Cedar Swamp Mountain and Sargent Pond
Today we went on a 5-mile hike that turned into an 8-mile hike. This was partly intentional - from the summit of Cedar Swamp Mountain we decided to add an extra .7-mile each-way leg to Sargent Pond, cupped in a tree-lined bowl of tumbled stone up at 1100' - but partly from wandering about in Asticou trying to find a trailhead that didn't require tramping along private roads. In the end, we took a carriage road from the gatehouse to the trailhead that led to the peak of Cedar Swamp, jogged over and back to Sargent Pond for lunch (hitting our peak elevation of 1135' on the way), then took the Amphitheater Trail back down to the carriage roads, and finally on to one of the "private" roads we'd avoided previously. (Hint: not actually private.) It was a wonderfully varied hike, from deep mossy woods to bald pink granite, from boulder-scrambling to pine needles and tangled roots underfoot, from crushed-rock carriage roads to the steeply plunging banks of a tumbling stream. The trail led right past Birch Spring, a shaded shrine of birch trees and towering, cracked rocks and gently trickling water. We got a bit munched by black flies and mosquitoes, but we both feel pleasantly achy and lethargic, and we again reaped the benefits of the early season: we saw perhaps five other people on the trail.
At the end of the hike, we wandered through the Asticou Azalea Gardens, which are a sort of westernized Japanese garden - perfectly landscaped lawns beside reflective pools, flowering shrubs everywhere, octagonal stepping-stones for crossing the water. There's an actual raked Zen garden, which I don't think I'd ever seen in person before. A bit manicured for my tastes, but I did quite like the cultivated moss.
Once again, you can follow our wanderings (including the false starts and the meandering through the Asticou gardens) via GPS.
Dinner was at Café This Way, possibly our favorite Bar Harbor restaurant. K. got the eggplant shephard's pie, I got the swordfish special, and we switched plates halfway through. Also: lovely salted bread with honeyed butter, fried cheese with yellow tomatoes and basil, and Bailey's crème brulée. Fabulous meal.
At the end of the hike, we wandered through the Asticou Azalea Gardens, which are a sort of westernized Japanese garden - perfectly landscaped lawns beside reflective pools, flowering shrubs everywhere, octagonal stepping-stones for crossing the water. There's an actual raked Zen garden, which I don't think I'd ever seen in person before. A bit manicured for my tastes, but I did quite like the cultivated moss.
Once again, you can follow our wanderings (including the false starts and the meandering through the Asticou gardens) via GPS.
Dinner was at Café This Way, possibly our favorite Bar Harbor restaurant. K. got the eggplant shephard's pie, I got the swordfish special, and we switched plates halfway through. Also: lovely salted bread with honeyed butter, fried cheese with yellow tomatoes and basil, and Bailey's crème brulée. Fabulous meal.