Gorham and the bowl

Tuesday & Wednesday July 23 & 24, 2013
Site 730 Narrows Too
Trenton, Maine

 

TUESDAY

It rained all day is about all there is to say for it.  I did the laundry.
The highlight of the day was when I discovered that Santa Claus spends his summers here.  He was walking one of his reindeer right by our front window this morning.  I recognized him by his long white hair and beard but I couldn’t get my camera in time to get a picture before he was nearly gone.

 

 

WEDNESDAY

 

Today the sun came out and we put on our hiking boots and set out to climb Gorham Mountain.

Like many trails in Acadia the paths are rocks.  Not rock lined but rocks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

As we started out there was a sign asking us to

Make History
Do Not Disturb Cairns
Help Restore a 100 year old tradition to the park
Do not add
Do not remove
Do not build

Apparently cairns are an Acadia tradition.  They were begun by the original trail builders in the park as the only signs along the way.
Cairns rather than blazes.   The park is trying to return to this tradition.

 

Cairns like these point the way

 

on trails like these.

 

Not too far along the trail is a bronze plaque to honor Waldron Bates as “The Pathmaker”.  It was he who planned and engineered trails to interesting rock formations and exhilarating sites along rock ledges, wrote instructions about how to construct safe and durable trails, instituted a signage protocol to direct hikers along trail routes and designed a simple cairn to mark the paths for hikers.  It is these cairns the park is trying to restore.   This is one of several “memorials” through out the national Park which commemorate people who helped establish the park and cherished its development.  You can see the plaque set into the lower left end of this huge granite boulder below.

 

 

 

Hiking up Gorham Mountain you can take the trail to the top directly or you can take a side trail down to the bottom of the cadillac cliffs and see the former sea caves from when this area was at the bottom of the ocean floor.   If you take the side trail you will miss the early views from the main trail.   But we want to see the caves.

 

 

 

There are some big stones to get over and around.

 

 

Good thing this step wasn’t even a teeny bit higher.

 

Sometimes you just have to sit down to get down.

 

This is where David is going. 

 

Me too.

 

 

So this must be one of the caves.

 

I thought about trying to go through here but decided against it.

 

I just went around the other side and peeked through instead.

 

When cairns aren’t possible, a light blue blaze is used.  Is that a cave in there?

 

No, I think it’s in here.

Above us are the cadillac cliffs with the scoring marks of the glaciers on them.

 

You can see the “paths” we are walking on down here at the bottom.

And here.

 

But we find another sea cave

 

 

And another

 

Now to get back up on top and continue on to the top of Gorham.

 

Up there is where we want to be.

 

And when we finally make it the path looks easy by comparison.

 

Shortly we hit our first views.  We have missed the earlier lower views by going on the cliffs trail so these are surprising.

 

I zoom in on the end of Great Head where we were hiking last week.
What gorgeous views from here.

 

But we are not at the top yet.  So on up the rocky trail we go.

 

 

Is this it??

 

Nope, not quite

 

 

But in addition to another set of great views we find…..more blueberries.   Time for a snack.

 

 

 

 

 

After fortifications we press on to the summit.  All 525’ of it.  No it’s not that high but it’s a rocky road.   And has fantastic views!!

 

 

 

David wants to press on to see the Bowl.  Ok by me.  Until I see that will mean going back down and then back up.   I think I’m finished with rock scrambling up for the day and am ready to just rock scramble down.  

 

So David goes on over to the bowl and I retrace our steps going back by the full Gorham Mountain trail, no side path down the cadillac cliffs.

 

 

David takes these pictures of his hike to the bowl.

 

 

 

He passes the sign for the hike he really wants to take but so far he can’t get anyone to agree to go along.  The Beehive Trail is rated as “Strenuous” and is approximately 0.8 miles/1.3 km long. The first section of the Beehive Trail has iron rungs to allow climbers to ascend exposed, steep cliff faces and traverse narrow ledges.  

 

 

 

 

 

The Beehive.

 

 

As it turns out, his hike to the bowl and down through the woods was slightly less mileage than mine back down Gorham but that’s only because he caught the bus at the park loop road and took it from Sand beach where he came out back to the car at the Gorham Parking lot.  Had I known that, I probably would have gone.  He does last minute unplanned things.  I like to know what I’m getting into before I do it.

 

 

But I had a fine time just turning around and seeing the Gorham trail from a different point of view, rocks and all. :-))

 

 

 

 

But when I get to the parking lot, I walk on across the park loop road and wait for David here.   Now this is right up my alley.

 

 

 

 

    

A good time was had by all!!