Maine 2022 (October)

Ellsworth and vicinity

Saturday, October 1 through Saturday, October 22, 2022

We drove a moving truck from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma to Ellsworth, Maine, and spent about two and a half weeks in Ellsworth, Maine at our newish house. We returned to Oklahoma City via Newark and Houston airports. With whatever spare time we had (not much), we went to Acadia National Park to do some hiking and autumn color photography.

One curiosity of the trip is that three of the four overnight cities between Oklahoma City and Ellsworth were named something-field: Springfield, Greenfield, and Westfield!

I tracked the trip with a Bad Elf GPS Pro+ GPSr (GPS receiver), using my iPhone 12 (Gaia GPS app) as a backup (FlightRadar24 website). A few local trips were not recorded (since in-town trips are regularly ignored where we live). Standard topographic maps (1:24,000) are provided for hikes of significant length.

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, except where necessary to fill in missing data. Edited tracks are noted in their descriptions.

Businesses are named below for reference only. No endorsement should be inferred. If you wish to see my opinion of the places mentioned, see TripAdvisor (for those few that I have actually rated).

Overview

Overview map—This is a composite map of all the GPS tracks on a blank US/Canada map. Just Downeast Maine.
All GPS tracks / view map—The whole trip, including walking, driving, etc.

Saturday, October 1

GPX / view map—Driving from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma to Springfield, Missouri.

Sunday, October 2

GPX / view map—Driving from Springfield, Missouri to Greenfield, Indiana.
GPX / view map—Walking (counter-clockwise) from the hotel to the (Thai) restaurant for dinner.

Monday, October 3

GPX / view map—Driving from Greenfield, Indiana to Erie, Pennsylvania. The first stop (in Erie) was for dinner, the second is the hotel.

Tuesday, October 4

GPX / view map—Driving from Erie,Pennsylvania to Westfield, Massachusetts (to dinner at a restaurant northwest of the airport, then to the hotel southwest of the airport).

Wednesday, October 5

GPX / view map—Driving from Westfield, Massachusetts to Ellsworth, Maine, via Bangor, Maine, where we picked up a rental car and drove separately to Ellsworth (Stu drove the car, and I drove the truck).
GPX / view map—Driving from Ellsworth to Abel’s Lobster Pound (rural Bar Harbor) for my birthday dinner.

Thursday, October 6

GPX / view map—Driving in Ellsworth.
GPX / view map—Driving in Ellsworth.
GPX / view map—Driving in Ellsworth.

Friday, October 7

GPX / view map—Driving from Surry to Bangor and back to Ellsworth. Note: the GPSr was inadvertently left off for the drive to Surry (U.S. 1 from Ellsworth to N Bend Road to Surry Road to the southern [beginning] end of this track).
GPX / view map—Driving in Ellsworth.

Saturday, October 8

GPX / view map—Driving to the parking lot for Thuya Garden, near Northeast Harbor.
GPX / view map—Walking to Thuya Garden and back. It may be necessary to zoom out a bit to see the background map.
GPX / view map—Driving to Northeast Harbor for dinner, then back to Ellsworth. (A nonexistent path in Ellsworth has been removed from the map display, but not the original GPX file.)

Sunday, October 9

GPX / view map—Driving to the Parkman Mountain parking area at Acadia National Park.
GPX / view map—Hiking to Cedar Swamp Mountain, via the Waterfall Bridge, Hadlock Brook Trail, Amphitheatre Trail, past Birch Spring, and up to the summit of Cedar Swamp Mountain, then down Sargent Mountain South Ridge Trail to a carriage road, past the Brown Mountain parking area and Upper Hadlock Pond, and back to the parking lot. (Topo)
GPX / view map—Driving back to Ellsworth for dinner, and back to the house.

Monday, October 10

GPX / view map—Driving to a parking lot near The Tarn (Acadia National Park).
GPX / view map—Hiking to Jesup Path, The Great Meadow Loop, Kebo Mountain Trail (to the summit of Kebo Mountain), Hemlock Trail, Hemlock Road, and Jesup Path back to the parking lot. (Topo)
GPX / view map—Driving a short distance south to the parking area for the Canon Brook Trail (Acadia National Park).
GPX / view map—Hiking a short distance on the Canon Brook Trail (and back). You may need to zoom out a bit to see the background map.
GPX / view map—Driving to dinner (Mainely Meat, near Salsbury Cove) and back to Ellsworth.

Tuesday, October 11

GPX / view map—Driving to Acadia National Park, attempting unsuccessfully to find parking near Jordan Pond, and ultimately arriving near Duck Brook Bridge.
GPX / view map—Walking down to near Duck Brook, then up to Duck Brook Bridge, down to near the brook again (this time on the southwest side of the bridge), under the bridge toward the northeast side, and back to the parking area. You may need to zoom out a bit to see the background map.
GPX / view map—Driving to along-road parking near the north shore of Eagle Lake.
GPX / view map—Walking (on carriage roads) along the east side of Eagle Lake to the north shore of Bubble Pond, and back. (Topo)
GPX / view map—Driving back to Ellsworth, including stopping for dinner.

Wednesday, October 12

GPX / view map—Driving (relatively early in the morning) to the parking area for Jordan Pond in Acadia National Park.
GPX / view map—Hiking counter-clockwise around Jordan Pond, including a spur partway up the Bubble Divide trail, then up Deer Brook Trail (from the northwest side of Jordan Pond), and back via the Around Mountain carriage road. (Topo)
GPX / view map—Driving back to Ellsworth.
GPX / view map—Driving in Ellsworth.

Thursday, October 13

GPX / view map—Driving to the Beech Mountain parking area (north of Beech Mountain) in Acadia National Park.
GPX / view map—Hiking south on the Valley Trail to the Beech Mountain South Ridge Trail to the fire lookout building atop Beech Mountain, then down via the Beech Mountain Loop Trail (west, then northeast along the northwest side of Beech Mountain). (Topo)
GPX / view map—Driving to the Carroll Homestead parking area (Acadia National Park).
GPX / view map—Hiking the short distance to, and around, the Carroll Homestead. For the duration of our visit, we saw no one else here, except a park ranger who drove up the gravel road toward the house, and then departed back to the highway. You may need to zoom out a bit to see the background map.
GPX / view map—Driving to the parking area for the Wonderland Trail (Acadia National Park).
GPX / view map—Hiking the Wonderland Trail (Topo). Note: this track was recorded by my iPhone (GaiaGPS app), since there is (apparently) no track from the Bad Elf GPSr.
GPX / view map—Driving to dinner in Southwest Harbor.
GPX / view map—Walking from the parking area (far west edge of track) to dinner (Drydock Inn) in Southwest Harbor, and back. The track between the arrival and departure is very “noisy”, and includes a track to the north that isn’t real. You may need to zoom out a bit to see the background map.
GPX / view map—Driving back to Ellsworth.

Friday, October 14

GPX / view map—Driving to Bangor and back.

Saturday, October 15

GPX / view map—Driving to the Parkman Mountain parking area in Acadia National Park.
GPX / view map—Walking to and from the Waterfall Bridge (northeast of Upper Hadlock Pond, and southwest of the summit of Sargent Mountain) (Topo).
GPX / view map—Driving to Northeast Harbor and downtown Ellsworth for shopping.
GPX / view map—Walking in downtown Ellsworth (may need to zoom out for background map).
GPX / view map—Driving back to the house.
GPX / view map—Exploring the property (on foot). Zoom out to see background map, if necessary.

Sunday, October 16

GPX / view map—Driving in Ellsworth.
GPX / view map—Property exploration (zoom out to see background map, if necessary).

Monday, October 17

GPX / view map—Driving to Bar Harbor.
GPX / view map—Walking in Bar Harbor. We parked near the intersection of Billings Avenue and West Street, then walked clockwise through the city to do some shopping for various items. The track has several “wobbles” that show movement that didn’t actually happen (such as the loop into the water near the northeast corner of the rectangle).
GPX / view map—Driving back to Ellsworth.

Wednesday, October 19

GPX / view map—Driving in Ellsworth.

Thursday, October 20

GPX / view map—Driving in Ellsworth.
GPX / view map—Driving to the Jordan Pond parking area in Acadia National Park.
GPX / view map—Hiking near Jordan Pond. We went a short distance south along the Jordan Stream, and northwest a slightly shorter distance on the Around Mountain carriage road, and back (Topo).
GPX / view map—Driving to Southwest Harbor for dinner (Drydock Inn), and back to Ellsworth. The map track is edited to remove some clearly incorrect track points around the restaurant in Southwest Harbor, while the original GPX file is unedited.

Friday, October 21

GPX / view map—Driving in Ellsworth.

Saturday, October 22

GPX / view map—Driving to Bangor International Airport (Maine).
GPX / view map—Walking from the rental car area to the terminal, gate, and plane at Bangor International Airport. You may need to zoom out to see the background map.
GPX / view map—Flying from Bangor, Maine (Bangor International Airport) to Newark, New Jersey (Newark Liberty International Airport). The track appears to be missing a few points near the beginning of the flight, just after departure from Bangor International Airport.
GPX / view map—Walking at the airport in Newark.
GPX / view map—Flying from Newark, New Jersey (Newark Liberty International Airport) to Houston, Texas (George Bush Intercontinental Airport). Again, some sharper-than-reality turns show up near the beginning of the flight, where the GPSr seems to have briefly lost its connection to satellite data.
GPX / view map—Walking/train riding at the airport in Houston. Some of this was underground, so some parts of the track are inaccurate as a result.
GPX / view map—Flying from Houston, Texas (George Bush Intercontinental Airport) to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (Will Rogers World Airport). This track is from my iPhone 12 instead of the Bad Elf GPSr (which apparently was accidentally in a non-tracking mode for this flight). There are a few minor location errors in the area northwest of Houston.
GPX / view map—Walking at the Oklahoma City airport. Zooming out may be needed to see the background map.
GPX / view map—Riding (airport taxi/van) from the airport in Oklahoma City.