Long Pond (Mount Desert Island Day #1)

Bald eagle!

This is the 1st post in a series of 3. Ben, Mary Kate, and I recently (July 14 - 18) spent 3 days kayaking in and around Acadia National Park on Mt. Desert Island (MDI) on the coast of Maine. Ben & Mary Kate will be guest-blogging for the 2nd and 3rd days!

After a fairly eventful journey to Mt. Desert Island which involved car camping (the type where you sleep in the car at a rest-stop), we (Ben & I) arrived early Thursday morning at Seawall Campground. After a 3 hour nap and a satisfying lunch, we set out to do an easy afternoon paddle on Long Pond, a large freshwater lake on the west side of Mt. Desert Island...

Water plane parked next to the put-in.

We put in at a public launch site that is located next to the local water treatment plant (hence the angry no-swimming signs). From the launch it was also possible to hike up a few of the surrounding mountains, but we decided to stick with kayaking for the day. We paddled up the east shore of the lake, passing a few (but not many) motor boats and cliff jumpers along the way. Other than that, the views were great. The shores were almost completely undeveloped, which was a welcome change from the Finger Lakes and other paddling I've done so far in NH. At the end of the lake we encountered a public beach with some very loud children, so we didn't dawdle there for long.

Checking out the east side of the lake on the way north.

Mansell Mountain in the distance.

On the west side of the lake we took a right into a calm, peaceful cove where we ran into a fisherman in a kayak. He urged us to backtrack and look into the trees, and sure enough, we were excited to discover a bald eagle, perched at the top. He chilled out just long enough for me to get a picture (see above), then flew off.

We headed back along the west shore, admiring the rolling mountains that surround the lake on all sides. All in all, a great first day exploring Mt. Desert Island! That day we were surprised to find out that President Obama was planning to vacation with his family on the island for the weekend. The entire island was covered in "Welcome Obama!" signs, and flags dotted many of the telephone poles.

Date: Thursday, July 15th, 2010
Distance: 9.7 miles