If a tree falls in the forest, and no one is there, does it make a sound? This is in reference to this site.

OK, so after GG's last TR on Acadia I thought I might give the day trip thing a shot. At least once.
Then last Thursday, Chronicle was on Acadia in winter. Bam! a done deal. Looked at the forecast
for Saturday. Sunny! Wind-chills as low as -15! Let's do it.

I'm going to do the body of the report with the details first, then get to the pix. 2 things I wanted to
come away with here...Seeing the winter wonderland Acadia, and the lack of people. Only saw the latter.
Now I'll admit I haven't been paying much attention to the snow totals up there but I didn't thing the
January thaw we just had would wipe it out but it did. Totally! Not a trace left. The only sense of winter
I got was the ice. Which there was a fair amount of that on trail making things interesting. Other than
that, going by the pictures it could have been just stick season in November. This was a huge disappointment.
Sure, it made for easier hiking for the most part but I really wanted to see the place covered in snow.
But, the lack of people was unreal. Surreal actually. Saw no one. The feeling is indescribable.

Anyway, I checked to see what part of the park was open to come up with a plan. I did not want to hit
any new mountains as I'm going to try to finish the 26 with Becky who I think needs 3 to catch up.
I decided I'd do the quick shore drive since the park loop road is open from the main gate to
Otter Cliff Road. Then Start a hike from the Jordan Pond house sine that section of the loop road is open.
Finding the road that gets you to the gate wasn't easy since I've never gone in that way and it's not really
mentioned on the web-site. How I've gone all this time without knowing about this road is beyond me.
Unless the sign to Acadia is only up in winter so the body of traffic doesn't go that way the rest of the year.

At anyway rate, I found it and it afforded a really cool view of Mt. Champlain.


Not much happening on the shore drive. No snow, but no people.


Then it was off to the Jordan Pond House lot. Me and 4 others. Where they were I've no idea. Again, saw no one.


This was my plan. Hike Penobscot, Sargent, and the Bubbles. Do a little red-lining on the way ending up on
North Bubble for the sunset. Or what ever I'd have for a sunset as it went down behind Sargent. Turned out
to be not so great. Since the sun was still pretty high then, 4ish, not much for colors. It just dipped inconspicuously
behind Sargent. Not a true sunset really. I did not get a lot of red-lining in either, most of the trails I'd already been
on. New to me was the Spring Tr. to the Jordan Cliffs Tr. Jordan Cliffs Tr. (Yes, chanced that with possible bad ice.)
And the section of Sargent South Ridge between Maple Springs and the summit. Which I skipped to do Gilmore
a couple years ago.

So off I went. The Bubbles from the lawn.


Hitting the trails.


Hope this isn't a mistake!


So far so good.


First view.


Uh Oh! first sign.


Getting more consistent.


Glad the trail isn't up there.


I'd run into some pretty bad sections of ice all day but this was the scariest. As you can see it's only
about 10 feet long but no way around. Sheer ledge on the left. See you at the bottom on the right.


One thing I found out here was is not only do you have to be very careful about foot placement, you
also have to watch where you're putting a hand for support. Bracing yourself with your hand on ice
doesn't work. Had my hand slip as I was leaning on that ledge to the left.

This is where I could have gone.


Some interesting ice along the way.




This spot was bad too but you can see fairly easily bypassed.


Great view from some ledges below the summit.


Penobscot summit. Yet another sign missing where there was one on my last visit. Some people just
plain suck!


Couple summit shots. Finally, I see some ice to play on. Sargent Mtn Pond.






Off for Sargent Mtn. And as said, play on some ice. As that's another thing I thought I'd find. A frozen solid
Jordan Pond. This one worked though.

Sargent Mtn Pond. Wish I brought some skates. Skating on this would have been awesome!


Some cool art in the ice.






Bump. Closing in on Sargent.


Sargent Mtn. WAcadia26 #2


Had to throw one selfie in.










Heading down was a challenge.


Just going to let the photos take over to S. Bubble.


















Now it was just a mad dash to N. Bubble for the, fake , sunset.

WAcadia26 #4






Nothing special.




A last look.


Time to head out before it was headlamp time. This was fun in poor light.


Jordan Pond Carry might be new. Don't remember.


Some one's been busy.




Horrible photo given the light but here's 1 of 2 of the culprits.


Now just a pleasantly quiet walk along the pond to my car.






I don't know if this is the norm as far as the lack of people goes but this was an unbelievable experience.

Didn't do a mega GG/Gibba loop but it was perfect for me. About 8.5 miles. still worth the drive.

Alone, in Acadia. Just, WOW!

The tracks



Click Pik 4 Pix

Wow, those pictures are awesome.



Terry

What are the odds the guy who had pretty much sworn that day trips to Acadia wouldn't happen would be there the day before we went?

Jordan Cliff in Winter?! I wouldn't even have thought about it after having seen it when it was a little damp in fall. Just looking at some of those pics makes my stomach queasy, but good for you! Pretty sure you'll do just fine on the Precipice too if the ice on this one didn't bother you, although maybe not in winter! They just had to rescue someone who fell on the ice on Precipice last week. And then you followed up Jordan Cliff by descending Sargent East Cliff trail? That's a pretty gutsy route choice between those two but it sure looks good in your pics. The lack of snow up there, while I agree it's a bummer, was probably a good thing to give you more bare rock to work with on those trail.



So true.



It is amazing to have a National Park to yourself. And yes it's the norm in winter. Seeing anybody on the trails is rare. And if winter camping is your thing there's a pretty good chance you'll have Blackwoods to yourself also.



Sign is only up in the winter. And clearly you're not paying close enough attention to my reports. But congrats on a day trip to Acadia! Winter is a good time to do it because you can stick around for sunset and still get home at a decent (relatively speaking) hour like thegibba and I did yesterday. If you try it in summer, well, I think Peter got home at 3AM last time we tried that and had to work the next morning.

Love the dark blue photos! The artsy ice is nice, too, the first one looks like some sort of alien. The beaver looks like those Loch Ness photos they show in tabloids. Glad you made it down safely.

Cool. Another TR I can skim through and not pay attention to detail.

Also, the west side of The Bubble Divide was new to me too. Every little bit helps.

When I first saw your TR posted. I thought Derek had put his up! Then the"hey! Wait a minute!" Moment hit me. . That's some cajones going up the Jordan cliffs trail! We brought everything. Axes, crampons. Yadda yadda. Not a drop of snow even in the evergreens! Looks like you shut down the park like we usually do. Any more plans for day hikes up there? I swear the drives seem shorter and shorter every time. It's hard, but I would recommend not staying for sunset in summer if you have to work the following day though. A few hours of sleep plus hiking followed up with only a few hours of sleep is a bit rough.

I brought everything as well but once I saw the conditions I only brought my trekking poles and 2 pairs of spikes.
One new and one older to sacrifice. The older got the most use and really took a beating from all the bare rock I had to
walk on. I only fell once and that was with them off where there was just one 2' patch of ice I didn't see.

Definitively going up at least once more this winter. But I can't say the drive home was easy. Even hitting the road at 5PM.
The ME. pike is bad enough in day light. Pitch black it's so nondescript that keeping the eyes open was a struggle. Even hitting
the last Circle K on 1A for a super sized coffee didn't help much.

I just need to figure out what mountain will give me a good sunset the isn't a long hike back to the car.

I have to get up there for some winter hikes..I'm retired so there's no excuse. My only problem is 10 hrs of driving along with the hike would be a little too much for me . It would be a 2 day trip for me..BTW nice pictures,especially the last three.

Wow Joe, and I thought you were going to do a 52WAV peak, this looks like it might have been worth blowing off my hiking plans with Garry. Although I think I might have freaked out over that icy section with the "no fall zone".

And I thought you were doing Mt Tom. And I will be doing this again in another month or so.

Still going 1A & 95? Yuck. Thought for sure the route with more to see would get you hooked after one try.



It begins...

Google still says that's the fastest. Only minutes but still faster. But what helps me on that route is cruise control. I love using it. And with such light traffic I was able to use it for miles on end on 1A.

I'm not going to make a habit of this but the lack of people is the big draw for me.

I personally find that passing trucks and slow people drums up a little excitement on rt3.