JMSP to Jericho Gateway Family Campground August 28 - Day 10

(Kim's Perspective)
Today we had to relocate. Jericho Mountain State Park didn't have availability through the weekend so yesterday when we were riding the trails, we headed over to the connector trail that leads to Jericho Gateway Family Campground. The campground owner, Steve, is in the middle of the permitting process so for now, it's a first come, first served free dispersed camping type of set up. We called him yesterday and were able to secure a spot that would fit both of our rigs so, first thing this morning, we packed up and took the campers over to the new site. The drive was short; the campground is just a few miles north of the state park so we opted to leave the motorcycles and the quad behind until we got set up, then we all drove over in our truck to pick up the bikes and the ATV. Mr. Sitt drove the truck back and Bill, Shele, and I took the trails. We set up and made lunch before we headed out for some more riding.

This is SO my kind of camping!

After lunch, we geared up and hit the trails. Again, photos were only taken during breaks. Breaks as in rest, not breaks as in bones. :)

I tried to convince the Sitts to drive through the puddle but SOMEONE is particular about his stuff getting dirty. :) I pointed out that quads are SUPPOSED to be dirty. It's just a matter of time...I'll be patient.


Since we never made it all the way to Success Pond when we were here the first time, we decided to ride it again and see what there was to see. We have no idea why they say you can take the trail to Success Pond, because after a certain point, the ATV trail goes through private "camps"; none of which allow you access to the pond. Fail. We kept on riding thinking we hadn't gone far enough - and we literally rode all the way to Maine! :)



Maine has its own ATV permit requirements so we had to turn around and head back the way we came. I really like that particular trail though so I was happy to do it again.

Knowing we'd be slower on one of the sandy sections of trail, we had the Sitts lead. Once we were back on dirt, it didn't take long to catch up and we passed them on the outside of the turn in the whoops section.  It reminded me of that time I passed Bill on the outside of a long right hand sweeper on the Parkway.... heeeheeeheee....ah, good times!

I was feeling strong and confident (likely because we'd ridden this section of trail 4 times now) so Bill picked up the pace and we hauled along at a pretty good clip for awhile. We pulled over and waited for the Sitts to catch up and I poked my way down to a small pond to see if I could spot a moose. No such luck. Eh, no matter. The moose are better out West anyway...like pretty much everything else. :) We took a group shadow picture before jumping back on the bikes and headed back to the campground.

When we arrived, we unloaded the bikes...




...had some dinner...

...and made a fire. We had Shele’s pre-birthday ice cream for dessert. I took Lane for a short walk...





...and returned to the campfire....



My evening photos were largely a fail, but like all of our photos, they remind us of good times so it matters little that they’re not in focus – that’s not the purpose of this blog nor is it what we “focus” on. ;)

Jericho Mountain State Park Part 2...August 27 - Day 9

(Kim's Perspective)

Anxious to ride their new toy, the Sitts were eager to spend the day on the trails - and that's exactly what we did. We rode all over the place. Sadly, I neglected to keep up with the blog and, as usual, we neglected to take sufficient pictures, so I can't remember the specifics of the day. Suffice it to say, we had a great time. I do recall a steep descent covered with thick, deep sand and a losing battle with gravity. Imagine that. Fortunately, sand is soft. Mostly. Unless it has rocks in it. Then not so much. We rode most of the trails within the Jericho Mountain State Park boundary (about 80 miles) and decided to head to Gorham to ride the trails there.

As you can see, we never bothered to stop and take pics of the cool parts of the trails nor did we stop to get any "action photos". Why? Well... A) we're usually having too good a time and not thinking about stopping to take pictures and B) if we're on a particularly hairy section of trail, there aren't usually too many opportunities to pull off to the side, park, dismount, and drag out the camera.  :D










We rode through town and followed the ATV trail signs to Gorham. We jumped on a section of trail that was super sucky. It paralleled the highway and was basically a point A to point B type of trail (wide, flat double track not unlike the C&O Canal Towpath). The part that made it sucky was that it was nothing but sand and loose gravel so the bikes were floating all over the place and the front wheels would wash out from underneath us every few seconds. Did I mention I hate sand? The Sitts absolutely loved it. They could speed along without fear of being catapulted from their machine and tossed into a tree at high speed. :) The trail popped out in town and we followed the signs to the trailhead. Annoyingly enough, trail bikes were prohibited. Trail bike discrimination irritates me greatly, but I'll spare you my "two-wheel-vs-four-wheel-what-does-the-most-damage?" rant. It was getting late in the day so we decided to start heading back to Berlin. Bill and I weren't interested in riding that sandy section of perpetual-pending-crash again so we took advantage of our street legal machines and took the road back. The Sitts of course had to follow the trail to the section of road where they were permitted to ride.  We stopped to get a photo of them crossing the trestle, but I wasn't quick enough and they zipped out of the frame.


We made plans to meet them at a little restaurant in Berlin.  On our way, we noticed the Farmer's Market on Main Street was open.  Wooohooo!  We zipped in and took a stroll by all the vendors.  It made me a little sad.  I miss vending at Farmer's Markets.  :(  We picked up some organic Jalapeno Chevre and also bought a jar of Caramel Apple Butter.  The cheese was amazing.  We would find out later that the Caramel Apple Butter was just as phenomenal.  We loaded our purchases into my tailpack and headed to the restaurant.  We waited awhile and then texted the Sitts that we were waiting for them in the parking lot.  They texted back saying they were at a deli up the road from us.  Ooops.  We couldn't remember the name of the restaurant and our description of the place wasn't accurate enough to get them there.  Since they were already at the deli and didn't want to leave and we were already at the "Valley Creek Eatery", we told them we'd catch them back at the campground. 

Dinner was pretty good.  I was jonesing for a salad so ordered a strawberry walnut chicken salad with raspberry vinaigrette and Bill ordered a fish sandwich that was surprisingly good.  After dinner, we hopped on the bikes and headed back to the campground.  I was grateful it was a short trip because it was getting dark and was quite chilly riding in our trail gear (i.e. jersey and chest protector get up).  We hung out with the Sitts back at the campground and chatted about our day.  The Sitts really seemed to enjoy themselves and Bill, as always, was having an absolute hoot.  Aside from that one minor mishap, I too had a really great day. :D

Back to Jericho Mountain State Park...August 26 - Day 8

(Kim's Perspective)

Today was a hoot.  We anticipated an anti-climactic, nothing-to-write-home-about traveling day, but we were in for quite an exciting surprise.

We left the foggy, rainy drizzle behind in Acadia and hit the road back to Berlin.  There aren't many direct routes, so we backtracked the way we came and took route 2 all the way back into New Hampshire.  Lane, as always, chilled in the back as we drove.  He really is an awesome cat.  Let me explain a bit.  When Bill found him cowering in the middle of the road (or, lane, as it were) on a dark, rainy night and brought him home for me to "find him a home"....duh...he was 0.9 pounds.  We think he was maybe 5 weeks old at the time and once we decided we were going to keep him - you know, when I laid eyes on him and held him in my palm - he instantly took to Merlin who became his adopted mommy.  From that point forward, Lane was no longer a cat.  Everything he did was very dog-like.  Yes, we had other cats in the house, but Lane took to Merlin and thought he was the best thing ever.  Of course, he was so it was only natural that Lane recognized this, too.  "Growing up dog" meant that he has great recall, mostly does what you tell him, walks on a leash (well, mostly), is calm and totally chill, and travels like a pro.  No meowing, no freaking out.  He simply gets in the truck and naps, snacks, or plops on my lap while we go down the road.  Not being so dog like that he will "go potty" on command, I put him in the trailer at every gas stop to see if he needs to use his litterbox.  He does seem to recognize the words "are you ready to go for a ride?", and on most occasions, he will look at me, walk over to his litterbox, do his business and be ready to pound out another couple hundred miles on the road.  Never in his 15 years has he messed outside the litterbox or caused me ANY kind of typical cat ownership grief.  As I said, he thinks he's a dog.  Which, logically, makes him the BEST CAT EVER.  No really, we have the best cat ever.  It's not some cute saying on a photo frame or wooden sign, he really IS the BEST CAT EVER.  I digress.

As we headed toward the New Hampshire state line, I asked Bill to pull over so I could get the sign for Maine which we missed on the way over.  He kindly obliged and I snapped a quick photo and we were on our way.

The Sitts needed to swing by Wal-Mart before heading to the campground, so we stopped to grab some essentials like cat litter for the BEST CAT EVER.  ;)

After the Wally World stop, the Sitts pealed off to fill out the paperwork for their rental so they wouldn't have to mess with it in the morning and Bill and I checked in at the campground and got set up in the same sites we had last time.  We smelled propane when we were unhitching so we did a little troubleshooting of our system (mental note: replace regulator valve) while we waited for the Sitts. 

I had noticed we had a recent visitor to our site.  Another mental note: don't let Lane stray too far.

Stay here, Kitteh.  Mommy doesn't want you to become a pile of bear poop.  :D

While we were messing with the camper, Bill and Shele pulled in.  This is where the story (finally! you say) gets good.  They pulled in without their camper.  Uhhh?  Bill and I looked at each other and smirked.  We had been discussing whether Bill would end up buying a four wheeler on the spot.  He said if they offered him a good deal and could get the machine in the back of his truck so they could get back home with the camper, he'd consider buying one.  And that's exactly what they did!  We were cracking up laughing.  They unloaded the stuff from the back of their pickup at the campsite and headed back over to Jericho Motorsports.  We told them we'd pop in to join them in a bit.  When we arrived, their new Arctic Cat was already loaded on the truck.

The Bills discussed any potential load issues...

...while I snapped a photo of their awesome new rig set up.  :D  I suspect, like us, they're now going to be gawked at by dudes in trucks and little kids in car seats as they ride down the road.  It's quite funny really.  We don't think much about the bikes being in the back of the truck until we realize that we keep getting stared at as we're driving down the road.  Then it dawns on us what the big smiles, waves, and thumbs ups are for.  Two people, two bikes, a cat, and a camper.  Yep.  Life is good. 

I went inside to join (and congratulate!) Shele.  She was quite happy - as evidenced by her giant grin.  :)

I had them pose for a pick with Stacia - who, by the way, was a complete doll.  She's just one of these really awesome people you meet and could spend hours talking to. 

After we said goodbye to the good folks at Jericho Motorsports, we headed back to the campground.  The Sitts unloaded their new quad and, as I'm sure you might have guessed, wanted to go for a ride.  SWEET!!  We quickly threw on our gear and were off.  It was pretty late in the day so we only got a short ride in.  Regretfully, we didn't stop to take any photos but I assure you, everyone was having a great time.  We returned to the campsite, had a late dinner, and chatted about the days events.  I'm SO glad they're having a good time and enjoy riding enough to recognize it as a viable long-term investment.  I envision a whole lot of Hatfield McCoy riding in our future.  :)  This is going to be great!!

Acadia National Park...August 25 - Day 7

(Kim's Perspective)

As planned, we spent the day in Bar Harbor.  We wanted to walk across to Bar Island at low tide, so we found a parking lot near the beach access point and walked down to the water.  We took our time strolling across the rocky sand bar and zigzagged back and forth from one tide pool to the next.  There were a lot of people around and, after noticing a father and son skipping rocks, the Bills decided to spend some time doing the same.  Flat skipping rocks were few and far between and they soon tired of their game when it became evident that it was more of a rock plopping contest.  :)

At the other side of the sand bar, nearest the island, we wandered around looking at the cool cairns that people had placed.  

Clearly, an engineer (or an over achiever) wanted to leave their mark.

We watched the fog roll in...imagine that....MORE FOG.... 

...and figured we'd better walk to the top of the Island before the fog obscured any views we were expecting to see.  We arrived in time to snap a few photos and then head back down to the sand bar. 

At this point, I was in desperate need of a restroom so when I declared I was beat-feeting it back on my own to locate a facility, Shele's bladder perked up and she decided to join me.  :)  We hoofed back relatively quickly and made use of the restrooms at the somewhat posh hotel on the waterfront.  We met the guys back at the truck and decided to find a nice place to eat.  Five minutes of mapping and reading restaurant reviews, and we were on our way to Galyn's.  By this point, the fog...and the chilly air...had moved in completely so we were happy to be sitting down to a nice warm meal.  And nice it was.  Finally.  It was also a small fortune, but I have no problem paying for an expensive meal every once in a while if the meal is actually tasty.  I take issue with paying a lot of money for food that tastes like a frozen, microwavable entree.  Which is basically what we had experienced over the last couple of days.  :(  After our meal (which took over an hour and a half), we walked the streets of Bar Harbor and popped into the interesting shops along the way.  Bill and I picked up a couple of fuzzies (i.e. fleece/microfiber zip-ups to the rest of the world) and merrily continued on.  We wandered in and out of stores and....no surprise here....Bill and Shele wanted ice cream.  It's downright chilly outside and you want ice cream?  Well....hmmmm....I'll just see what they have. Uhhhh.... Wild Blueberry ice cream?  Um...."Sir, I'll have a scoop of wild blueberry ice cream on a sugar cone, please".  Turns out, it doesn't matter that it's cold outside if there's wild blueberry ice cream available. 

We slowly made our way through town and, after a quick stop at the restroom and a few quick "fog-tos"...

This is when air brushing would be handy.  Eeek.  Fortunately, I have no one to impress.  :)

....we were back in the truck and heading back to the campground.  It was rainy and chilly the rest of the evening so we looked at the weather forecast and discussed altering our plans.  We had reservations for another night at Acadia and then were planning on driving to Fundy National Park in New Brunswick where we also had reservations for two nights.  Though I had very much been looking forward to visiting Fundy Bay, there were an assortment of reasons to bag the trip altogether.  First and foremost was the weather.  Second was the 5 hour drive to mess around with a border crossing for a day and a half there (again, with the potential for foul weather).  So, I pulled out my trusty map and we discussed our options.  I called Parks Canada and cancelled our reservations and, after discounting everything else, we all decided we wanted to go back to Jericho Mountain State Park.  The Sitts had such a great time renting the side-by-side that they were open to dropping the coin to do another rental.  I booked reservations online and we agreed to start packing up so we could have an early departure in the morning and make our way back to New Hampshire.  We spent the rest of the evening loading the bikes and getting everything ready to hit the road.  Wooohoooo!  This is going to be fun!

Acadia National Park...August 24 - Day 6

(Kim's Perspective)

I didn't sleep well last night and finally got up at 6:30.  Bill stayed in bed so I fed Lane and then worked on the blog for a bit.  I'm currently sitting at the dinette typing on my iPad and listening to the quiet of the campground interrupted by the occasional flush of the toilets from the bathrooms directly behind our rig.  Wow. I love our property.  Perspective.  I haz it. :)

It's kind of gross outside - foggy, damp, and generally sticky.  I'm glad we've been here before because it would suck for it to be our first trip and have it rain the whole time...which it's pretty much forecasted to do through Wednesday.  We leave early Thursday.  Grrr.  The plan for today is to pack our daypacks and head to the main part of Acadia and do some hiking.  I want to do the Precipice and Beehive hikes again but I guess we'll have to see if the weather cooperates.  Both of these hikes are non-technical climbing routes so climbing on wet iron rungs that are hammered into rock while it's raining probably isn't the safest thing to do.  We'll see.  For now, it's time to make some coffee...and have some blueberry laden cereal for breakfast. :)

We had a very late start and didn't get out of the campground till 9:40.  The Sitts drove separately and we headed over to the main part of the island to do the Park Loop Road.  We swung by the visitor center which was thoroughly mobbed with people.  Yuck.  This is why we go out West.  A fraction of the people and a ton more space.

We stopped at all the touristy, looky-loo spots and decided to spend some time at an area with a short little path (yes, it was actually a path - paved and everything) that led to the shoreline.  We figured it would be a family friendly type of place...we had no idea what was in store for us. The sun had finally burned off the fog and Bill and I had made our way out onto the rocks.  We were far away from the crowds and exploring all the tide pools...


....scrambling over and around the rocks...







...and just taking in all the sights....














The air was heavy with the smell of the sea but was tinged with the rotting smell of death nearby.  Unbeknownst to us, we had wandered into a lair.  Without warning, we were suddenly and viciously attacked by a monster only a Hollywood horror movie could have conjured.  We were no match for it.  No mere mortal would have been a match for this beast.  With sharp claws clicking over the rocks, it pounced on Bill and attacked.




Bill, despite his initial fear and surprise, fought back so courageously that the creature scurried away.  Relief flooded over us.  We thought we were out of danger and had no idea the creature was just out of sight and setting up for his second attack.  This time, he preyed on me.  He knocked me over from behind, lifted me up with his gigantic claw and attempted to carry me off.


Fortunately for me, all the road trip junk food I had consumed added to my weight and he was unable to lift me completely off the ground.  I have never been so happy to have gained 5 pounds from eating poorly while on vacation.  If it wasn't for the Pringles, the Milk Duds and the Whoppers, I'd surely be dead.  I'm sure they'll kill me eventually, but today, they literally saved my life. :)

After our terrifying attack, we regrouped and composed ourselves to continue on our journey.  We refuse to let adversity and near death experiences ruin our vacation. :D  In all actuality, we were laughing our butts off and drawing attention to ourselves from all the cackling and raucous laughter.


We continued on the Park Loop Road and stopped at the cool must sees like Thunder Hole.










I took more photos...yeah, I do that a lot...before jumping back in the truck.









We stopped for lunch and ate off the tailgate before working our way down to Seal Harbor - which wasn't occupied by seals at all. ;) We jumped back on the loop and attempted to drive to Cadillac Mountain.  The Rangers were blocking the way due to the mass quantities of people at the top and instructed us to try back in 10 or 15 minutes.  We decided to spend a few minutes at Eagle Lake.






Our second attempt to visit Cadillac Mountain was successful.  We drove to the top and spent nearly two hours climbing around on the rocks and checking out the views.  Bill and I, eager to get away from the throngs of people, took the less beaten path and ended up being the only ones around.  We sat together on a rock looking at the ocean and the tiny little islands surrounding Bar Harbor.













We made our way back to the parking lot, zipped over to the gift shop and bought two blueberry sodas. Nom!  We met back up with the Sitts and discussed plans for the rest of the day.  We somehow convinced them to give the Beehive Trail a try.  By convince, I simply mean Mr. Sitt said "We can go take a look". Seriously?!? Sweet!!

We had difficulty finding parking but, after stalking people coming from Sand Beach, we eventually secured two parking spots.  We geared up, crossed the road and started the climb at the trailhead.


We made it up a few sets of the iron rungs and Mr. Sitt decided that was far enough for him.





Shele continued on for a bit but decided to turn around at an exposed ledge.


I was so utterly happy that both of them gave it a try.  I think it's great that they were willing to do something completely outside of their experience and comfort zones.  Shele later said she wished she had finished the hike.  Progress has been made towards converting the Sitts to outdoor adventure junkies.  I'll eventually have them backpacking some cool canyon with us or hiking a 14er one day (still on my bucket list). :P

Bill and I continued to the top.










Bill sat and took in the view while I played photographer.  A dad with two young kids was attempting to take a self portrait at the summit sign, so I offered up my services so they could get a family photo.  Bill and I chatted as to whether one adult was sufficient to take two kids on this kind of a hike.  Obviously, they made it without issue, but I think I would have had a heart attack or developed an ulcer watching my children scurry over narrow ledges and climb up rock faces.  One little misstep and disaster strikes.  No thanks.

Bill and I continued the hike and returned via the loop down the backside of the mountain.


It was a super short hike.  It only took an hour round trip (despite some online trail descriptions stating a round trip time of 2-4 hours).  The Sitts had decided to wait for us at the bottom of the trail and were chatting with an older couple that had just hiked the Precipice.  We hiked both the Beehive and Precipice trails when we visited Acadia for our 2nd year wedding anniversary.  Standing on an exposed ledge on the Precipice trail is where I learned that my body can have its own opinion of my current activity and argue with the sensible, logical side of my mind.  "This is fun!  Why are my hands shaking?"  Fear or adrenaline?  Who knows, but no shakes on this trip - climbing Half Dome probably cured me of any fear of heights I may have been developing back then.  It's a good thing because most of the cool, spectacular things we've seen are usually out of reach to the casual observer and a fair amount of effort (with perhaps a smidgen of stupid) is generally required. But hey, that just makes for better memories. :)

We headed back to the parking area, stashed our bags and walked down to the beach. We sat on the beach for a while watching the waves crash and enjoying the scenery.  I wandered around taking photos and messing with a particularly amusing seagull (we were playing a version of tag, Simon says, and chicken).



We headed back to the truck and towards the campground.  We stopped for dinner at a side of the road outdoor eating joint and experienced some of the local flavor.  Come to find out, the local flavor is kind of bland.  In my experience, lobster bisque is usually better when there is LOBSTER in it.  It's also usually better when there's enough soup to actually fill you up and not just make you angry for paying 8 bucks for 5 oz of soup.  I'm really looking forward to finding a decent seafood restaurant.  Back at the campsite, we enjoyed a campfire while sitting around the picnic table and chatting about our day.  We were happy the weather cooperated and we were able to see the highlights of the park.  Tomorrow, we'll spend some time at the shops in Bar Harbor and will check out Bar Island at low tide.  (Which I remember being pretty cool.)