Back from Acadia.

I just got back from Acadia.  It was nice to get away for a bit.  I am splitting this up into two posts.  This is the first post and contains the park pictures.  The albums are below:

Entire Album: https://photobucket.com/share/5880dd93-ae31-468a-812a-c889dab3e220

Driving to Acadia - https://photobucket.com/share/25fa63be-332b-410d-be33-35755e77c89f

Acadia Park Loop and Bass Harbor Lighthouse - https://photobucket.com/share/394019a5-3752-4d11-a6b4-d1b470b0db08

Cadillac Mountain and Schoodic Peninsula - https://photobucket.com/share/14486a07-1242-46f6-b137-1bd120321251

Coming Soon: Car camper and campground - https://photobucket.com/share/c68b6323-7192-46ff-9595-464fc054dc88

 

  

The first day was dedicated to the loop road.  Because of the sleep situation, I was up at 6AM.  I got to the visitor center (I wanted a park map) before they opened at 8:30, but I waited.  For the most part I didn't have too much trouble parking, but Sand Beach and a couple of other spots I did have problems.  Acadia deals with its parking problems by letting people park in the right lane (it is two lanes) and they made the loop a one-way. However, it also isn't always clear where you can and can't park; the signs allowing and prohibiting it are identical except for the last word, and if you are looking around, they are really easy to miss.  

 

Sand beach was really nice.  It was surprisingly not crowded given the awful parking situation.  I didn't go swimming, but I waded far enough in to get my shorts wet.  The water felt like it was somewhere in the 50-55 degree range.  I stayed there for well over an hour, maybe closer to two, wading through and playing in the sand with my feet.  The waves moved the sand a lot more than other beaches I have been at.

 

From there I hiked to first Thunder Hole, which was interesting, but it wasn't high tide so I only got some minor thumping.  

 

I continued on to what I thought was Otter point, but was actually Otter Cliffs.  Oops.  My feet were tired by that point anyways, so I took the shuttle back to Sand Beach near where I was parked.  The shuttle stopped at Bar Harbor for a while, so I walked around for a few minutes, but shopping isn't really my thing.  There are some rather interesting buildings and stuff there though.  

 

After that I finished up the loop and took the scenic drive back to the campground, taking the roads along the ocean instead of the faster roads further north.  I had enough daylight left at that point to hit up Bass Harbor Lighthouse.  It was a short excursion since you can't go in; it is actually a private residence now.  But they have trails that go up to it, and one on the cliff side.

 

 

 

The next day was my trip up Cadillac Mountain.  I drove up.  It wasn't annoyingly busy due to them restricting the number of car passes, which was nice; I had no problems stopping at the view points on the way up.  The top was a bit busy, since I am guessing a lot of the sunrise people hadn't left yet.  One of the big appeals of Cadillac mountain is that it is the first place in the US that sees the sun.  It is also the tallest mountain in the area, though it is not a big mountain; only 1530' give or take, which is tiny even by non-high-peaks in the Adirondacks standards.  But it is the tallest mountain within 25 miles of the coast between Nova Scotia and Mexico if I recall the signs correctly.  The summit trail isn't actually at the peak, it is adjacent to it, and I never found the USGS marker sadly.  I was in flip flops though, so I admittedly didn't search as hard as I could have.

 

After that I went over to the quiet side of the park on the Schoodic Peninsula.  The drive there was about an hour and a half from the main part of the park.  It is less developed and less populated though, which is more up my alley.  This area also has a scenic loop to drive, so I did that, and spent a little time at Schoodic Point.

 

Sadly this marked the end of my trip, and it was time to drive home.  I took a more scenic route home, avoiding highways in general until I got to NH, and to be honest while it took a little longer, is a much better route.  I stopped for lunch on the way back and encountered a blasphemous shop that was out of lobster, so I had to get crab instead.   

 

Trip prep. Short post.

I have been mostly focused on trip preparation stuff this week.  I did a final pass through to the car, and realized that while I have the stove in there, I never put any pots or pans in there, so I grabbed a couple to bring with me.  I also prepped the cooler and packed the food.  I am thinking I might bypass the basket and just stuff the bag in there directly.  It is just a weekend, so I might be able to get away with that.  For longer trips, the basket and empty storage bins would have food, and I would have a tote that sits in the back that I move to the driver's seat when I stop for the day.  

 

I also went through my Atlas and read all the Acadia stuff in it.  I knew most of the stuff in there already, which is good (it means I did my homework).

 

I have been going out for long walks and bike rides the last couple of weeks.  One of my walks this week I saw some deer.  

 

I am going to Acadia this weekend, so I probably won't post on Monday or Tuesday, unless I get all my pictures uploaded very quickly upon my return.  This is my itinerary.  I have all the passes and everything, so I am good to go:

Weekend: 

• Day One: 

• Drive the loop trail

• Sand beach for a few hours

• Ocean Path Trail

• Thunder Hole

• High Tide is around 7AM and at 7PM

• Schooner Head

• Day Two

• Sundew Trail/Schoodick Point

• Cadillac Summit Loop Road and Trail (My entrance is for 8AM)

• Bass Harbor Head Lighthouse

 

 

Flies are defeated. Nice lazy weekend.

Last week I waged full war on the flies.  I started with a fly strip.  

 

Me and my flyswatter had fun too.  This was all in one night.

 

The following morning I found the source of the flies.  I am not sure how they were getting inside, since it isn't like I was seeing clouds of them coming in every time I opened the door.  Perhaps my screens suck a lot more than I thought.  Needless to say, I made a dump run immediately to get rid of the bag in there causing this (that had been in there since July sometime...).  The can also got a Pine Sol bath, which funny enough the maggots didn't seem to enjoy.  Shame.  That all said, perhaps I should put a two week maximum on trash bags sitting in the can outside, at least in the summer.  

 

I also finally found the keys to my e-bike.  You need the key to remove the battery (so it doesn't randomly get stolen), but the charger I have is not rated for outdoors, so I have to remove the battery to charge it.  meaning it hasn't been charged since last year.

 

When I ordered the new carport, I also ordered a portable disc golf thingy.  It is just a cheap one, but still gives me something I can put outside and use to practice.  See if I can improve the accuracy of newt.  I might get better.

 

Friday I went up and visited Matt.  He was bikepacking up into Vermont.  He did 90 miles the first day.

 

The reason he went so far the first day was to avoid all the storms on Saturday.  We got a lot of much needed rain on Saturday, so I stayed inside most of the day.  They started earlier than anticipated, so I didn't get the mowing done that I wanted to.  I wanted to start the final mow for the year, since at the moment it is looking like I will be doing it with the pushmower in the rough areas.  The first couple boxes for the new carport came in as well, so I got those put away.

 

After that, I watched some movies, and started working on a floorplan for a truck conversion.  I did a rough sketch of one a while ago, this is a more detailed one that took into account the sizes of utilities and stuff.  As part of that, I started to look at electrification of it.  I am intending to carry a generator anyways for electric backup, so this would remove the need to also carry two propane tanks.  Most of them were simple; finding a small tanked electric water heater instead of a propane tankless, space heaters can replace the furnace (which itself was the backup for the heat pump).  That only left the stove.  I despise cooking on conventional electric ranges, but induction cooktops supposedly offer the instant control and instant on/off like gas stoves.  The only problem is that higher power ones are seemingly hard to find.  So I ran a test Saturday evening.  Note that the numbers I mention in this video are wrong; the kettle is only 1500W, and the stove is 14,200 BTU which I looked up after I took it.  

 

The results were eye opening.  What I read online is that induction cooktops were vastly more efficient, but I didn't expect this.  Efficiency isn't a big deal with gas since propane doesn't cost per BTU really, but I didn't expect the efficiency to come in at 23.6%  Despite the massive BTU advantage, it still took my gas stove longer to boil water.  There are still downsides to induction; they still do the modulation that regular electric does at the minimum setting, so you have to be careful of burning when simmering, the 1800W units share that power amongst all burners, so it isn't every burner has that power (unless I installed two independent units instead of a single dual burner unit), and it means I will have to buy all new cookware since I am pretty sure none of my pots and pans will work with induction (it has to be magnetic).  But this is a manageable hurdle; I was worried I would be going back to how things were in the tiny home with the cheapo crappy stove I had that took a half hour to boil water for spaghetti which is why I bought the kettle in the first place.

 

Sunday was also rainy to start, though it stopped midday.  I did some chores.  I decided to finally try to clean the shower.  I tried using a toilet bowl cleaner in the shower bin that was effective at removing rust stains.  It worked so good that I am worried if it dissolved the shower, but everything looks and feels fine.  It just uses a lot.  You can see where the gel was and where I didn't spread it very effectively.

I also put the final touches on the floorplan after researching water tanks to make sure I could fit them under the bed.  It means building my own futon essentially, but I think this is workable.

I noted last weekend that there were a few trees that had started to change.  This weekend there were a ton more.  My lot is well into changing at this point.  

 

I was feeling a little cooped up, so I decided to go out in the afternoon.  I am not sure what was going on, but Otter Brook was surprisingly busy, so I went to the rail trail.  Both of those were closed for debris and trees down.  The storms on Saturday were vicious.  So I went to the other end of Otter Brook.

 

 That waaay down there is the sad abandoned beach from my pictures the other day.

 

I got to see a pretty sunset on the drive home.

The weather for this coming weekend is still looking decent so I am planning my trip to Acadia this weekend.  I have a couple of candidates for campgrounds lined up, so hopefully they still have availability.

Nice relaxing holiday weekend, though the mower is still broken.

The weekend only had a few main objectives - enjoy it, make sure the car camper is ready for next weekend in Acadia, and fix the mower.  Two out of three isn't bad I guess. 

 

Saturday I started off by picking up some (I assume) old railroad ties.  Unfortunately the pile was pretty well picked through by the time I got there, and a lot of them were rotten in the middle, or broken.  I still grabbed a bunch though.  Dad could use a few, and I might try to use whatever is left for the base of a retaining wall or something, like maybe the bridge across the creek I wanted to build.  They are 6x8, so beefy enough to drive a car on.  

 

I grabbed pretty much anything with more than three usable feet in it.  

 

The logs were located in the same vicinity as the exotic meat store in Concord, so I stopped in after loading up the truck with wood.  They had some weird stuff.  I stayed away from the bugs. 

 

I did pick up some elk and other meat while I was there though.

 

I noticed on the drive home that, while only a few, the early changers are starting to turn.  Fall is on its way.  

After getting home, I started to look up some metal carports, since my carport is waaay overloaded, and I didn't really have any place to put the wood I just picked up.  After a while on that and trying to deduce what 35psf means for snow load (I came to the conclusion it means about a foot of heavier wet snow, or 18-24 inches of dryer more powdery snow), I decided to go play on the tractor.  I got the two big washout trenches filled back in, so it is nice and smooth driving up the driveway again.

 

I still had some time left in the afternoon, so I decided to head down to Otter Brook.  Even though we actually did get rain a few days earlier, it was still borderline not running.  

 

I actually went all the way down to the pond this time.  I think last time it was lower than it looked.  The sad view of an abandoned beach.  Otter Brook Park is closed this year because of poor money management from Keene, so it is walk-in only, and the beach has been closed for a couple of years because of bacteria levels (which I assume is because there are literally thousands of geese pooping in it all winter).   The only good thing about it being closed is that it is usually vacated now, so I don't have to deal with people.

 

Normally the water is up around here.

 

It is so dry that the rocks in the middle, which are normally underwater at least mostly, have plants growing in them.  

 

The dam is kind of sad.  The eroded part in the center is only an inch or two deep at this point.

 

The reason I went down there though was to play some disc golf.  As expected, I had the course all to myself.  I used to toss a frisbee all the time at work,  so I figured I would give this a shot.  I only did 3 holes, mostly to get a feel for the discs (they are different than a frisbee) and it was getting later in the afternoon at this point.  I bought this set almost 6 months ago, and finally got to use it.  I bought it because someone at work was thinking of setting up a tournament, but it never happened.

 

The first hole went about as poorly as expected.  Par 3, I took six shots, and even gave myself a free mulligan on the first throw since I haven't thrown a frisbee since last time I was playing with Autumn with one.

 

The second one is easy.  It should not have been the same par as the first hole in my opinion.  I got a birdie on a par 3.

 

The third wasn't difficult (or it wouldn't have been if I could throw straight), and I got a 4 on a par 3.  I should have been able to do it in 2, but no matter how I tried, the disc golf discs always seemed to hook left.  

 

Sunday was camper day.  The first thing I did was get the bike rack holder mounted to the CR-V.  I don't like it, but it seems to work.

 

The top hooks don't look like they are grabbing well, and have wandered a little towards the center, but haven't let go.

 

The only way I could get the bottom hook in was by splitting the plastic and metal parts of the tailgate.  I don't like that either, but I didn't have any other choice.

 

My e-bike is technically over the weight limit (it is supposed to hold 2 35lb bikes, the e-bike is around 50-60lbs.  The fat frame on it also only barely fit, but I did get it on there.  It is actually surprisingly easy to mount.  

 

The picture sucks, but it doesn't really impact visibility out of the back too much either.  I can't open the tailgate, but only because the weight is awkward to lift, not because of the straps or anything. 

 

I also got a lip put on the conversion to hopefully prevent the stove from falling out.  

 

I took a quick trip around the block, and went into town to do my weekly shopping in the afternoon (I didn't want to go to the stores on the holiday), and it has held surprisingly well.  It doesn't block the back wiper, doesn't rest on the glass, held up to rough roads just fine, and the rack is designed to hold the bike far enough away from the car so there is no danger of the bike hitting the car.

 

When I took the bike into town, I decided to go to Robin Hood park and when that failed (more on that in a minute), I went down the rail trail a bit.  The pond (or whatever it is) at Robin Hood park was as expected quite low.  So low the boat launch ramp didn't even reach the water.  

 

I started to go down the trail around the pond, but quickly learned that my e-bike does not do off-road.  It may have mountain bike tires on it, but they are not for mountain biking.  The cranks are too long, and the pedals scraped roots and rocks far too easily (reminiscent of when I took the Continental off-road), and all the bumps started causing things like the light on the front to come loose and flop down.  So I only went to the edge of the pond and then turned back.  To my surprise, despite being the first significant bike ride of the year, I wasn't dependent on the electric assist, even despite the poor gearing of my ebike.  The pond was low because the brooks that feed it are all dried up. 

I have only been to this park a few times, but I don't think I have ever seen anyone in the gazebo.

 

After that failure I decided to stick to the rail trail, which is a smoother groomed trail. I rode through town and down to the other end of Otter Brook.  

 

All told, I put over 10 miles on the e-bike, and the pedals that Norm's put on there seem to be holding up good.  The bike is up to 33-ish miles.  It is actually a bit more than that, when I was having problems with the motor cutting it out, none of those miles were registered.  I think it was just overheating though, and it was cool out today.  Plus I wasn't running it nearly as hard. 

 

Monday was all about the lawn tractor.  I got the PTO reinstalled after spending an hour trying to bend the metal out of the way.  

 

Work was out of the red size spade connectors, so I tried one of the fork terminals.  They don't stay in terribly well.   

 

Turned out not to be an issue.  The battery didn't hold up well so I needed to jump it.  It fired right up, but as soon as I hit the PTO it stalled out.  

 

The battery turned it over, but it didn't start, so I left the charger on it for a bit.  After a bit, it fired right back up, and everything worked, well kinda.  I presume I just didn't have enough RPM the first time, even though the deck should (theoretically) engage at low throttle.

 

But only once.  As soon as I turned the PTO off from the test, it ripped the wires off again, and somehow the blue one got twisted in the belt.  It is clear that I am missing something.  I don't know what is supposed to prevent the top of the PTO from spinning, but whatever that part is I don't seem to have.  At this point, I am not sure how to fix it.  Perhaps if I get some down time at work this week I will look through the parts manual for the mower and see if I can find the part I am missing.  The part I had to bend was nothing more than a belt guide, so it isn't that.

 

Slightly dismayed, I just had my cookout.  I was tempted to grill up some of the elk burgers, but I am saving those for when Dad brings the excavator back up in a few weeks (they are kinda expensive...).  I did bite the bullet and order the carport.  I don't have anywhere to park the excavator, the tarping worked poorly.  I still plan to move the carport that I built down the hill next year, but this gives me something now, and I can always park my car or truck in the garage next year if I actually have enough space.

 

After dinner I finally got the laptop arm I got from Matt installed.  The intent is so that I can put the Anker power bank underneath it as a UPS.  It didn't fit behind the laptop.  

Something else that really annoyed me this weekend is that I apparently had a fly problem.  Just regular house flies.  I literally killed at least 2 maybe three dozen flies in the house this weekend, and I don't know where they are coming from.  I took out the garbage and cleaned the floors stuff last weekend, and I did see maggots when I took out the last bag of trash (it took three weeks to fill that bag), but that was a week ago, and I cleaned out all the maggots.  It is really annoying. 

I am really enjoying the whole no projects thing.  This is the first time this year I have gone out for a bike ride, and I finally got my disc golf set out.  I might pick up a cheap portable target so I can work on being able to throw them straight.  I am not sure why I struggled so much with that.  Perhaps my wrist doesn't flex quick enough anymore or something, but I don't seem to have an issue with a real frisbee.  But it is nice to enjoy hobbies instead of grinding out projects.  Having a three day weekend helped too.  I still need to figure out a mowing solution though.  It is September, so my next mowing will likely be my last, but I typically go out in October and mulch up the leaves.

 

Currently my plan is to take the car camper out to Acadia next weekend, though I haven't made any campground reservations yet.   I will probably look at those today and see if anything is still available.  Labor Day weekend is  typically the end of the tourist season though, so hopefully it won't be too booked up, though if I have to wait another week I guess that isn't a big deal.  I still need to start making reservations for my big trip this year too.  The itinerary is largely settled, but I haven't picked dates or anything yet.