Although a few weeks have passed, many more remain before this season of long shadows slowly recedes.
I went searching for an easy hike, one that would lead me effortlessly into the heart of the season. Sort of a warmup before this winter really gets rolling.
I picked a small mountain in Acadia that fit the bill: Day Mountain, a whopping 583 feet above sea level. There were a couple of women putting on their packs as I pulled up at the trailhead on Route 3 in Seal Cove. I recognized one as Sandy Knox, a former co-worker. She invited me to hike with her and her hiking partner, Marjorie Stratton of Vinalhaven. Soon, I had my pack on and we entered the woods on the trail.
We hiked a short way over a few snow-covered bog bridges, sometimes on them, sometimes along the side. The trail was packed down from previous hikers so snowshoes weren’t necessary. Off the trail, though, the snow was about 10 inches deep. Knox and Stratton were wearing ice grippers, while I went bare booted, as we call it.
After a short distance through a spruce and hemlock forest, we arrived at the carriage path that winds around and up the mountain, then connects to the network of paths weaving through the park. We went straight at the three-corner intersection instead of staying on the woods trail, which would have been shorter to the top.
I asked Knox why we weren’t taking the trail.
“The idea is to take as long as possible on this hike,” she said. “We’re taking the carriage path.”
It made sense to me, so I stuck with them. The grade was easy as we walked along on the beaten-down snow. We went around a small rise and ascended its side eventually, then came to a pretty nice view of the interior mountains of the park. The wind was still, and in the sky a thin veil of clouds would occasionally reduce our strong shadows to faint ones as we walked our way to the top.
Wherever the carriage path was cut through the pink granite bedrock of the island, icicles formed overhanging the cut ledge. The white ice glistened in the sun in a dull sheen as our shadows passed across its surface.
We walked mostly in silence except for when we stopped to take in a view. Then, Knox and I caught ourselves up on our past 15 years. We hadn’t seen each other since leaving our jobs. We talked about our families, our new jobs and our lives.
I got acquainted with Marjorie Stratton. I found out that she was the town manager of Vinalhaven. We didn’t talk any politics, except for me saying that I didn’t envy her job. We commented on the view toward Sargent Mountain and about how snow makes any mountain look bigger than normal. Then we moved on.
The view toward the village of Seal Harbor appeared beneath us to our left. We looked down on the town’s rooftops and yards while we walked again. The grade was gentle as we approached the top. Around one more turn stood the top. Soon, we rounded a bend, took a straightaway and there we were, on the summit.
On the top, we were greeted by an expansive view to the south. The Cranberry Isles appeared to float in the water of the Atlantic. The color of the water would change from deep navy blue to dull pewter gray whenever the sun became blocked with a passing cloud.
We pulled off our packs and opened up the snack bags. Snacking while sitting on one of the coping stones that lined the carriage path, we identified features in the landscape. Pointing inland toward the center of Mount Desert, we could pick out Sargent Mountain, Cadillac, Pemetic and the Triad.
Day Mountain may not be the biggest mountain on the island, but we all agreed the views are definitely rewarding. The little hill is one of the smallest bumps in the park. Its location is almost the southernmost end of the island. That vantage point makes the mountains in the middle of the park appear as though you’re looking at them from the sea.
A few thoughts occurred to me while we were sitting there under the winter sun. We had taken more than an hour to hike a little more than a mile. Ordinarily we would have hiked much faster over that distance. We moved that slowly because the idea was to take as long as we could, as Knox said at the outset.
Not every hike has to be extreme to yield rewards. It doesn’t have to be a multi-day trek, or involve a long, steep suffer-fest to the top over rugged terrain. Sometimes a hike is better when it doesn’t involve any of those elements.
Then, it’s just a fine time with friends. The hike to the top of Day Mountain confirmed that.