From The Top. An Island Mountain Hike

Off the coast of Maine lies a small but mountainous island, filled with forested valleys and glacial lakes and ponds, surrounded by rocky coastline with pocket beaches and crashing waves. It boasts rounded mountains, peaceful meadows, mud flats, salt marshes, tide pools, and lobster fishing. All this is on one island: Mount Desert Island (often called just MDI).

Home to Acadia National Park, MDI annually hosts around three million visitors who flock here to enjoy its special wonders. MDI is beautiful all year, but summer is typically the busiest time, and it's certainly the easiest to get around. This year is the 85th anniversary of the establishment of the park on January 1, 1919, so there will be some special programs organized by Park Headquarters.

Acadia comprises about one third of MDI, and also occupies part of the Schoodic Peninsula to the north, and half of Isle au Haut, southwest of MDI. The island and Acadia National Park are so intertwined that it's difficult, if not impossible, to think of the one without the other.
The park and the island have much to offer, including cruising on the bays and the ocean, exploring the tide pools, driving the Loop Road to visit many of the park's special features---and a favorite---hiking. Hikes can range from easy (on the wide carriage roads in the park), to very difficult (up steep mountain trails).

If you can do only one hike in Acadia National Park, going up Mount Sauveur should be the one. The view must be the best in the park even though you have to work a bit, and walk a little more than a mile, to get there. It surpasses the wonderful view---which you can drive to---from the top of Cadillac Mountain. Our group ranged in age from six to late 50s, and everyone managed this hike without problems. In fact, the two children---6 and 8 years old---bound up the trail like gazelles.

Start from the spruce forest at the parking lot for the Mount Sauveur hike, following the blue arrow markers painted on the rocks. The trail is steep in places, with many exposed tree roots, fallen tree trunks, and scattered granite rocks and boulders, but the strenuous parts are short and the glorious view from the top is worth every puffing breath. A cooling breeze sighs lightly through the trees, wafting a spicy resin scent. Birds twitter and a chipmunk scurries away.

Stop to regain your breath and savor the moment: you're going up a mountain in this great park, trees are below and above you, and you've left the traffic and crowds behind. It's green and peaceful, with few other people. Continue up and across, over and around the roots and grayish rocks, some lichen-covered.

Trees surround the calm, quiet peak of Mount Sauveur, a slight rise on a slab of rock, marked by a sign: Mount Sauveur Mountain 679 feet. But follow the path a bit further, winding down gently about half a mile, to Valley View. Suddenly there is a break in the trees and you'll walk out onto a wide rock ledge that overlooks Somes Sound, the only fjord on the east coast of America. There's just blue sky above and open space, down to the water below. This is the top of the rocky cliffs, which you can see from the boat if you take an island cruise. The sheer cliffs rise straight up from the water, right next to a small safe cove. From up here a small beach is visible, accessible only by boat. If you do a morning cruise, the view from the boat is likely to be shrouded in mist and drizzle, but the afternoon may be clear with good visibility in the bright sun. Rejoice in the fine afternoon that allows you to experience this contrast in the island's weather pattern.

The view is stunning: across the fjord, up along the fjord to more mountains in the distance, and down to the sea and the islands. On the opposite side, enormous mansions (affectionately called "cottages" by the locals) have huge gardens that stretch to the water's edge. It is a glorious, harmonious whole, a place where you can see the ocean, the fjord, the mountains, the trees, the rocks, and the sea. This is a place to sit and soak up the scenery, to relax and replenish one's soul, to bring a smile to one's heart. Here is Nature at her best.

Go back down carefully, as there's loose gravel, plenty of tree roots to trip the unwary, and some steep jumps, which are a little hard on the knees, but it's quite manageable. What a sense of satisfaction and achievement!

To get to the start of the hike
Drive towards the small town of Southwest Harbor and watch out for the parking sign for Mt. Sauveur on the left just before the outskirts of the town.
It is about 1.3 miles up to Peak View (the top of Mt Sauveur, but the view is only of trees), and then a further 0.4 miles to the Valley View.
Wear good walking shoes, and remember a water bottle.

For information on cruises, Sea Princess Cruises offers various cruises daily mid-May through mid-October. Most cruises have a National Park Service naturalist on board. Cruises leave from Northeast Harbor. Call 207/276-5352.

(captions)All ages stride out on the rocky start of the hike (top); This view (center) calls for quiet contemplation; Hikers (center) get to look across the fjord to the mountains from the viewpoint; (bottom)Sky above and Somes Sounds below are all that's needed for a glorious time. (end captions)

If You Go...
Mount Desert
www.acadiamagic.com/Park.html
Maine Office of Tourism
888/624-6345
Accommodations
www.barharborvacations.com

Images and Text copyright Vivienne Mackie, 2004.
No reproduction, electronic, written or otherwise, without prior written consent.

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