Dash Around Eagle Lake

Over North Bubble & Around the Lake

One balmy summer day, we made a mad dash around Eagle Lake after descending from North Bubble, running rock to rock, trying to get back to the trailhead.

Photo credit: wildphotos/Flickr

Why? Well, let's start at the beginning...

On our second trip to Acadia National Park, we opted to go on a whale watching trip, but it wasn't until the afternoon, so we thought we'd squeeze a short hike in during the morning hours. North Bubble seemed the perfect choice.

We'd already done a South Bubble trail hike on our previous trip and the first day of this one. Most of the guide books recommend doing South Bubble and North Bubble as all one hike, but we've never done it that way.

Anyway, we headed up North Bubble and before we knew it we were there at the peak. (North Bubble is a bit higher than South Bubble, but even so, we got up there pretty quick.) We fooled around taking pictures for a while up there, but then consulted our guidebook for an alternate way down.

Eventually, we settled on a jaunt to nearby Connor's Nubble with a finish around one end of Eagle Lake. Seemed easy enough...

Big mistake!

It took us forever to reach Connor's Nubble... up and down... up and down... through the forest and so on and so on. Honestly, it was a lovely hike, but we just didn't anticipate it taking so long. But that was nothing...

Because when we at last descended to the shore of Eagle Lake, it was getting really close to when we needed to get into town for the whale watch. And what we found on the shore was unnerving.

Big Boulder Scramble, Anyone?

The trail ran over big huge boulders that seemed to go on forever. The girls were still pretty little and I'm short to begin with, so scrambling from rock to rock was no easy task...

As the minutes ticked by, it began to look as though we would never make it back to our car at the trailhead. Boulder after boulder loomed ahead of us... too big to just jump between all of them. We often had to climb down off of one and then back up the next. It was fun, but we didn't want to miss our whale watching tour.

All's Well That Ends Well

The story ends well, though... we did at last come to a pine needle-covered path back through the woods to our car, and made it to the pier in Bar Harbor just in time... only to find out that stormy weather precluded a trip out into the deep ocean where the whales are anyway. Still, we had a delightful excursion through Frenchman Bay, where we saw dolphins, seals, cormorants and even a bald eagle. So, all's well that ends well!

Addendum: A few years later, we repeated the hike, only to find that what seemed like immense boulders that first dash, were really not all that huge. But then that time, we were in no hurry...

Photo credit: marcomazzei/Flickr

Top of Dash Around Eagle Lake Story