Sunday, June 05, 2011

Is It Dessert or Desert?

Well, Mt. Desert Island is spelled like a hot, dry place, but is apparently pronounced like an after-meal sweet. At least, that’s the way the captain of our tour boat pronounced it.

Margaret Todd

The 151 foot Margaret Todd is a 4 masted schooner that sails out of Bar Harbor.  Although the Todd is modeled after a type of ship that hauled freight in the 1800s she was built in the 1970s to haul tourists, and that’s what she still does. I didn’t take this picture because it would have been difficult to be on the ship and take a picture of it at the same time.

DSC_0146 The cruise was a very relaxing way to see some of the smaller islands off the Coast of Mt. Desert Island. Some of these smaller islands are owned by Acadia National Park, and some are in private hands. The islands closest to Bar Harbor are the Porcupine Islands, and at one time there were small communities on them. Now, there are a few summer homes, but no full-time residents. The Cranberry Islands, which are on the other side of Mt. Desert Island, do have some permanent and summer residents.

DSC_0117  Much of Mt. Desert Island is taken up by the National Park. The highest mountain in the park is Mt. Cadillac, and there’s a road to it’s top, which is a good thing because there’s no way we would have been able to hike to the top. Most of the mountains on the island consist of granite, which was quarried here for many years. A lot of the Mt. Cadillac granite is pink, which is probably the reason it was a popular object of quarrying. DSC_0123

Since the mountains are now located within the National Park, the remaining granite won’t be gracing anyone’s kitchen in the foreseeable future.

On Monday we’ll be taking the truck to the closest Ford dealership, which is 50 miles away in Bangor. If the exhaust filter issue can be dealt with then, we’ll be heading to Campobello Island on Tuesday.

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