New England 2019

Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine

Saturday, September 28 through Monday, October 14

We flew to Portland, Maine, then drove to the Burlington, Vermont area for two nights, exploring Burlington and the Vermont countryside. We then spent a couple of days in northern New Hampshire, including taking the Cog Railroad up to the top of Mount Washington. Maine accounted for about 2/3 of the trip, where we spent 11 nights on Mount Desert Island, hiking on various trails and carriage roads in and near Acadia National Park in increasingly stunning beauty. This trip featured our first (and second) one-way hike at Acadia, which involved using the Island Explorer buses, which we've never done before. Advice: use the buses if you can. At the end of the trip, we drove back to Portland, then flew back to Oklahoma.

I tracked the trip (mostly) with a Bad Elf GPS Pro+ GPSr (GPS receiver). The problems:

The Bad Elf started living up to its name, failing repeatedly during the trip. Fortunately, I always had a backup GPS receiver running when this happened.
Navigon GPS (a discontinued iOS app, which Garmin acquired, then canceled a couple of years ago) doesn't record tracks beyond where it believes your destination is. Fortunately, this did not affect any otherwise unavailable tracks. I ran this app on an iPhone 8.
Gaia GPS (an iOS app, which I also ran on my iPhone 8) occasionally stopped recording without warning, mostly in the early part of the trip. This seemed to be mostly corrected after an update to the app that occurred a few days after we arrived in the Acadia area.

NOTE: the downloadable GPX tracks are the full GPX files, while those shown on the provided "view map" links are simplified (with minimal effect on geographic accuracy) for much faster viewing.

Original GPX tracks are unedited, unless otherwise noted. If you wish to poke around in the subfolders, you can find all the GPX files I collected during the trip from the three sources noted above. If they are not in the "ForDisplay" folder, they have not been edited, and may have significant holes, errors, etc.

Businesses are named below for reference only. No endorsement should be inferred.

Topographic maps (1:24,000) for the longer hikes are available via "Topo" links.

Overview

All tracks are from the Bad Elf GPS Pro+ unless otherwise noted.

Overview map—This is a composite map of all the GPS tracks on a blank US/Canada map. (Just: New England, Mount Desert Island)
All GPS tracks / view map—The whole trip, including walking, driving, etc.

Saturday, September 28

GPX / view map—Taxi ride to the airport.
GPX / view map—"Noisy" track showing our approximate progress through the Oklahoma City Airport. The cobweb-like clusters of lines show our approximate positions toward the beginning and end of our visit to the airport.
GPX / view map—Our flight from Oklahoma City (Will Rogers World Airport) to Dulles (Washington/Dulles International Airport, Virginia).
GPX / view map—Walking in the terminals, and taking the bus between them, at Washington/Dulles International Airport.
GPX / view map—(GaiaGPS) Our flight from Dulles (Washington/Dulles International Airport, Virginia) to Portland (Portland International Jetport, Maine). A taxiway at Portland was closed, which should explain our unusual taxi route to the terminal.
GPX / view map—(Navigon) Our drive from the Portland International Jetport (Portland, Maine) to a restaurant in Manchester, New Hampshire.
GPX / view map—(Navigon) Driving from the restaurant in Manchester, New Hampshire to the hotel in Colchester, Vermont.

Sunday, September 29

GPX / view map—Driving from the hotel in Colchester to downtown Burlington, Vermont. We ended the drive by parking in a lot near Pearl and Clarke Streets.
GPX / view map—Walking through downtown Burlington, Vermont. We traveled roughly clockwise in each part of the walk.
GPX / view map—Driving from Burlington, Vermont to near Milton, Vermont.
GPX / view map—Hiking the trail along the Lamoille River, near Milton, Vermont. We hiked about 2/3 of the trail, out and back. (The small northward jog near the end of the hike [about 100 m from the extreme east extent of the track] is real, not a GPS error.) (Topo)
GPX / view map—Driving from the Lamoille River trail (Milton, Vermont) back to Burlington, Vermont. We stopped a short distance from our starting point (on the first hairpin curve) to view the waterfall there (there is no GPS track for the waterfall viewing because it was so close to the road). In Burlington, we made a couple of unsuccessful attempts to find a particular parking garage before finding the correct entrance (near South Winooksi Avenue and Buell Street).
GPX / view map—Walking (in a generally clockwise direction) from the parking garage to a restaurant (southern "cobweb"), an ice cream parlor (other "cobweb"), and back to the garage.
GPX / view map—Driving from Burlington back to the hotel in Colchester, Vermont.

Monday, September 30

GPX / view map—Driving from the hotel in Colchester to the Green Mountain Audobon Center, near Huntington, Vermont.
GPX / view map—Hiking at the Green Mountain Audobon Center, near Huntington, Vermont. The general course was: start in southwest corner, then north, southeast, north, west, east, northwest, southeast-south, west, south, northwest, south. (Topo)
GPX / view map—Driving from the Audobon Center to Montpelier, Vermont. We had some unclear navigation instructions at Richmond, and accidentally went a few blocks past our (left) turn for the Interstate. Once in Montpelier, we parked in a municipal parking lot.
GPX / view map—Walking in Montpelier, Vermont. We had dinner (near the north end of the track), and visited a chocolatier ("cobweb" toward the west/center).
GPX / view map—Driving from Montpelier, Vermont to Franconia, New Hampshire. Shortly after starting out, we stopped in front of the Vermont State Capitol to take photos. The small jog in the track just south of the starting point (but across the river) is where we stopped for gas.

Tuesday, October 1

GPX / view map—Driving from the hotel in Franconia to the base station for Mount Washington, New Hampshire.
GPX / view map—Our various wanderings (on foot) at the base station for Mount Washington, New Hampshire.
GPX / view map—Riding the Cog Railroad to the top of Mount Washington, New Hampshire.
GPX / view map—Walking around the top of Mount Washington (the extensions of the tracks to the northeast and northwest of the main "cobweb" [the main building at the top] did not happen, but the tracks to the west and southeast did) + the Cog Railroad ride back down + walking around at the base station. When we were at the top of Mount Washington, it was very foggy/misting, 11 °C, and the wind was from 290° at 41 kt (76 km/h)! This was about as good as the weather got on Tuesday and Wednesday (our only available days to go to the top).
GPX / view map—Driving from the Mount Washington base station to a trailhead along the Ammonoosuc River.
GPX / view map—Our short hike near the Ammonoosuc River (started from the west end, went to the east/northeast, backtracked, then went counter-clockwise, and back to the car on the west end).
GPX / view map—Driving to dinner. We started out with a short backtrack, then took a short walk (shown on the track), and then headed back west to Littleton, New Hampshire for dinner.
GPX / view map—Driving back to the hotel (in moderate to heavy rain/thunderstorms).

Wednesday, October 2

GPX / view map—Driving from the hotel in Franconia, New Hampshire to near Franconia Notch State Park, just south of Profile Lake.
GPX / view map—Walking back and forth along the Franconia Notch Bike Path, just south of Franconia Notch State Park and Profile Lake, along the Pemigewasset River.
GPX / view map—Driving south from near Profile Lake to a turnaround, then to near the South Branch Gale River area.
GPX / view map—Hiking near the South Branch Gale River. We started out from the northernmost point, going southeast (up), then turned around after a few minutes to go back to the car to retrieve a couple of items, and returned to the trail. We hiked to what was supposed to be a trail intersection (the intersecting "trail" is on most maps, including OpenStreetMap maps, such as those on this website, as of October 2019), but couldn't see any evidence of a trail there. We returned back downhill, then walked down the road to the bridge (southwest), then returned to the car. (Topo)
GPX / view map—Driving a short distance along Gale River Road.
GPX / view map—Our short hike along the Gale River Trail (to the east, then west), followed by a walk to a bridge to the north...and back. (Topo)
GPX / view map—Driving another short distance, near the North Branch Gale River.
GPX / view map—A very short hike to the North Branch Gale River.
GPX / view map—Driving to dinner in Franconia, New Hampshire. We pulled off the highway (westbound) as we got into Franconia, then went around a (long) block one and a half times, before pulling off the road (northwest jog from the rectangular track in the far west), then backtracking along the northern part of the rectangle and stopping a short distance from where we got off the highway.
GPX / view map—Driving the rather short distance from our dinner spot to our hotel, both in Franconia, New Hampshire.

Thursday, October 3

GPX / view map—Driving from Franconia, New Hampshire to Ellsworth, Maine, via Augusta (where we stopped briefly to do some electronics shopping). We also departed the main highway for a short time at Moose Brook State Park, near Gorham, New Hampshire. We stopped in Ellsworth for dinner.
GPX / view map—Driving from Ellsworth, Maine to our hotel in Northeast Harbor, Maine. We also detoured slightly in Ellsworth, to see a house that we had been impressed with on the Trulia.com website (but which was no longer for sale). The house was located on Bayside Road. We also stopped for gas in Somesville.

Friday, October 4

GPX / view map—Walking from the hotel to a nearby restaurant for breakfast/lunch (in Northeast Harbor, Maine).
GPX / view map—Driving from the hotel in Northeast Harbor to near Jordan Pond. We missed the turn for Stanley Brook Road (because I misread the guidance), then scouted the area around the stables between Day Mountain and The Triad, looking for additional places to park. Finding nothing, we went to the Jordan Pond (south end) parking areas.
GPX / view map—Hiking in Acadia National Park: we took the Bubble & Jordan Ponds Path to the Hunters Brook Path to Hunters Brook, where we turned around, returning to the car via a carriage road (the basic pattern is clockwise). We also took a brief spur to the south atop The Triad, reaching (near?) the summit, which did not appear to be marked. (Topo)
GPX / view map—Driving from near Jordan Pond to dinner in Bar Harbor.
GPX / view map—Driving from Bar Harbor back to our hotel in Northeast Harbor.

Saturday, October 5

GPX / view map—Walking from the hotel to our (other) breakfast/lunch spot in downtown Northeast Harbor, then down to the hotel parking lot (to retrieve a few items from the car), then to the Northeast Harbor Pier stop for the Island Express bus service. Note that the beginning of the track is noticeably offset too far north (the general sense of the direction of travel is clockwise).
GPX / view map—Riding the Island Express bus from Northeast Harbor Pier to Bubble Pond.
GPX / view map—Hiking from the bus stop at Bubble Pond to the bus stop at Jordan Pond House. This was our first ever one-way hike at Acadia N. P.! After spending quite a lot of time at the north end of Bubble Pond (it's very picturesque!), we hiked south on the adjacent carriage road, then took the Bubble & Jordan Ponds Path to the Jordan Pond House. (Topo)
GPX / view map—Riding the bus from Jordan Pond House back to our hotel. The bus driver kindly dropped us off in front of the hotel, instead of making us walk from the "official" stop at Northeast Harbor Pier.
GPX / view map—Driving from the hotel to the historic Asticou Inn (restaurant) for dinner.
GPX / view map—Driving back to our hotel from the Asticou Inn.

Sunday, October 6

GPX / view map—(Navigon) Driving from the hotel to downtown Northeast Harbor for breakfast/lunch.
GPX / view map—(GaiaGPS) Driving from downtown Northeast Harbor to near Beech Mountain in Acadia National Park. We were unable to find parking in the main lot, so found a spot about 500 m farther north in a much smaller parking area.
GPX / view map—(GaiaGPS) Hiking near Beech Mountain and Echo Lake. We walked uphill to the trailheads, then took the Beech Cliff Loop Trail east, then counter-clockwise along the Echo Lake overlooks. The trail's northern section was closed, so we took the provided shortcut. We then went south on the Canada Cliffs Trail, taking what was apparently (in hindsight) a closed trail. There were no clear markings of closure, and the map was on our electronic maps (but we later noticed its absence on our paper map). We rejoined the Canada Cliffs Trail after crossing trees lain across the trail (a clearer indication that the trail we had just taken wasn't open), then proceeded to the Valley Trail, which we took as far as we could before darkness set in...then returned to the car. (Topo)
GPX / view map—(Incomplete Bad Elf Pro+ version of previous entry)
GPX / view map—Driving from near Beech Mountain to Southwest Harbor for dinner.
GPX / view map—Walking/sitting at our dinner spot. The parking area is to the northwest; the restaurant to the southeast.
GPX / view map—Driving from the restaurant in Southwest Harbor to our hotel in Northeast Harbor.

Monday, October 7

GPX / view map—Driving from the hotel to downtown Northeast Harbor for breakfast/lunch.
GPX / view map—Driving from downtown Northeast Harbor to the Jordan Pond House overflow parking area.
GPX / view map—Hiking near Jordan Pond: we departed the parking lot toward the Jordan Pond House, then toward the Pond, then took the Bubble & Jordan Pond Path to a spot where we had encountered some unique (to us) mushrooms two days earlier. This was so that we could attempt to get better photos of the mushrooms. We returned to Jordan Pond, then continued to the car. (Topo)
GPX / view map—Driving: we repositioned the car in the parking lost closer to the Jordan Pond House, because it was raining.
GPX / view map—The short walk to (same as from) the Jordan Pond House.
GPX / view map—(GaiaGPS) Driving from the Jordan Pond House back to the hotel in Northeast Harbor.

Tuesday, October 8

GPX / view map—Driving from the hotel to downtown Northeast Harbor for breakfast/lunch.
GPX / view map—Driving from downtown Northeast Harbor to the Parkman Mountain parking lot.
GPX / view map—Hiking, mostly on the Maple Spring Trail: we took a carriage road to the Around Mountain Carriage Road, which we followed to the Waterfall Bridge. We then backtracked to the Maple Spring Trail, which we took to near the summit of Sargent Mountain. We then descended via the Sargent South Ridge Trail, and mainly the Hadlock Brook Trail (this trail is very steep shortly after departing the Sargent South Ridge Trail). After reaching the waterfall (around sunset), we retraced the carriage roads back to the car. (Topo)
GPX / view map—Driving to Bah Habah for dinnah (as they say in Downeast Maine).
GPX / view map—Walking from the parking spot to the other side of the parking lot, then to the restaurant, and back to the car. The restaurant stop is the "cobweb" to the west, and forays shown to the north did not happen.
GPX / view map—(GaiaGPS) Driving from the restaurant in Bar Harbor to the hotel in Northeast Harbor.

Wednesday, October 9

GPX / view map—(GaiaGPS) Driving from the hotel to downtown Northeast Harbor for breakfast/lunch.
GPX / view map—Driving from downtown Northeast Harbor to the Duck Brook Bridge.
GPX / view map—Our various meanderings in the Duck Brook Bridge area.
GPX / view map—Driving from the Duck Brook Bridge to Sieur de Monts.
GPX / view map—Hiking: after a brief stop at the visitor information building, we headed northwest on the Jesup Path, turned back, then took Hemlock Road to Hemlock Path. After climbing the moderately steep trail, we arrived at the spot that was the reason for taking the Hemlock Path: a pond with a low-overhanging (creepy-looking) branch, suitable for Halloween. We had noted this location from a previous trip. Unfortunately, the pond was dry, and the branch had broken off the tree, and was lying on the ground. We returned down to the Jesup Path, then to the parking area and car. (Topo)
GPX / view map—Driving from Sieur de Monts to Bar Harbor for dinner. We tried to park at the restaurant, near Mount Desert Street, but found the lot full. We parked instead on Park Street (appropriate, no?), and walked to and from the restaurant from there.
GPX / view map—Walking to the restaurant from the car (Bar Harbor).
GPX / view map—Walking around downtown Bar Harbor, then back to the car.
GPX / view map—Driving from Bar Harbor to the hotel in Northeast Harbor.

Thursday, October 10

GPX / view map—(GaiaGPS) Driving from the hotel to downtown Northeast Harbor for breakfast/lunch.
GPX / view map—Driving from downtown Northeast Harbor to the Jordan Pond House parking areas. Both were full, so we returned to Northeast Harbor Pier to take the Island Express bus instead.
GPX / view map—Walking the short distance from the parking spot to the bus stop.
GPX / view map—Riding the Island Explorer bus from Northeast Harbor Pier to the Jordan Pond House.
GPX / view map—Hiking from the Jordan Pond House south/southwest along the Jordan Stream Path (not marked on the available OpenStreetMap maps as of October, 2019), then along carriage roads generally east to the Stanley Brook Bridge, then back north to the Jordan Pond House. (Topo)
GPX / view map—Riding the Island Explorer bus back to Northeast Harbor Pier.
GPX / view map—Walking the short distance from the bus stop at Northeast Harbor Pier, northeast to the pier, then south to the parked car.
GPX / view map—Driving from near the pier in Northeast Harbor to downtown for dinner.
GPX / view map—Driving back to the hotel from downtown Northeast Harbor.

Friday, October 11

GPX / view map—Walking from the hotel to breakfast/lunch to the Island Explorer bus stop at Northeast Harbor Pier.
GPX / view map—Riding the Island Explorer bus from Northeast Harbor Pier to the Jordan Pond House.
GPX / view map—(GaiaGPS edited) Hiking from the Jordan Pond House to Bubble Pond, on our second-ever one-way hike. We took the Jordan Pond Path north along the east side of Jordan Pond, then the Bubble Divide Trail over/between The Bubbles, then the Jordan Pond Carry (trail) to the south edge of Eagle Lake. We also went a short distance southwest along the Eagle Lake Trail to a scenic spot we like (a small bridge), then returned to the Eagle Lake Carriage Road (toward the northeast). We went a short distance north from the next carriage road intersection (to view a small pond), then turned south/southeast toward Bubble Pond. Both the Bad Elf Pro+ (see next entry) and the iPhone injected a few spurious points at the end of the hike. They have been deleted in the display version of this track (they are not deleted from the original track). (Topo, edited)
GPX / view map—(Partial Bad Elf Pro+) Most of this track is good (see previous entry for details), but the last minute or two is missing.
GPX / view map—(GaiaGPS) Riding the Island Explorer bus from Bubble Pond to downtown Northeast Harbor.
GPX / view map—(GaiaGPS) Walking in Northeast Harbor (from bus stop to dinner to hotel).

Saturday, October 12

GPX / view map—Driving from the hotel to downtown Northeast Harbor for breakfast/lunch.
GPX / view map—The short walk to/from the breakfast/lunch restaurant from/to the parking lot.
GPX / view map—Driving from Northeast Harbor to the parking area for the trailhead of the Canon Brook Trail. We turned at the wrong place (again, and again because of difficult-to-resolve guidance) near Seal Harbor, so looped back, and continued northeast/north to the trailhead parking area.
GPX / view map—Hiking west, then south, on the Canon Brook Trail to the intersection with the Dorr Mountain South Ridge Trail, then back to the intersection with the Kane Path. From there, we hiked north on the Kane Path to the southwest edge of The Tarn, then returned to the car via Kane/Canon Brook. (Topo)
GPX / view map—Driving from the trailhead of the Canon Brook Trail to the south shore area of Echo Lake.
GPX / view map—Walking from the parking lot south about 50 m to the trailhead for the (newly-opened extension of the) Canada Cliffs Trail, then back north to the beach at the south end of Echo Lake, then a short distance on the Beech Cliff Trail (which becomes extremely steep a short distance beyond where we turned around), and back to the car.
GPX / view map—Driving from near Echo Lake to Southwest Harbor for dinner. Most of the roads (especially the first half of the drive) were one-lane forest roads.
GPX / view map—Walking from the parking lot to dinner, and in the local area (except the tracks to the south of the "cobweb" are spurious).
GPX / view map—Driving from Southwest Harbor to the hotel in Northeast Harbor.

Sunday, October 13

GPX / view map—Driving from the hotel to our breakfast/lunch spot in Northeast Harbor.
GPX / view map—Walking the very short distance to/from the restaurant in downtown Northeast Harbor.
GPX / view map—Driving from downtown Northeast Harbor to the trailhead for the Harbor Brook Trail (which is not in Acadia National Park, but rather the Land and Garden Preserve).
GPX / view map—After briefly walking south and east to the bridge on the highway and back, we hiked north along the Harbor Brook Trail to the Richard Trail, which we took west to Thuya Garden. Surprisingly (to us, anyway), many flowers were in bloom in the garden. We then took the Eliot Mountain Trail back to the highway, which we took back to the car. As of October, 2019, only the Harbor Brook Trail is shown on OpenStreetMaps maps (so the other trails don't show up on this website's maps). (Topo)
GPX / view map—Driving from the Harbor Brook Trail trailhead to Sieur de Monts.
GPX / view map—Walking from the parking lot to the Jesup Path, which we took as far as waning light allowed photography, then returned to the car. We did take a brief spur at Homans Path on the way back. (Topo)
GPX / view map—Driving from Sieur de Monts to the Burning Tree restaurant (which appeared to be closed) area, then back to Bar Harbor for dinner.
GPX / view map—(Edited) Walking from the parking area in downtown Bar Harbor to/from the east end of the parking lot a couple of times, then to dinner nearby, then south on Main Street to several stores/ice cream shops, and back to the car. (Note: both the Bad Elf GPS Pro+ and the iPhone 8 showed erroneous southbound/northbound tracks just east of the real tracks on Main Street. I saw the wrong tracks on the iPhone as they were being plotted, apparently because of some error in the GPS signals. That erroneous track, along with several other obvious tracking errors have been deleted in the displayed map, but not in the original GPX files.)
GPX / view map—Driving from Bar Harbor back to the hotel in Northeast Harbor.

Monday, October 14

GPX / view map—Driving from the hotel to downtown Northeast Harbor for breakfast/lunch.
GPX / view map—Driving from Northeast Harbor, Maine to the Portland International Jetport in Portland, Maine.
GPX / view map—(GaiaGPS) Walking at the Portland International Jetport. We started at the north, in the car rental return area, then went to the terminal, a restaurant (west end), the gate (east), and then the aircraft (far southeast cluster of points).
GPX / view map—(GaiaGPS) Flying from Portland (Portland International Jetport in Portland, Maine) to Chicago (O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, Illinois). The taxiing at Portland was odd because of a closed taxiway. Taxiing at O'Hare was even stranger for the same reason.
GPX / view map—(GaiaGPS) Walking (quickly, because of a short connection time) through O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, Illinois. The direction of travel is roughly clockwise.
GPX / view map—Flying from Chicago (O'Hare International Airport, Chicago, Illinois) to Oklahoma City (Will Rogers World Airport, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma).
GPX / view map—(GaiaGPS)Walking through Will Rogers World Airport, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, from the aircraft (west) to baggage claim to a taxi (northeast end of track).
GPX / view map—(Partial Bad Elf GPS Pro+ version of previous track)
GPX / view map—(GaiaGPS) Riding a taxi back from the airport.