Finally, a nice, dry (if chilly) morning! I visited both bakeries in town this morning in search of a plain croissant and a bagel, both of which I found. Both bakeries were pretty busy, too, which surprised me with the storm coming. Today I tried the “bagel of the week” from Slice of Eden, which was rosemary sea salt. It was as delicious as it sounds (assuming you like rosemary, which I do). I had it with the green olive and pimiento cream cheese, which was an excellent combination. Rich enjoyed his plain croissant. He brought some tea and coffee over for us from the lobby, which we enjoyed while sitting on the porch as usual.
We waited a little longer than usual before heading out this morning, to give it a chance to warm up. The air was cooler and a bit drier than it has felt in a long time, and we finally had some sunshine too.
Rich suggested taking a drive over to Seal Harbor. We could drive the full length of Cooksey/Cooksie Drive (we have seen both spellings), explore the pier he had noticed on the map, and check out the Naturalist’s Notebook store that we’ve known about for a few years but never visited. I suggested also looking for the Fandango puzzle solution location, and maybe checking out some of the abandoned roads or trails on Day Mountain since we would be in the area.
Our first stop was at the Hunters Beach trail. We thought we would try accessing the Fandango puzzle solution from there rather than from the Park Loop Road because it looked like it would be a very steep hike down from the road. Rich wanted to try walking a relatively easy, level trail, too.
There was one other car at the parking area along Cooksey Drive when we pulled in. Two men emerged from the trail as we were getting our gear ready, and they were excitedly telling us how spectacular the trail was (we’ve done it several times before, and it really is spectacular!). They left and we had the whole place to ourselves.
The trail starts out smooth but quickly becomes very rooted, and it was slippery after all the recent rain. Rich took his time and didn’t seem to have much trouble hiking the trail. I even spotted an NPS boundary marker along the way, a bit off the trail, that I documented on my way back to the car.
The sun was out and the waves were crashing against the cobbles, making that familiar rattling sound as the water sucked back out to sea. Unfortunately it was pretty obvious to us that we wouldn’t be able to reach the Fandango puzzle solution location very easily, if at all, from this spot. First we would have to cross Hunter’s Brook, which even at its narrowest point today was a bit too wide and flowing too swiftly for me to feel comfortable hopping across. And then, we had about 350 feet to go, straight up a rocky headwall and a steep, densely wooded slope behind it. If we’re going to attempt it, it will be from the top, along the Park Loop Road.
We explored the cobble beach for a few minutes, and then headed back toward the car. I documented the boundary marker, as planned, as Rich walked on back to the car.
Continuing on along Cooksey Drive, we soon came to a little parking area and overlook that we had never seen before: Cooksey Drive Overlook. A short trail here leads down to beautiful cliffs overlooking the ocean, very similar to the cliffs just to the north where we found and hiked part of the old Seal Harbor Cliff Trail several years ago—even down to all of the poison ivy in the area (although, despite the warnings and my expectations based on previous hikes in the area, we didn’t see much of it here). We both thought this would be a beautiful place for a lobster roll picnic!
The southern end of Cooksey Drive is lined with beautiful tidy mansions surrounded by lush forests and overlooking the harbor. Rich reminded me that supposedly Martha Stewart has a home in this area, although I don’t think it’s along this road. The area definitely has a Martha vibe!
Just past the last of the large homes, we came to another stop that Rich has spotted on the map this morning: the Seal Harbor Pier. It’s unassuming, just a small pier with a small parking lot (that was nearly full), and beautiful views. We did not see any benchmarks on or near the pier, but we looked just in case.
Entering the tiny town of Seal Harbor, we parked along the main street and checked out the Lighthouse Restaurant (note: this could be a good place to get that lobster roll for a picnic on the cliffs!) and then the Naturalist’s Notebook.
What a wild trip that place was! Imagine a interactive science museum/exploratorium with the coolest gift shop ever, splashed with wild colors and winding staircases and bead curtains between the tiny variously-themed rooms. I wish we could have spent even more time here, but we got a good sense of what it’s like, and picked up a few fun items to bring home: hard copy of Don Lenahan’s The Memorials of Acadia National Park, two moose figurines to add to our collection (including a moosette figurine!), and two notebooks for my work, one with a sloth design and one with a snake on the cover. This place is worth coming back to explore in more detail!
Our next and final stop was at the Day Mountain parking area. We wanted to poke around in an attempt to locate the old road shown on the 1942 topo map that should cross the current Day Mountain trail less than a tenth of a mile in.
Fortunately it was an easy find! The old road (now more of a trail) crosses the Day Mountain trail around the middle of the first set of bogwalks. There is a very obvious section leading southwest that probably goes right back down to Route 3, although we didn’t follow it today.
Rich continued along the Day Mountain Trail while I turned right and began to follow the old road. Stored in my GPS was a waypoint for a “seastack” and another waypoint for the Tilting Rock, so I set it to navigate to the seastack and decided to see what I would find along the way.
I soon spotted a small trail branching off to the left, marked with a pink flag. I went left and headed along what appeared to be a faint trail. Although I was only a little more than a tenth of a mile from the seastack coordinates, I soon lost the faint trail. I pushed my way through the brush and soon came across a series of cairns. At least I felt more secure, like I was in the right spot, although the cairns and the trail segments between them were still a little challenging to follow.
I made my way to the seastack and eventually to the Tilting Rock; the path marked by cairns became much easier to follow the closer I got to the Rock. This whole area is an incredibly lush labyrinth of moss and lichen covered boulders, huge ledges, seastacks, sphagnum carpets … just absolutely beautiful. I felt guilty exploring this area and finding these landmarks by myself! I know Rich would love this area. I didn’t spend much time here taking photos, mostly for that reason (and because I didn’t want to leave him sitting on the bogwalk for too long) and also because the sunny conditions just weren’t good for photography in the woods.
On the way back out, it was easy to follow the path of cairns the entire way. I discovered where I had made my initial mistake. After turning left at the pink flag, I should have swung to the left, not the right. Had I gone left, I would have found a large cairn and then followed the path easily to the landmarks. Lesson learned (and noted for next time)!
While he was waiting for me, Rich explored a bit further up the Day Mountain path, and then he followed the old road a bit past the pink flag. So he explored more of the old road than I did. It was just unfortunate that he didn’t have a GPS with him to create a tracklog. But we can go back and do that soon!
After we left the parking area, we looked for the crossing of the old road that I had seen on Google Street View, and it was very obvious. There are some boulders blocking the road and plenty of room to park, so we may enter the area in this way in the future. We’ll see.
Tonight’s very early supper was at Side Street Cafe. Although it’s a “boisterous” place and that atmosphere is generally not to our liking, the food and drinks are always good, so we put up with it.
We ordered a Coastal Haze IPA and Mason Pale Ale to start. We both wanted lobster rolls and clam chowder. We ended up ordering one “lobster feast” which comes with a cup of chowder and fries (we ordered them plain, not seasoned), and then we also ordered a single lobster roll (or “lobby roll” as it was denoted on the receipt) and two more cups of chowder (we really like the chowder)!
Everything was good and very filling. The lobster rolls contain a ton of meat and are very sweet and tender. The fries, plain and unsalted, were very good and hot. Even the kettle chips they serve with the plain lobster roll were tasty. We had no room for dessert.
The rest of the evening—aside from a quick trip I took to Hannaford—was spent resting in the room and doing some research on today’s finds.