Around Dorr Mountain
What [I] call the Dorr Mountain loop is a four-and-a-half-mile trail
incorporating sections of several separate trails: the Tarn (or Kane) Trail,
Canon (formerly Canyon) Brook Trail, A. Murray Young Trail, Gorge Trail,
Hemlock Trails, and the Spring Road. Parking at Sieur de Monts Spring, take
the loop clockwise and head south past the Tarn. The trail, set at the foot
of a talus slope, was beautiful. Minnows swam in the shallows. Leaves of
arrowhead and pickerelweed rose Excalibur-like from the Tarn. Purple
gerardia and asters still bloomed along the shore.
South of the Tarn, the Kane Trail runs by a series of wetlands in the valley
of Beaver Brook between Dorr and Champlain. Ferns and bur reeds to the left,
beech woods on the higher ground to the right. Beaver lodge with maple tree
growing out of it. Then a couple beaver dams. I did see dragonflies with
glistening wings, coyote scat crammed with berries and hair.
Taking over from the kane Trail, the Canon Brook Trail swings out of the
valley and crosses the south ridge of Dorr Mountain. Down a gentle slope, I
neared the junction of Canon Brook and Otter Creek. The brook trail
continues west up the flank of Cadillac to the Featherbed. The one I would
take, the A. Murray Young Trail, branches north and heads up the valley
between Dorr and Cadillac.
A small stream was my companion all the way to the Notch, headwaters of
Otter Creek. I heard a soft tapping just off the trail. Hairy woodpecker,
proving for insects beneath peeling park. The trail up the Notch is the kind
we expect in Acadia. A series of solid steps held in place by coping stones
both sides, it offers solid footing for easy going while protecting the
landscape on either hand. Crossing the stream, the trail passes under mossy
falls, leads along the brim of a forty-foot gorge, and touches on a talus
factory where great chunks of stone are even now being torn from eroding
cliffs.
After skirting the basin where twenty years ago there was a beaver pond
between the mountains, the trail makes its way through a field of talus
fallen from facing cliffs on Dorr and Cadillac. The most spectacular spot on
the entire loop lay ahead. A third of the way down the Gorge Trail, there is
one of Acadia's most sacred sites. A great cliff looms on the right. Sheer.
Covered with dripping, dark green moss. Facing it, in the middle of the
constricted valley, a stone pulpit defies the plunging gorge. Trees all
around.
On I went, and won, often walking in the bed of Kebo Brook. The trail along
Kebo Brook is exciting the whole way and not to be missed. I reached the
Kebo Truck Road and turned right onto the Hemlock Trail through the gap
between Kebo and Dorr mountains. Where the trail crosses the Dorr Mountain
North Ridge Trail, a field of smooth boulders crowds the slope. From there,
the trail falls abruptly to a gravel road, the old Spring Road, which leads
back to Sieur de Monts Spring through a stand of magnificent hemlocks.
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Champlain Mountain
The Carrige Paths
Around Little Long Pond
Around Jordan Pond
Acadia Mountain loop
Around Mansell Mountain
Little Harbor Brook & Birch Spring Loop
Penobscot Mountain & Jordan Cliffs
Western Mountain Loop
Champlain Mountain Loop
Norumbega Mountain Loop
Around Dorr Mountain
Pemetic Mountain Loop
Beech Mountain
Cadillac Mountain
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