It was a long and arduous journey from our home in Los Angeles to Bar Harbor,

which would be our first contact with the Maine wilderness. As you may be aware, Maine is not easily accessible from Los Angeles: there are no non-stop flights from Los Angeles to ANY city in Maine.  It was necessary to use a multitude of conveyances including Uber, airplane, taxi, bus, car, stagecoach and dog sled in order to make our way from our home in sunny, southern California to the wilds of Maine.

 

Our first stop was New York City where we stayed for a few days to adjust to the change in altitude (and attitude).

 

Then after packing the necessary clothes and equipment, we boarded a bus for the 5 hour ride to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, the gateway to Maine.

From there we rented a car, loaded up our gear and headed out to the wilds of Bar Harbor, Maine.

During this punishing many hour car ride over potholed unpaved roads and the occasional interstate highway we encountered a variety of scenery and signage

We finally arrived at the Bar Harbor basecamp after dark on a starless night (actually there were plenty of stars, but I thought “starless” evoked a better image)

Under moonlit illumination, we struggled (no elevator, many bags) to get our possessions out of the car and into our temporary (only there for three days) tent-like accommodations. I say tent-like because the duvet cover may have been canvas (or possibly 1200 thread count Egyptian cotton — it was hard to tell).   We ate from our meager rations augmented by a few savory snacks and a bottle of wine provided by the room service butler and fell into a deep sleep.

I awoke at first light, anxious to explore our surroundings.

While Jill slept beneath the mosquito netting, I cautiously crept out to our lanai to survey the area. There, I glimpsed a large fur covered creature lumbering across the lawn…my first bear sighting of the trip.

Miraculously, I was able to get a photograph documenting the beast’s magnitude and ferocity from the relative safety of our heavily fortified balcony.

 

As the sun slowly rose over the Bay, I sat on the deck and sipped my freshly brewed coffee, scratched a fresh bug bite and thought, “Camping…nature’s way of feeding mosquitoes.” Jill had so many mosquito bites that she had to be transfused prior to being able to get out of bed.

And so we left the basecamp to visit the sophisticated shops of downtown Bar Harbor selling all manner of high end merchandise.

There seems to be two things people think about when you mention the state of Maine: “moose” and “lobsters.”   Two completely different species, one living on land the other in the sea. And they are never seen together…except on the main street of Bar Harbor.

 

 

After our Bar Harbor shopping spree, we ventured on to the pristine wilderness of Acadia National Park.  We were overcome with emotion and excitement with the realization that we were probably the first humans to ever set foot here.

But we may have discovered a “Sandy Beach” precursor

We did, however, discover several rock formations or rock groups which we duly named for the generations who would follow us to this undiscovered wilderness

We also saw a variety/array of indigenous birds including the Maine seagull, the Acadia vulture (shown together in this rare photo below)

and the black-beaked loon which differs from it’s yellow-beaked cousin by the color of its beak.

The various different songs of the loons would blend together as we walked along the quiet lake; the amalgamation of different sounds is known as…

Which is a suitable conclusion for todays blog.  More fun in Acadia next time.

 

Richard and Jill

This is going to be a surprise blog entry for Jill since I wrote while she was asleep…SURPRISE!!