Dwight Peck's personal website

Summer 2007 -- Late September in the USA


Mount Desert Island, Maine, USA: Cadillac Mountain

Soaring nearly 500 metres above the surface of the earth

You may not find this terribly rewarding unless you're included here, so this is a good time for casual and random browsers to turn back before they get too caught up in the sweep and majesty of the proceedings and can't let go.

Laden with very attractive sandwiches and big pickles from a sandwicherie in Bar Harbor, 30 September 2007, we're bursting with enthusiasm to visit Cadillac Mountain (right), the highest peak on beautiful Mount Desert Island, part of the Acadia National Park (the first national park east of the Mississippi river, 1919).

A view of Bar Harbor from a little ways up the open granite stairways that make hiking here so much more rewarding than most tree-entombed hiking in New England. An educational cruise ship for kids lies just off the docks.

Kristin marching up past an orphan piece of 12-strand steel cable on a beautiful, temperate day (as Boston was still suffering under mid-80s F. [30° C.] temperatures at the end of September).

Splendidly thin vegetation -- not for nothing named the Isles des Monts-déserts by explorer Samuel Champlain in 1604.

We're halfway up and speculating about lunch with enormous pickles

Time to find a nice scenic perch for lunch

Lunch is over -- now for the summit

An excellent, scenic, easy walk up long granite stairways, with little cairns to follow in case the fog rolls in

Cadillac Mountain stands at 466m (1,530 ft), not himalayan but a great scenic way to spend a few hours on a sunny afternoon with a cool breeze off the sea.

A study in determination

Kristin and the view northward, just near the top of Cadillac Mountain

A bicycle rally up the fairly gentle tourist road to the top of Cadillac Mountain

Islands to the south of Mount Desert Island (mostly all to do with Cranberries)

The carpark on Cadillac Mountain, 1,530 feet a.s.l. (466m)

Kristin contemplating Cranberry Islands, named after the only surviving industry in her native Wisconsin, except football

The main part of the top of Cadillac Mountain, near the carpark, seen from a bit farther along

Now it's time to walk back down and see about another lunch. Prior to beginning our speculations about dinner at the Brooklin Inn.

The narrator comfortably seated amongst many other glacial "erratics"

This is the "North Ridge" route to Cadillac Mountain, a fairly short and easy hike worth recommending to all your friends and relations.

Strange rock formations in the forest. And Kristin.

A last look back up at Dorr Mountain, adjacent to Cadillac

Kristin and the final stretches back to the car near Bar Harbour

Eagle Lake, just west of Cadillac Mountain

The cruise ship at Bar Harbor

Visit to North America, autumn 2007

Feedback and suggestions are welcome if positive, resented if negative, . All rights reserved, all wrongs avenged. Posted 13 October 2007, revised 16 October 2012.


The USA

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Wisconsin,
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Boston and Maine, 2007


Marlowe's wedding, 2006


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