Somes Sound ME USA

One of the reasons that we had come to Somes Harbour, apart from the fact that it is a lovely area, was so that we were somewhere well protected when the tail-end of Hurricane Florence hit the area.  The forecasters had been predicting northeasterly winds of up to 25kts gusting to 40kts overnight Tuesday 18/Wednesday 19 September and, whilst we did experience some breeze in Somes Harbour, it was nothing like that strong. Quite what it was like off Bar Harbour, where we had been previously and which is very open to the northeast, it was impossible to tell (perhaps the wind was just not as strong as forecast), but as a hurricane hole Somes Harbour did us proud.  By morning the batteries were suitably depleted for a test of the new alternator.  We fired up the engine and immediately saw that the batteries were being charged at 40 Amps.  Excellent – problem fixed!

Excellent dinghy dock in Somes Harbour

It was a dull and drizzly grey morning. Our planned walk was looking less than entirely appealing but it seemed a shame to just sit on board moping.  So we took the dinghy across to the dinghy dock to catch the bus towards Southwest Harbour.  Had it been a sunny day, we’d have got off just a stop or 2 down the road but with the cloud sitting firmly on the hills, and the bus ride free with our National Park permits, we decided to sightsee by bus and stay on to the end of the line and then come back again, by which time we hoped the cloud would have lifted.  [Ed: in the summer there is a more frequent bus service in this area of the Park and we could have just waited for the next bus through but in September the service is reduced and so the only way to do a later run to where we wanted to walk was to do the round-trip on the mid-morning bus.]

The bus ride was great fun and we had an interesting peer at parts of the island we would not otherwise have visited, as well as ogling at some of the largest RVs/trailers we had ever seen when the bus did a pick up in a campsite.  In addition to being astounded by the size of the ‘camping’ vehicles (they were more the size of articulated lorries), we were amazed to see that they were all fully plumbed into fully domestic-style utilities at the campground – 110V high current electricity (air conditioning capable), cable TV and internet and full water and sewage facilities.  Hardly camping, more a home from home.

View south from the top of Acadia Mountain

By the time we got back to the bottom of Acadia Mountain (another few hundred foot high ‘mountain’) the cloud was lifting so we got off the bus and took some exercise.  We found this a very different area to that which we had walked in two days before.  To start with we saw far fewer people out, which might well have been related to the weather but was probably also due to the area being that bit further from the Park entrance and Bar Harbour.  The trails in this area of the Park are also a lot more wooded so, though there are large areas where you walk over the granite bedrock, we also spent a lot of time surrounded by trees walking on softer ground.  All in all it was another lovely area for walking (we can quite understand why the Park is so popular) and, by the time we got to the top of Acadia Mountain the cloud had lifted sufficiently for us to get views as well. Bonus!

View down into Somes Sound from the area of Valley Peak

As the day progressed the cloud lifted further, the sun came out and the views improved immeasurably.  With fun walking, and no great thinking required as the trails are so well marked, we strode along the trails, ogling the views and delighting in the patches of autumnal fall colours.

View south from south of the summit of St Sauveur Mountain

It was a glorious day and we were so glad that we had made the effort to get out and about despite the drizzly start.

Woodpecker at work!

As we walked the final half mile or so back to the bus-stop Nicky heard a woodpecker.  And, sure enough, there up a tree, hammering hard and throwing large sections of the bark out behind him was a woodpecker.  Neither of us had seen a woodpecker at work before and we watched, fascinated, for several minutes.

Somesville

We caught the bus back to Somesville and spent a few minutes walking along the bank of one of the streams that leads into Somes Harbour.  A little further down (just behind where I was standing when I took the photo above) for many years there was a mill.  The miller had dammed the stream to enable his milling operation but this had blocked the stream for the alwein which, like salmon, return to the same river/stream to spawn.  Relatively recently, the Park authorities have installed a fish ladder around the dam. This allows the fish to get upriver to spawn, enhancing their survival rate and improving the health of the stream in the process.

And so, with that, we returned to BV. The following morning we planned to move on to Isle au Haut to visit a detached section of the Acadia National Park and, we hoped, have another good walk there before leaving the area for this season.

Somes Sound, Maine, USA