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July 24 - Northeast Harbor, ME

Mount Desert Island
Northeast Harbor Marina

What a beautiful day we had...the sun was back and the temperature was in the 70s. A perfect day for hiking the carriage trails through Acadia National Park. We caught the bus to Brown Mountain and hiked about five miles. We could have ridden our bikes on the trails and we would have covered more ground, but we wouldn't have really been able to enjoy the beautiful scenery as much. Hiking gave us the chance to stop and enjoy the views, wander off the trails a little and to pick blueberries. The wild blueberries are ripe and there were everywhere! They are small berries, not like the ones we get in the store and so much fun to pick.

The carriage roads were built to follow contours of the land and take advantage of the scenic views. They were graded so they wouldn't be too steep or have sharp curves, making them easy for horse-drawn carriages to use. Today you can still take a carriage tour of these roads. They make hiking and biking this wonderful park accessible to people of all skill levels.

After hiking this morning we caught the bus back to Bar Harbor and enjoyed our picnic lunch in the park. The town looked a lot different today in the sun. We had a chance to see the beautiful waterfront that was shrouded in fog yesterday and I even had a chance to get a haircut.

LL Bean pays for the Island Explorer...it's the free shuttle bus service on Mount Desert. It makes getting around so easy. You can hop on and off anywhere you like. Just wave the bus down and they pick you up. On our way back to our marina we took the bus that went down the eastern side of the island. What amazing view you get from here, cliffs that drop off sharply into the sea. Mount Desert is a beautiful island and there is so much to see and do. Our few days here will not be long enough to cover it all.

Our morning view...very nice

One of the wonderful carriage trails.
One of the many bridges on the carriage trails
Picking blueberries
Blueberry bushes
A hand full of goodness
Some of our views from the hike
 
Bar Harbor waterfront
Sand Beach on the east side of Mount Desert

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