Acadia Mountain loop

3.0 miles

Unlike most ridges in the park, Acadia Mountain runs east and west across the path of the glacier. The trail rises in about a mile to the summit ridge from Route 102, crosses the ridge and descends to Man o' War Brook in a second mile and, with a short side trip to view the falls, returns to the highway by way of the fire road in a final mile. Crossing a stream draining the northwestern slop of St. Sauveur Mountain, the trail comes to the fire road, where the Acadia Mountain Trail begins. The second part was longer and steeper, rising 440 feet in six-tenths of a mile over granite outcrops and ledges. In passing, I noticed large white pine, red pine with purple bark, striped maple, red oak, Northern white cedar, and, on the upper slopes, scrub oak and pitch pine.

At the summit, the view opened to the east onto Somes Sound and Norumbega Mountain, with Sargent, Penobscot, and Cadillac to the rear. Youngs and McFarland hills lay to the north, with Schoodic and the Black Hills across Frenchman Bay, and Lead Mountain in Township 28 on the horizon. I perched for half an hour on top of the cliff overlooking the valley of Man o' War Brook and the north slope of St. Sauveur, watching for soaring hawks. Through binoculars I made out Mount Desert Rock with its light tower and dwelling floating like a ceremonial barge far at sea, though well below the horizon.

The third part of the hike wound along the summit ridge among pitch pine and scrub oak on a granite treadway smoothed by glacier. I perched at the eastern end of the summit ridge, this time for almost an hour. I saw three turkey vultures surfing on the wind about a hundred and fifty feet from where I sat. Riding the wind, the vultures flapped only now and then, a single downthrust in which their wingtips almost touched beneath them, then they locked again in their trademark dihedral, wings uplifted in a gesture that seemed to ask the audience to hold its applause.

The eastern edge of Acadia Mountain Trail falls (or rises) by a series of stepped ledges covered with juniper, kinnikinnick, pitch pine, and oak. Up or down, these terraces will stretch even the longest legs, and make you think where to place the next step. Abruptly, the trail dips into a stand of Northern white cedar, levels off on a mat of twisted roots, and comes to Man o' War Brook, spanned by cross-planks nailed between two poles.