Fieldtrip 14E of the QMIII Project, to Downeast Maine, August 18-22, 2014.

August 18, 2014. I left my house in Tappan NY at 7:30 AM, and drove north to Maine, making two short scenic stops as well as stops for lunch and gas. The first scenic stop was at the boat launch on the Penobscot River in Brewer Maine. The riverbank was full of wildflowers and the view is very pretty. The second stop was on the Whaleback, a place where the road is built on the top of a esker, as so is elevated above the surrounding countryside. The overlook there commands a nice view to the north, including the flood plain of the Union River.

I arrived at my destination, South End Campsite, at about 5:30 PM. This is one several campsites that the Maine Department of Environmental Protection operates in the Machias River watershed. It’s located in a grove of White Pine Trees on the shore of Second Machias Lake, off of Little River Road, an unpaved logging road. It’s a primitive site located near a boat launch and outhouse – just a flat place beneath the trees with a fire ring and picnic table. I picked out a place for my tent a few tens of yards from the picnic table.

The evening was beautiful, with sun shining through mostly clear skies. I took an hour-long walk along the lakeshore. I first headed clockwise, examining a large wetland east of Little River Road. A few ducks swam in open patches of water set amid marsh grasses. I then walked out on a peninsula that looked out onto the lake, back towards the campground. The lake is perhaps a mile across with mostly conifer forests on its shores. Large boulders punctuate its coastline. My route was blocked by the outlet stream – the Machias River, or so I suppose. I maneuvered among the bushes and grasses until I had a nice view out to the lake. I then backtracked and went counter-clockwise, back past my campsite, over a low hill, and down to a marshy area that blocked further passage. I climbed up onto several tall boulders so that I could get a good view of the marsh and lake. The only wildlife I saw on the hike was ducks and frogs.

Back at my campsite, I finished setting up camp and then cooked a dinner of marinated pork tenderloin (the kind sold in plastic pouches) and couscous, together with coffee. The sunset was very beautiful, with clouds in the western sky glowing bright orange. I listened to the car radio for a while after dark and then turned in. The evening was very dark and quite, until loons started calling around 8 PM. They were quite persistent and loud.

August 19, 2014. I ate a breakfast of croissants and jelly, washed down with coffee made on the Coleman stove. I walked down to the lake, hoping to spot a moose, but saw only their tracks in the sand. I did not notice them yesterday, so perhaps a moose walked by during the night. I then drove to the Land Trust North Seismic Station and swapped out the geophone, which we knew from our visit in June had a malfunctioning vertical component. I passed many fields of wildflowers along the sides of Fourth Lake Road and Dobsis Dam Road. The yellow Goldenrod was particularly spectacular, lit up by the morning sun. The servicing of the seismometer was routine and took about two hours.

I then drove to Princeton via Grand Lake Stream Road, opting for the longer paved route instead of the shorter but slower gravel one. I stopped by the bridge cross Musquash Stream, a wide stream that flows through a broad and picturesque marsh before exiting into Big Lake. I chatted with a couple of anglers who were casting lures from the bridge. They had caught some bass, earlier in the day.

The drive to the next seismometer at Howard Cove was a long one, for the paved roads curve first to the north before turning and heading south towards Machias. I made two short stops along Route 191. The first was at the Cathance Lake boat launch. Cathance is a fairly developed lake with many cabins and moored boats. My second stop was at the Southern Inlet Stream of Rocky Lake, a much wilder area with Pickerelweed and marsh grasses growing along the edges of a meandering stream. The Mud Landing Campsite, which I used a few years ago, is nearby. Continuing onward, I stopped at Jasper Beach in Jonesport for a picnic lunch by the sea, setting up my Coleman stove on the beach and preparing egg and cheese sandwiches. This little cove lacks any sand; the beach is entirely composed of reddish brown pebbles of rhyolite (not true jasper), which have weathered out of a nearby sea cliff. The berm of pebbles thrown high by winter storms was impressive. Several small ponds are formed by streams dammed by these tall piles of stones.

My next stop was to service the seismometer at Howard Beach. This site is by a sea cliff that commands a beautiful view of Machias Bay and its many rocks and islands. During our last visit, we discovered that the system had some sort of electrical problem that left it with one non-functional geophone component and a flaky GPS system. I discovered today, however, that the geophone was working fine and I decided to let it be. I swapped out at the recorder and watched the system for its full the full half-hour duty cycle, making sure that the GPS locked.

I stopped by Fort O’Brien Historic Site in Machiasport on my way back. It is a set of rounded and turfed-over earthen mounds, perhaps ten feet high, set in a crescent and facing the sea, with occasional low spots that I guess were for guns. The fort commands a nice view of the Machias River Estuary, but other than the mounds, there is not much to see. I spotted an osprey, flying above the river. I stopped by the Hannaford Supermarket in Machias to buy some ice, bread, hot chocolate mix and carrot cake.

I forgot to buy gasoline while in Machias and discovered, to my dismay, that the little store in Wesley was already closed for the day. So I wound up driving quite a bit east on Route 9 to the gas station at the campground near the Route 193 intersection. I did not want to risk running out on the logging roads of Washington County! I stopped at the Machias River Campground that’s south of Route 9. I had never been there and was surprised to find that it has a lean-to and that it commands a beautiful view of the Machias River. I walked down to the river, which was lit up by the yellow light of the late afternoon sun.

I then returned to South End Campsite. I had another dinner of pork, tomatoes and couscous, finishing up the second half of the pork tenderloin. After watching another beautiful sunset over Second Machias Lake, I had my hot chocolate and cake. I retired early, for I was rather tired. It was a long day! I heard hooting as I sank into sleep. I couldn’t tell whether the sound came from loons or owls.

August 20, 2014. It’s another beautiful day. I ate a breakfast of egg and cheese sandwiches, with coffee. I then packed up and headed to Acadia National Park, in order to see some of the volcanic rocks of “coastal arc” affinity, formed during the collision of the Avalon micro-continent with ancestral North America during the Devonian Period, four hundred million years ago.

I stopped briefly to admire Graham Lake at the point where Route 179 runs along its shore. It’s a large lake with several picturesque islands and with purple wildflowers blooming along its shore.

Acadia National Park was a zoo! I parked by the Visor’s Center, off of Route 3 and stood a long while in a queue to pay my twenty-dollar parking fee. I then waited more for a crowded bus to arrive and take me to the Cadillac Mountain North Ridge Trailhead (blazed in blue, as are all the other trails I encountered). I started my hike at 11:30 AM, way later than I had hoped. However, my patience was rewarded, for my hike to the summit of Cadillac Mountain was astoundingly beautiful. The mountain is composed of tan granite that has weathered into a dome, with smooth pavement, much of which is bare and the rest vegetated with short Pitch Pines. The views of Frenchman Bay are great. Its blue waters are punctuated by many small but high islands, including Bar Island (from which the nearby town of Bar Harbor draws it name) and Bald Porcupine Island (ironically, wooded, not bald) with its long jetty. The hike was strenuous in places, for the trail was steep. However, the mountain itself is only 1,528 feet high, so the hike up to the summit took but an hour or so. The Loop Road also runs to the summit, so I encountered many more people there than had everyone had to huff up on foot. The summit itself is a rocky knob, accessed by a short paved walkway from the parking lot. I sat on a rock near it and ate my lunch, a couple of Pop Tarts washed down by water, while gazing off into the distance. I also looked around for glacial features. I found of few erratic boulders of a lighter colored plutonic rock than the granite of the mountain and a very few patches of granite ledge where glacial scratches were preserved. I also found several small dikes, darker in color than the granite, yet probably not dark enough to be basalt.

Cadillac Mountain reminds me of Bear Mountain, back in New York. They are about the same height. Both have rocky granitic summits that offer great views of the surrounding countryside. And both have both hiking and automobile access to their respective summits.

I decided to take the Gorge Path back. It runs in the valley between Cadillac Mountain and the adjacent and lower Door Mountain, to the east. Although I found the trailhead at the parking lot, I spent quite a long time searching for the trail itself, for the summit area is a confusing tangle for informal trails. Finally, I encountered a blue blaze on path that steeply descended down from the summit. It dives down into the impressive gorge, with vertical cliffs on both sides, that separates the two mountains. The climb down is strenuous but not frightening, and offers many beautiful views of the gorge. Upon reaching the bottom, I discovered to my chagrin that the rest of the Gorge Path was closed for repairs and that I had to ascend neighboring Door Mountain in order to continue. I thought at first that this was bad luck, but the hike up the Door side of the gorge proved much shorter than I had feared, though very steep. I realized that the closure was good luck when I discovered that the views from the top were equally beautiful to the ones on Cadillac. I paid a quick visit the summit, which hosts and large cairn, and then began my descent of the Door Mountain North Ridge Trail. It crosses numerous granite ledges, winds between groves of Pitch Pines and has great views of the bay.

I switched to the Hemlock Trail once off the main part of the ridge, and took it west to rejoin the Gorge Path. I had been wondering how these mountains drained during heavy rain, for the granite is impermeable and the vegetation too sparse to hold much water. I was answered when I crossed the stream that must originate up in the gorge. It had but little water in it today, but must be a raging torrent in a heavy rain, for it was full of large rounded boulders a foot or more across. I soon reached the Loop Road at a place where the stream flows under it, via a high arched bridge. Stalactites were hanging from the bottom of the arc.

Rather than to wait for a bus, I walked the Loop Road back to the Visitor’s Center. I had imagined that it would be all downhill, but actually, it has uphill sections, as well, and thus proved tougher than I had hoped. The road is lined with pretty trees and large cut stones and commands some nice view of Bar Harbor. I passed the contact between the granite, above, and a very fractured sedimentary rock, below. I reached my car at about 4:30 PM, so the entire hike had taken about five hours.

I drove straight to Lewiston Maine, for I had reservations at the Motel 6. After checking in, I drove over to Sam’s Italian Foods in the nearby town of Auburn for dinner. I had an anchovy and mushroom pizza.

August 21, 2014. I left Lewiston at 7:30 AM and drove straight to Newport RI, where I visited my sister Lisa and her husband Todd at Battery Cottage. I was tired after yesterday’s exertions and enjoyed sitting on their porch, soaking in the sun and chatting with them. In the evening, they treated me to a lobster dinner.

August 22, 2014. I left Newport in the late morning and drove straight back to my house in Tappan NY.