Long Pond (Mt. Desert Island Day #1)

This is the 1st post in a series of 3. Ben, Mary Kate, and I recently (July 14 - 18) spent 3 days kayaking in and around Acadia National Park on Mt. Desert Island (MDI) on the coast of Maine. Ben & Mary Kate will be guest-blogging for the 2nd and 3rd days!

After a fairly eventful journey to Mt. Desert Island which involved car camping (the type where you sleep in the car at a rest-stop), we (Ben & I) arrived early Thursday morning at Seawall Campground. After a 3 hour nap and a satisfying lunch, we set out to do an easy afternoon paddle on Long Pond, a large freshwater lake on the west side of Mt. Desert Island.

Date: July 15th, 2010
Distance: 9.7 miles

We put in at a public launch site that is located next to the local water treatment plant (hence the angry no-swimming signs). From the launch it was also possible to hike up a few of the surrounding mountains, but we decided to stick with kayaking for the day.

 Checking out the east side of the lake on the way up.

We paddled up the east shore of the lake, passing a few (but not many) motor boats and cliff jumpers along the way. Other than that, the views were great. The shores were almost completely undeveloped, which was a welcome change from the Finger Lakes and other paddling I've done so far in NH. At the end of the lake we encountered a public beach with some very loud children, so we didn't dawdle there for long.

On the west side of the lake we took a right into a calm, peaceful cove where we ran into a fisherman in a kayak. He urged us to backtrack and look into the trees, and sure enough, we were excited to discover a bald eagle, perched at the top. He chilled out just long enough for me to get a picture, then flew off:

Bald eagle in the trees on Long Pond.

We headed back along the west shore, admiring the rolling mountains that surround the lake on all sides.

That one straight ahead is Mansell Mountain.

All in all, a great first day exploring Mt. Desert Island! That day we were surprised to find out that President Obama was planning to vacation with his family on the island for the weekend. The entire island was covered in "Welcome Obama!" signs, and flags dotted many of the telephone poles.

Loons, Bugs, and Bears on Lake Winnipesaukee

Winnipesaukee is a BIG lake (approximately the same surface area as Cayuga Lake) located just south of the White Mountains in NH. It's a little over an hour from Manchester when the traffic is cooperating. We (Tina, Brian, and I) stayed over at Chris's condo on Long Island (not the famous one), which stick out into the middle of the lake.

The kayaking portion:


Date: Saturday, July 3rd

Distance: 15 miles

Time: 4.5 hours including breaks

On Saturday morning I got up at the ungodly hour of 5am (ok, it was 5:30 when I was done snoozing) for a 6am launch. Due to a lack of sea kayaks (or more likely morale at 6am), I embarked on this journey alone.

The lake felt very different from the Finger Lakes for a number of reasons:

1. It's not long and skinny, so you never know what's just around the corner!
   
2. Island hopping!!
   
3. More motor boats... more chop (hence the 6am launch)
   
4. Beautiful mountains on every horizon

Around 8am I met up with a loon family (two adults and two chicks). Here's a picture & movie of them!

I made it back feeling pretty tuckered out (slightly sore in the shoulders/abs), but I'm starting to have hope that I can paddle the length of Cayuga -- if we kept up the same rate (and the weather was perfect, etc...) it would take about 12 hours, which is an hour less than the hours of daylight in Ithaca in September...

The non-kayaking portion:
On Sunday morning the four of us got up "early" (9am, ha!) for a hike (Tina's first!) to the top of Red Hill, which sits between Squam and Winnipesaukee. On the dirt road to the trail head, a tiny black bear cub jumped into the road and scrambled across right in front of my car. We watched it run into the woods and join its mother and sibling 100 yards away!

It was a little under 2 miles to the peak (2,030 ft). The views from the fire tower at the top were incredible. We had a 360 degree view of both lakes, the Whites, and a number of other mountain ranges nearby.


We spent the rest of the weekend swimming, hanging out on the boat, basking in the sun (but not getting burned!), enjoying good food, and reading.