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Heading up the Park Loop Road.
To make the trip a loop (I love loops!), we headed out of Bar Harbor via West street extension, and entered the park loop road from there. We then walked along the park loop road (which was nicely packed thanks to the snowmobiles), and headed up Cadillac via Cadillac Mountain Road. It was nice to see so many hikers out enjoying the day, however they looked at us a little funny for heading up the mountain rather than coming down.
Looking over at Dorr and Cadillac near the West Street Extension entrance.
To make things all the more appropriate, my wife and I had just gotten a pair of MP3 players, and went to the library to get some audiobooks to listen to on the hike. While my wife chose Twilight, I couldn't resist but listen to Into Thin Air and pretend I was on the summit push on Everest
.On the way up Cadillac Mountain Road.
About a mile from the summit we passed the last hiker we'd see, who did a double take trying to figure out why people would be heading up so late (and probably worried we were some in experienced day-hikers). But, we trudged along and made it within a half mile of the summit before the sun completely set leaving us in darkness.
Learning all about glaciation and Sargent Mountain.
I had a headlamp on hand, but sadly enough there was enough light pollution reflecting off the clouds from Bar Harbor, that we could see our way without them.
Passing one of many ice falls on the way up.
Looking down at Bar Harbor.
We finally reached the summit at 5:45PM and were treated to a beautiful view of Bar Harbor and Trenton (without the trees, the towns really light up). We then whipped out the headlamp for the descent, as the temperatures had dropped and things were starting to ice up, grabbed a quick summit photo, and headed back down.
Enjoying the summit tourist free!
The trip down Cadillac was perfectly timed to, as it was right during the part of "Into Thin Air" where they are executing a night-time rescue of those climbers who were stranded on the South Col, unable to find Camp 4.
Once at the base of the Cadillac Mountain Road, we continued to take the Park Loop Road down past Cadillac and Dorr to the Glenn Mary Road, and back into Bar Harbor by 8:40PM.
I was surprised how tired both of us were by the time we got back, and so I hopped on Google Maps to measure out the trek. I was thinking it would be 8-10 miles at the most, but was very surprised when the total distance was 15 miles, the furthest distance my wife had ever hiked!
All in all a rewarding trek, and I'd highly recommend listening to "Into Thin Air" on a winter night hike, as it really makes you feel like you're in on the action
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