Jojo October 9th, 2008
I apologize for not writing yesterday, and there wasn’t even a reason except laziness on my part ;). Right now we’re on Cape Cod, the “arm” that stretches out from southern Massachusetts and has a lot of little towns and beaches. We’re staying in Dennisport for three nights, having seen everything we wanted to there was no reason for us to keep pushing on the last few miles (Boston is only 80 miles from here). Cape Cod is a popular vacation destination, and it’s not hard to guess why. The climate here is still very mild (2 weeks ago but farther nord, in Canada, it was much cooler) and the beaches are white. Driving and hiking through here feels like being somewhere in the Mediterranean (or in southern France) and the few houses you see are either motels, ice-cream shops or privately owned little white vacation homes. And since the distances are relatively short, yet the density of trails (for hiking & biking) is high it’s a good place to spend a few days. If one beach doesn’t suit you it’s not far to the next one (or even the opposite side of the cape). Having said that, you have to admit that prices during season are somewhat higher than right now ($15 for the beach instead of, now, free admission).
After we had arrived yesterday we headed for the beach (1-mile drive) and, german as we are, built ourselves a little sand-wall surrounding our spot, but it was just for wind-cover and there was no one else on the beach in any direction.
Today we drove up further north (towards the tip of the cape) and stopped at the National Seashore Visitor Information (an US National Park institution) where a nice ranger supplied us with maps and tips where to go and what trails to hike. We decided to take the Great Island Trail near Wellfleet which was the longest one we could find (and also supposed to be the most beautiful). The trail was quite different from the kind of trails we had encountered in Acadia or in the Adirondacks. It was at no part hard to hike (you could do it in Flip-Flops), it didn’t have elevations and for the most part you could see where you were going to be half an hour later. To put it short, it was a nice walk around the dunes and the beach, but to people with hiking boots who are looking for some exercise and nice vistas it can be disappointing. Especially the long stretch on the beach was stupid since you can’t really walk in the sand for long distances and, let’s face it, it’s pretty boring too.
Tomorrow we’re gonna go to Provincetown and Hyannis (probably), so stay tuned ;)
Jojo October 3rd, 2008
After a nice breakfast this morning we got ready to leave, and the rain was pouring down. We left for the trail anyway, but missed the route (Sleeping Beauty Mnt.) so we ended up at Pilot Knob, where another trail starts. This trail was a little shorter than the one we had planned but marked as being “difficult” on the trail map (the one we had in plan was “moderate”). So we took the 6.4 mile trail to Buck Mountain (elevation 2000ft, a little less than 700m) and arrived at the summit about 90 minutes later (what a view!). Now, the trail wasn’t that much longer than the one in Acadia National Park, and it wasn’t even steeper, but we were really tired after just half of the distance. And I wouldn’t recommend it if you’re not fit and have adequate shoes. Also it was kinda remote and not that much frequented, so that they had a sign-in book at the trailhead where you could sign-in and sign-out in order for people to notice if you actually went missing on one of the trails. We arrived back at our car almost 4 hours after we had departed, and since we were so exhausted and it was already in the afternoon we only made it as far as Albany, where we’ll stay for tonight (the town we’re at is called “Bethlehem”). We decided against crossing over into Vermont for the reason that there isn’t really that much to see and we couldn’t find any halfway inexpensive accomodation for tonight.
Jojo October 2nd, 2008
The Adirondack Park, located in New York state, is the largest park in the US (except Alaska), and covers an area of 24000 km^2 (for comparison: NRW is 34000 km^2). So it’s sufficient to say that we’ve been driving for a few hours today without leaving the park or even traversing half of it. When we left this morning the weather was still shaky with heavy showers from time to time, making it hard to drive. But as we entered the park the weather gradually got better, so when we reached the visitor information center (which took us more than 3 hours driving in the park itself), we felt safe enough to take a short 2-mile hike. After about an hour of hiking (Katrin was annoyed with me because I was whistling all the way, to keep potential bears alarmed) we returned to the road and drove the short distance to the beautiful Lake George, where we got ourselves a room and a nice pizza. Tomorrow we’re gonna try (given that the weather plays along) an 8-mile-hike nearby before crossing into Vermont.
Now, what else can I tell you about the Adirondack Park. It’s simply magnificient, and we liked it even more than the Acadia National Park. Good thing too that right now the Indian Summer is in full bloom. The simple idea that a strip of land as large as this one is inhabited by so few people and covered by so few roads is hard to grasp. Having to tell yourself to fill up the gas because the density of gas stations (or cities or anything for that matter) is pretty low is something special ;).
Jojo September 20th, 2008
For our second day in Bar Harbor we had planned to visit Acadia National Park, obviously. We rose at 7am (as we did every day so far), bought some groceries and then drove to the park’s Visitor Information Center. We bought a 7-day-pass ($20) and drove on the Park Loop Road down to Otter Point. A ranger had recommended for us t take the Ocean Trail (hiking), which we did. At first it was easy, near the coastline (and the road), without any differences in elevation. After we looked at Sand Beach we crossed the road to continue the trail. Boy, did it get rugged. Immediately the number of people on the trail dropped to about zero and so did the speed with which we progressed. We finally managed to mount the summit of Mount Gorham (elevation 168m) and took some nice photos before heading down the other side. When we arrived back at Otter Point it had taken us about 3 hours (about 6 miles) and a lot of strength. On the Park Loop Road (which is one-way at that point) we headed on and stopped again at Bubble Rock, where we climbed the South Bubble (took us about an hour and was much easier than our first hike that day). 
Our last stop was on Cadillac Mountain, which is the highest mountain on the US atlantic coast and, thank god, paved all the way to the top (you certainly could tell by the sheer amount of tourist, of the type you didn’t encounter on any of the hiking trails). Since it was to early to take the quickest route back to Bar Harbor we took the 233 East and then Route 3 which goes around the southern end of the peninsula.
Putting the beauty of this national park in words is hard, it’s simply georgeous, unbelievably pretty. It’s hard enough not to take a photo after every bend and not to stop the car at every possible scenic point. The park looks small on the map, and even smaller compared to other parks (like Baxter), but it is really more than big enough for a few days worth of discovering. One thing you should never, ever do (I’m glad we didn’t) is to rent a bike. The distances are still pretty big and the road just goes up and down all the way. Have a look at the photos, or better yet, visit it yourself if you can manage.
