Day 9 - 2025 East Coast Adventure - Hiking the "Bubbles"

July 26 - Acadia National Park

Apparently we were all tired from yesterday because we had a pretty slow start to the morning.  Robinson had a great start to the day though.  As he wandered camp, he met a pair of bulldogs named Snax and Lola.  As he returned to camp, we realized that he was carrying a towel.  It turns out that Snax and Lola have swag - they have their own towels and Robinson now had 2 of the towels!

Despite the draw of the dogs, by 9, we had left camp with our backpack full ready for a day of hiking.  Our only fear was that because of the crowds (especially since it was Saturday), we were be too late and there wouldn't be a parking spot at the trailhead.  Unfortunately, we were right to be worried, there were no spots remaining when we pulled into the parking area.  Fortunately, we got SUPER lucky and someone was leaving as we pulled in. Our personal hero!

From there we started a fairly epic multi-hour hike which included both of the "bubbles" as well as not one, but two mountain peaks. Overall, it was almost 8 miles of hiking with almost 2,000 feet of climbing. It was a strenuous day for the boys, but they did great and the views were amazing  

Unfortunately, one of the motivating factors for the boys was that they could go swimming at the end of the hike.  As it turned out. I misread the map and thought that we could swim on the south side of Jordan Pond, but I was WRONG. In fact, it's quite the opposite - Jordan Pond has a ban on swimming.  So, to make it up to the boys, we got a popover with ice cream. That motivated them to finish the hike strong!  While they took the flatter route back to the car, Amy let me go and do the longer route so I could see the view from the other "bubble".  It was about the same view, but it was fun to challenge myself to hike fairly quickly up such a steep slope.  Thankfully there were some other folks up there so I was able to get a picture of myself up there.













Since we didn't get to swim in Jordan pond, we opted to skip bar harbor and instead went over to echo lake so the boys could swim as promised. The water was surprisingly warm and so the boys actually did some swimming while Amy and I enjoyed cooling our feet and sitting on the beach. After 30 minutes or so, the goosebumps were showing so we pulled them out of the water and headed back to camp. 





With everyone having hiked so much, we had a big dinner!  Then we returned to the beach to examine the tide pools like we had the day before. There was another family there and the daughter was wearing a Starved Rock shirt.  I asked if they were from Illinois and it turns out they were from Lockport.  Amazing the people you run into.




As we left, the deer (which are plentiful on the island) were coming out to graze so we watched them for a bit before heading to bed.  While we only had this one day in Acadia, it felt like we made the most of it.

Trip Mileage - 1,438
# states - 12

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