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Old 1 Oct 18, 08:59 PM  
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CrispyA
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Join Date: Oct 11
Expedition East Coast: Day 12 Cadillac Mountain, Thunder Hole, Sand Beach and a migraine

30 July

After a good sleep, we got up and had our breakfast sitting outside the cabin. It made a nice change to have cereal and toast at a more leisurely pace than to have to go down to a hotel dining room.

We made up a picnic and got ready to spend the day in Acadia National Park. Frustratingly, it seemed to take us ages to leave the cabin as the teenagers kept forgetting things. You think life will get easier as they get older but in fact, it can often take us longer to get ready to go out than when they were toddlers! At least when they were little, we knew they were ready because we had done everything. Now that they are older, we expect them to be ready and they rarely are!

Finally on the road, we drove through Ellsworth and then through Trenton to the park entrance and Hulls Cove Visitor Center. There were huge queues to get park passes so we were glad we had got ours the day before.

The queue to talk to the Rangers was also really long, so we decided to try to work out which bus to get for the walk up Cadillac Mountain, using the data on my phone to google the walk. We got the park loop bus, the driver confirming that we were on the right one, and the north trail was the first stop on the route.

You can drive up Cadillac Mountain but it's not a difficult walk so we decided to walk it instead. There weren't too many people on the route and we got some great views on the way up, including this cruise ship.



The last part of the climb to the summit was a bit steeper but not really hard.



You get fantastic views all over Mount Desert Island from the summit and we had enjoyed our climb up there.



Some of us were more extra than others . . .



After climbing up the North Trail, we decided to go back down the South Trail and so continued along trail which was considerably longer but less steep than the North Trail. Altogether it was 6.4 miles. There were more people on this part of the trail, including some really annoying American teenage boys who were extremely loud and who we nicknamed the "Chads" as we were sure at least one of them would have been called that . . .

The trail finishes at the Blackwoods campground and this is where a map would have been handy. We wandered around it for a while, unsure of how to get out, until we met a couple of campers who directed us to the entrance. We also found some drinking water which was very helpful as it was a really hot day and our bottles were now empty.

There is another ranger station at the entrance and we asked about the walk to Sand Beach. It turned out to be 2 miles which we thought was fine. The first part of the walk takes you to Otter Cove which is a cute little beach so we sat there to have our lunch and for Evan to skim some more stones.

Further along, we came to Thunder Hole where you can get some pretty impressive spray at high tide. Unfortunately we hadn't timed it very well and the tide was quite low, so it was less of a Thunder Hole than a slightly Gurgling Hole.

We were somewhat underwhelmed . . .



Finally we made it to Sand Beach which we were quite excited about as it was really hot and we all fancied a swim. However, the water was absolutely freezing and even though I ran in to try to get over the cold, I couldn't stay very long as my feet had gone numb!

The kids managed some wave jumping but it really was arctic and they were soon out again.



Evan did manage to pay homage to Aston Villa on the sand though!



We checked and realised that the bus was due soon, so got changed and headed for the stop. The bus service is great but they don't run all that often so we didn't want to miss it and have to get the next one.

This bus was late and when it eventually arrived, we ended up snoozing on it as we were so tired. I could feel a headache coming on and assumed it was dehydration so kept drinking but by the time we got to the car, I wasn't feeling great.

We stopped at Walmart in Ellsworth for some supplies and by this time I had an absolutely banging headaches and was very crabby indeed. I suspected a migraine and by the time we got back to the cabin, I was sick. I took some migraine tablets and went straight to lie down in the dark. I don't get migraines very often - probably once every few years but they completely knock you out.

The rest of the family were very sweet and left me in peace while Paul cooked burgers. Fortunately, the drugs do work and after a few hours, I was able to get up and have something to eat. I was still feeling quite weak and woozy but the pounding headache had gone, thankfully. I wonder if it was too much sun, or a sudden dip in a very cold sea or maybe a combination of both?

It was a fairly subdued evening in the cabin but sometimes you need that after a really strenuous day, and it wasn't long before we were all in bed.
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