Something pretty neat happened as Joseph and I wrapped up today’s hike on the Eagle Lake carriage trail. It was a very cool ending to a full and good day!
But first, we stopped at the Post Office (taxes are due, vacation or no vacation!) on the way to breakfast at Jeannie’s Great Maine Breakfast. That’s an annual stop, at least once, because the food and the service are always good here. And the oatmeal bread is to die for!
Joseph ordered the breakfast burrito with a side of cinnamon toast. I had the pot roast breakfast – a couple hearty slices of tender pot roast over potatoes topped with two eggs. I ate the eggs, took half the potatoes and pot roast to-go and enjoyed oatmeal bread with strawberry rhubarb jam.
Business was slowing down by then and we got to talk with the owner. We complimented her for the efficient way she runs the place, including how good her help is. She sat with us for a little while and we swapped stories about how difficult it is to find good help. She echoed stories I’ve heard from other store owners about how hard it is to get local teens to work. “You mean I have to be here at 5am?” she said they ask her. Well, she explains to them, the place opens at 6am…and dirty dishes can’t be piling up until they’re ready to get out of bed. I think owning a restaurant must be one of the toughest things to do.
We left breakfast and headed for Eagle Lake, a four mile trek with a couple steep inclines. Unfortunately, about two miles or so into the trail, and after one very steep and very long incline, I checked the carriage trail book, I realized I’d read things wrong. It wasn’t four miles. It was 5.8 miles! Too late to turn around. So it was onward and upward…literally! As I walked, I was happy that I ordered the pot roast breakfast at Jeannie’s. Eagle Lake used every one of those calories!!
While this is a long trail, with some very steep inclines, in the sections where the lake is in full view, the mountains and sky create an amazing backdrop to the lake. And the sun performs invigorating dances atop the water.
About a quarter mile before the end of the trail, a man on a bike was passing us. He slowed up as he did and said, “You look like a couple of Mainers.” We stopped to chat and he was surprised that we weren’t. Maybe he wouldn’t have stopped if he knew we’re “from away”. Mainers are very fussy about their state and, unless you’re born here, you’re forever from away. It could be years and years before you’re accepted (and maybe never!). So to be mistaken for a Mainer just tickled me.
And, while I love my beautiful home state of Pennsylvania, I’ve started thinking of Mt. Desert as a second home. For as many times as I’ve been to the park during my twenty-two vacations in this part of the world, the beauty still almost takes my breath away. Today, as I soaked in the picture-perfect vision in front of me, the words of John Denver’s “Annie’s Song” started playing in my head. “You fill up my senses…”
That’s how it is here is Acadia. It fills up my senses and overflows them. I’m relaxed. I’m renewed.
