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Acadia National Park, Maine
Dumbed down and numbed by time and age
After a one year break (due to a rough schedule and not changed intentions) I returned to Maine this past Memorial Day, and despite missing a year it felt as if I did not miss a beat, everything was (just about) as it always was, the mountains, the trees, the rocks, the cliffs, the sea.
This time around to shake things up a bit I brought my DSLR (which has been to Maine before) but with my until recently rarely used 10mm-22mm wide angle lens (making its Maine debut). It's more noticeable in some pictures than others as it makes a wide sweeping view that much wider and that more sweeping.
Over these many, many years I have hiked just about every trail and every mountain at Acadia, especially on the park's busier and better eastern side. Of all these mountains and all these trails I have favorites, and among all of my many, many favorites it's hard to beat Pemetic Mountain. First of all it has some height- over a thousand feet- so it actually feels like you're accomplishing something as you climb. Second the trail doesn't spend too much time under the forest canopy, before you know it you're up and over the trees and enjoying the view. And that view is the third and most important thing. Pemetic Mountain is just in a great place, with views of Bubble Pond, Eagle Lake, Jordan Pond, Cadillac Mountain and, as you descend, the open ocean and all of the islands you can imagine.
The Beehive Trail isn't all that hard compared to other trails, it barely has a third of the elevation gain of Pemetic Mountain or Precipice, but it does have more danger than the others. There are sheer cliff drops and narrow ledges with iron ladders and iron rungs in the mountainside to get you to the top. It's also a busy trail, one where it is hard to pass fellow hikers freaking out over the dizzying not so high heights.
In many ways I have dreamt of this picture. I have been on this Ocean Trail ten or twenty times or more (probably more) and know the trail step by step, view by view. Of the entire trail, my favorite section has always been right here, headed south, right before the ascent to Otter Cliffs. The trail passes through a perfect section of forest and moss and rocks, all within the unmistakable presence of the often angry Atlantic. Since this is my favorite section of this Ocean Trail, I have taken this same photograph ten or twenty times or more (probably more), but the dappled lighting conditions have never been favorable for a useable photo. Luckily modern advances have finally caught up and I have finally found a good, unforced use for HDR (High Dynamic Range) Images, capturing multiple images from multiple exposures to create a single image that finally represents what I saw (or dreamt) in that perfect section of forest and moss and rocks.
There is more to Maine than Acadia, and this trip I actually saw some of it. Some time this year or last, Continental discontinued service into the incredibly user friendly Bangor Airport, a real shame. They do now offer service (through US Air) to Bar Harbor, but I chose instead a much, much cheaper flight into the incredibly user unfriendly Portland Jetport. So instead of a short hour and a half ride from Bangor to Bar Harbor, I had a slightly longer three and a half hour ride from Portland to Bar Harbor. Certainly not the end of the world, especially when you start to factor in the fact that I was actually able to see a thing or two on the way, things like the observation deck of the Penobscot Narrows Bridge, where views stretched well beyond the Penobscot and all the way back to the distant coastal mountains of Acadia.
Of all the times I drove or flew to Maine, I always managed to somehow miss Portland (except of course for the back city view from I-395). This year that needless oversight was finally fixed as I spent sometime downtown on the waterfront and even managed to get all of the way out of town to the incredibly scenic Portland Head Light, on the coast on the way into Portland if arriving by ship or on the coast far away from Portland if arriving by car.
Michael Graves' iconic building, the one which (in many ways) was responsible for post modernism and his entire quite successful career, now quietly sits among its downtown neighbors, no longer the punk ass rebel that started a revolution to kill a more international style.
Attentive slideshow viewers may notice that something isn't quite right with this picture. Maybe it's the lack of a dramatic wide angle shot or maybe it's a different proportion of the photo or maybe it's because the Portland Building is in Portland, Oregon and not Portland, Maine. In case you were still wondering, the right answer is that last one.
Both Portlands are eerily similar in some ways, although that may have more to do with a similar climate and setting, even if the oceans and coasts are different. There the similarities end. Portland, Oregon is huge, a big sprawling city, where the one in Maine feels to be at a better, smaller scale, especially if you like your downtowns quaint and walkable.
