know what you think about this layout in the comments! *



Day Zero (Tuesday, August 30th)

We meant to leave Tuesday because Wednesday was the last day of our lease. We did some packing Monday night but not nearly enough, obviously. I had written the previous post on Monday expecting to get some pictures to post it Tuesday right as we were leaving, but I didn't really think about how much there was to pack up and get rid of. We planned to leave at 9 but were nowhere near packed up by then. So we decided to stay another day, had another nice dinner (California Pizza Kitchen this time, we had Longhorn Sunday night and that was magnificent - the Outlaw Ribeye is the best steak I've ever had, thrice now). It was better to leave a day later because it meant we were much more relaxed. We loosely planned to leave Tuesday in case we had too much stuff to still do, and that's exactly how it went. Good thing we plan ahead.

-Karol

some of the shit we got rid of

Day One (Wednesday, August 31st)

Watkins Glen

Walking in to the state park, right off the main road.

We had intended to leave the day before on Tuesday, August 30^th, but we didn't finish packing and disposing of things Monday night like we wanted to. At around 9am on Tuesday, when we looked around and saw what we had left to accomplish, we decided that our best option was to leave the following morning. This way we did not have to rush around to finish things up and we could also get an early start on the drive to Watkins Glen State Park in New York. We left at around 10 am Wednesday, having to make two stops (getting gas and dropping off our router and modem at Optimum) before really hitting the road. I had two balloons from the farewell party at my job, and as Karol drove us out of the parking lot of our former apartment, we each let one go out of the driver and passenger windows. Perhaps a little silly, but it was a symbolic letting go of our previous lives. My friend (a huge thank you to him is in order), told us about freecampsites.net, a great resource for finding free camping spots throughout the country. Karol drove the four hours to Sugar Hill State Park, a free campground only twenty minutes away from Watkins Glen. When we pulled up, we thought this had to be a mistake - there was no way this place was free. It was a beautifully maintained loop of campsites with clean restrooms, a water fountain, and a sink at the center. There were plenty of people already stationed, primarily in RVs and there were even stables for horses. It was as nice as, or perhaps even nicer than, some campsites you would have to pay for. Since there was plenty of space, we decided there was no need pitch our tent and mark our territory before we left, so we would go to Watkins Glen and set up camp when we returned.

center of the free campground at Sugar Hill State Park

This was my second trip to Watkins Glen and Karol's first. It's a little odd because the park entrance is on the main drag of the small town, right next to a Burger King. To avoid the parking fee (I know I know, paying would be the right thing to do, but perhaps you can cut us some slack since we are currently unemployed nomads), we parked at the Burger King and walked over. My knee started hurting a few days before our departure (hilarious, I know, I've never had issues with my knee before) and as we strolled up to the entrance I immediately recalled that this entire park is a series of staircases.

STAAAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIRRRRSSSS

Going up stairs is the worst for my knee. Pain is slight or nonexistent when walking or going down stairs or a hill. Even uphill slopes are manageable, but going up stairs hurts and my knee makes an unsettling clicking noise (I guess I still need to figure out that health insurance thing, eh?). Speaking of “eh?” we met a wonderful Canadian guy during our hike but I'll get right back to that. The Gorge Trail is the most scenic pathway through Watkins Glen. Stone walls tower over you as you cross bridges overlooking blue-green pools of water. 

Rainbow Falls

Some of the walkways are covered so you can be positioned on the inside of a small waterfall cascading down to those blue-green pools. 

Charlotte. Dodging and weaving.

At one point a tunneled spiral staircase leads you to the next breathtaking view. 

Spiraley cave stairs

Watkins Glen definitely has a majestic feel to it. It was when we had reached the point where we could continue on to a dead end or take a new trail back to the entrance that we became acquainted with the Canadian guy. Karol had kindly removed himself from the photo he would have been in, and after that the Canadian said hello and we started chatting. He and (I believe a girlfriend, but she had continued hiking so we never met her) had been in New Jersey for a wedding and were now doing a little traveling before heading back to Canada. We told him about our adventure and he asked if we had a blog before we even had to pitch it to him. We gave him the link and he gave us one to a blog of a friend of his who is doing a long cycling trip across Europe and Asia. It was really nice to have met a friendly stranger on Day 1 of our trip. The trail back (I think it was the Indian Trail) was high above the Gorge Trail and therefore you could not see all of the bridges and waterfalls and staircases. It took only a short time to get back to the car and back to Sugar Hill State Park. We backed the Buick up to a campsite on the edge of the park. We pitched our tent and then walked down to the woods to gather wood for a fire. We had a small camp stove with us but wanted to save that for when wood was scarce or if it were too late in the day to spend time gathering and making a wood fire. Karol managed to break a really long, thick branch between two trees to get some good big pieces to use.

Treesmasher

We ate ramen noodles out of our cooking pot and by the time we were done it was dark. There was a fire tower that the public was welcome to climb in the picnic area of the campgrounds, so we walked up to the top and and enjoyed the night sky for a while. It was quite chilly and we were exhausted, so after a short time we went back down and went to sleep.

-Charlotte

We finally left Wednesday morning at 11 because of Optimum and the various leftovers we had to put on the curb. My grandma called right before we left, probably because my sister told her we were about to leave (I texted my sister when I put up the leaving post) so she was the last one I talked to before departing. The drive up to and through New York was fine, it drizzled a little and was generally cloudy. There was some rain toward the tail end of the drive which made me worry that there would be rain at the campgrounds as well, but luckily it stopped about half an hour before we got there. We signed in and drove to Watkins Glen. I didn't really expect it to be as rocky as it was, but I didn't really know what to expect. 

Plentiful parking for polite patriots

Charlotte had been before and said it was gorgeous. The only “Glen” I knew of was Ricketts Glen where I went with a group of people and had a spectacular time. Watkins Glen was tremendous for the fact that it was mostly canyons formed over fuck knows how many years by some river(s).  

Jagged and ragged

There were many great pictures to take and we kept stopping, especially in the first half of the hike. We actually got into a bit of an argument over the pictures-taking, but it was probably also mostly the stress of leaving and having expectations of each other and ourselves. We raised some important concerns, various things to keep in mind as we travel in general and develop as people. Eventually, we met a really nice guy from Canada, stood talking to him for a bit. He actually came over to thank me for moving out of the way of a picture he was taking. He was probably pleasantly surprised to find a conscious/courteous American. He and his girlfriend were taking a little trip back up from a wedding in Mount Arlington, NJ. Convenient, that we both just left New Jersey to go to Watkins Glen... Anyway, here are some more of the myriad pictures we took!

This campground was amazing for how free it was. There were mostly people with campers or RVs, but specifically people came with horses. 

first free campsite

Juuust missed it.

We felt like we were immediately being spoiled, but whatever. It was a nice transition from having an apartment – there were bathrooms and everything. Unfortunately, we didn't notice this pile of poop before setting up the tent – it was like a foot away and we decided to just get out of the tent on the other side. After setting up a little, we went into the forest to gather some wood. 

These were the usable chunks

It's bigger than it looks in the picture...

I found a thin tree (I like to think it was a tree rather than a branch) that had fallen and I jammed it between a twin tree to break it apart. I got a few nice logs, some that were too large but that didn't stop me from using them! They just didn't burn all the way. Or even half way actually... 










We went up this fire tower at night after cooking some shitty ramen (extra cayenne, thanks Charlotte) and just sat for a little before going to sleep.

Fire tower from the bottom

We saw some lightning and felt a little drizzle before we went back down. It fucking rained overnight. Poured in fact. It woke me up twice, but we were nice and dry in the tent.

I wanted to have some Doiritos that first night in honor of my sister.

-Karol

Day Two (Thursday, September 1st)

Maine

Maine welcome center. This is the western entrance of Maine.

We woke up a little later than planned on Thursday, so we just got up and left without cooking any kind of breakfast. We had an 11 hour drive ahead of us and I still remember how shitty it was to arrive near Acadia (I had gone a few years ago to camp with some of my friends and I drove the whole way) in the dark without a place set up to sleep. We listened to an audiobook of Dune most of the way. It has actors for most of the chapters, and it was quite enjoyable on such a long ride. I was especially excited to share the story with Charlotte, since I read the first book and half of the second book in high school. I just started rereading the first a few weeks before we left, but it was nice to switch to the audiobook because Charlotte would experience it with me.

Quick look back at the car (hidden by bushes) before hiking to the campsite.

We got to Schoodic Bay around 7, with plenty of light left to hike the half mile to the campsite on the beach. I was really terrified of leaving the car in the middle of the woods at the end of a dirt road because getting robbed would just be the fucking worst. A woman who pulled up after we did said she usually sleeps in her car which made us feel a little better, but I also would have been so mad if she was the one who robbed us in the end. We encountered a trio of miscreants younger than us on the hike in and I of course worried that they would take all of our stuff and smash up the car or even just spray paint shit and dicks on it, but we had to get to the campsite before it got completely dark. It was a really good spot, albeit unfortunately already too dark to gather wood for a campfire. Learning from the night before, we set up the tent AND the sleeping pads/bags. This time we used the little campstove we bought to cook some actual pasta and it was great except for the copious black pepper that I didn't realize I poured in. We switched the rest of the food over to the bear bag my coworker suggested for us and jammed it between two trees before going to sleep.

-Karol

Camping on a beach!

We woke a little later than we wanted to the morning after Sugar Hill, but we quickly packed up and started our 11 hour drive to Maine.  On the drive, we started listening to Dune by Frank Herbert.  Karol has read and loves this book (he has read part of the second book as well - it is a series of six books).  He wanted me to read it so it's perfect that we can listen to it together on our long drives.  So far it is really, really good.  Just, wow.  I highly recommend it to anyone.  We were headed to another free campsite for the night, about an hour from Acadia National Park where we wanted to spend a day or two. The campsite was on Schoodic Bay, and we didn't arrive until around 7. You had to park your car and then walk a half mile down the beach where the camp sites were and as we were gathering stuff to take down, a lone woman pulled up in some kind of Jeep near us. We asked her if she had ever camped there and she said she usually just slept in her car, but had heard that others really like it down there. Slightly paranoid that this was some innocent looking old lady who was actually going to rob us blind, we trekked down to the beach. Someone already had a tent pitched directly on the beach. We found a site far enough way to give them privacy while still only being a few steps away from the beach. We placed our packs on the picnic table and went down to the water. 

Crossing things off the bucket list one by one

I was again amazed at the fact that we were camping for free, this time on a beautiful beach. We enjoyed the sunset and then decided it'd be best to just use our stove to cook since it was already dark. We made some pasta and after we ate we looked up to see the sky completely filled with stars. I don't think I'd ever seen so many. It was astounding. Then I saw my first shooting star. I was starting to believe they were a myth – that people just thought they saw a star move when really it was just some trick of the eye. Now I knew they were real, and I was tremendously happy going to sleep that night.

-Charlotte  

Sweet ass beach

We have specifically left all names out unless/until we have consent because duh. Let us know privately or otherwise if you would like us to include your name in this, previous, or future posts.