The Raine in Maine

I traveled to Maine to visit family. Here’s a short recap of some of the events.

We stayed in a small house overlooking Union Bay. Here’s the view from inside the house.

the view from the house looking at the bay in Maine

And here’s the view from the backyard.

the view from the backyard of the house at the shore in Maine

Our first Maine activity was hiking around Jordan Pond. Everything associated with it had the prefix “Jordan Pond”, so that became a short-lived running joke. To get there, you drive up Jordan Pond Drive. You know you’re there when you see the house, which is named Jordan Pond House. Etc, etc.

the sign at Jordan Pond in Maine

It was cold in Maine, but since everything there is ocean salt water, we mostly saw liquid water. Jordan Pond was the first place where a body of water was actually frozen. And it was a good frozen too – several inches thick, we could see a few layers. Other people were running and skating about, so we ventured onto the ice.

Jordan Pond in Maine

We went there not to slide on the ice, but to hike the trail around Jordan Pond. It was called, of course, Jordan Pond Trail. We started going north along the east side. It was a scenic trail, fairly well maintained, like this:

Jordan Pond hiking path in Maine

About the halfway point, there was a bridge, I’m guessing to cross over the Jordan Pond river that feeds it.

Jordan Pond hiking bridge in Maine

After that, the trail became less of a trail and more of a suggestion. It was just a bunch of rocks piled along the shore, and you had to guess where to go next, mostly judging by the shoreline.

Jordan Pond rocky hiking path in Maine

The amount of effort to scramble over snow-covered rocks was more than we anticipated for our group, so we made up a plan B – just walk across the water.

Jordan Pond frozen in Maine

It was the shortest distance between two points. The snow-covered sections were ok, but the bare ice was polished smooth by the winds, so that was pretty slippery.

When we got just past the point of land that jut out, we could see that the shoreline was no longer rocky and there was a path we could walk again. So we decided to abandon plan B and go back to plan A of hiking the trail. The trail for most of the rest of the time consisted of a boardwalk.

Jordan Pond boardwalk path in Maine

The boardwalk ended right near a bridge for the carriage road. There are a few carriage houses and various old bridges leftover from the Rockefeller days, before it became Acadia National Park.

Jordan Pond carriage road bridge in Maine

We also visited Bar Harbor quickly. There is not much to do there in the winter. And a swing by the LL Bean outlet. Trying to fit in a bunch of typical Maine experiences. Including buying food at Shaw’s and perusing Marden’s for whatever we can find.

These are the ones who crossed the Jordan in the first month, when it was overflowing all its banks, and they put to flight all those in the valleys, to the east and to the west.

1 Chronicles 12:15

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This little article thingy was written by Some Guy sometime around 6:45 am and has been carefully placed in the Travel category.

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