After breakfast I stopped at a deli to buy lunch. That saved me the hassle of trying to get lunch in Acadia Park.
I took the Park Loop Road. There were several beautiful overlooks, such as this one showing the rocky shore. There is lots of rocky shore here.
The first big site on the route is Sand Beach. This is the only bit where land meets sea with an actual sandy beach. The rest of the coast is rock. So here is a view of people at the beach. There are so many that one lane of the road has parked cars for more than a quarter mile in both directions in addition to the regular lot that was full. Out of all these people at the beach, how many were actually swimming? Very few. The air temperature was about 65F. Even when the air temp is high the water is still around 50F.
The next site (and the next glut of cars) was Thunder Hole. Severe rock structures make for waves with lots of spray. One tight channel sometimes even makes a booming noise when a wave hits it.
On to Otter Point where I watched waves slam against rocks and tried to take a picture of the spray.
Then I drove up through the middle of the island to Jordan Pond House, the only place to buy food in the park. Alas, both parking lots were packed, so I didn't stop in for a supplement to my lunch (which, by this time, needed supplementing).
I then drove up Cadillac Mountain, which at 1530 feet is the tallest point on the American Atlantic Coast. Great views all around.
A lot of today was drive for a short distance, stop for the view, and move on. Every time I restarted the car (every time over the last week) the CD player would attempt to sort things out, and fail. Each time it would make four attempts and do it whether the sound system was actually on or off. Today it started adding a few extra noises and at the top of Cadillac Mountain it added 4 seconds of loud clicking to each attempt. I began to wonder if it was chewing on whatever CD had been caught in the jam. It was 3:45 on a Friday afternoon, perhaps I had time to try to do something.
I went back to the hotel and the woman at the desk helped me out. She called the closest thing to a Ford dealership (it actually sells GM products though services both) in Ellsworth, the first town north of the park. He couldn't fix the unit, though could ask the Ford distribution center in Bangor to send a new one. How soon? He transferred the call to Bangor and the woman at this end handed the phone to me. The earliest he could get a new unit to Ellsworth would be Wednesday. I'll be in New Hampshire by Tuesday. In the meantime I have two choices. Put up with the clicking or disconnect the fuse and lose the radio too.
There was still some time before I wanted supper, so I hiked the Great Head Trail. It is near Sand Beach but I could take back roads to get to it. The trail was very rocky and after a while it was marked only by a blue rectangle on a rock or tree about every 10 feet. There were a few times, especially towards the end, when I had the feeling: you intend for me to go there? How am I supposed to do that? I eventually found my way down the rocks. And the view of the surging waves from up there were pretty cool. Here is a photo of the trail:
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