Acadia National Park

Our third week on the road full time brought us highs and lows as we arrived at one of our most anticipated National Parks and also navigated our first major van problem. We did not expect to have to deal with ANY van problems this early in the program but life is going to life no matter what, so like anything, we faced it head on, together. Buckle up as we live life on the edge, literally hanging off the side of a mountain in Acadia, and as we try our hand at troubleshooting and van life problem solving.

Starting on a high note, we entered Acadia National Park around 6:30am so as to try and beat the crowds. Even though the government shut down was in full swing, the park was still open and as we later learned, it was the last weekend the campground was open so there were still lots of people around. We headed straight for the sandy beach parking area and were rewarded with a mostly empty lot and a beautiful sunrise on the beach for our early morning efforts.

Having nabbed a parking place in a lot with a bathroom we posted up for the day and set out on the first of three hikes from the lot, Ocean Path. It was a relatively easy walk that meandered along the shore next to the road with several other vehicle parking areas and pull off stops along the way. The approximately 4 mile round trip hike from the parking lot to Otter Cliffs was lovely. It included numerous spots to walk out on the rocky, elevated shore as well as stops at Thunder Hole (which wasn’t too thunderous when we went by, shrug) and sweeping views of the Atlantic crashing onto the rocks below.

Everywhere we had been recently, locals we talked with said that we had just missed the fall colors, but we begged to differ and found there to be colors galore as we walked along the shore stopping often to walk out and snap a photo. In case you were wondering if I know how much of a fashion icon I am in my tall socks and stretchy pants, the answer is YES! But seriously, please wear whatever you are most comfortable in. The important thing here is that you do the dang thing. So if you are prone to chilly hands and feet like I am due to Raynaud’s, and silly socks make it better, do it, you won’t regret it!

The out and back Ocean Path was increasingly busy as we made our way back and the trolleys and electric leaf peeper mobiles were out in force on the nearby road. After a quick stop in the bathroom and a snack in the van we went to the other side of the cove to hike the Great Head trail which was much less populated.

We couldn’t help ourselves and had to hang a leg or two off the edge, sorry Mom I know this makes you wildly uncomfortable. I swear I saw a seal come up for air as we were hiking along the cliffside but couldn’t find it again after searching for what seemed like forever. They have some serious lung capacity though so not entirely surprised. We did finally remember to bring Eric’s binoculars along on these hikes, we had been forgetting up until now but moved them to the front of the van after going up in the Penobscot observatory. We were happy to have them, who would have thought seeing things that are far away, not so far away would be so satisfying.

After this relatively short trail which was only a 1.19 mile loop, we were determined to hike the beehive, a wildly popular and slightly dangerous shorter hike that involves ladders and some serious heights. Do not attempt if you are afraid of heights or have any kind of vertigo. Our previous camp host in Bennington, Vermont suggested this hike and it was definitely a busy one but totally manageable. We could see little ant sized people up on the cliff face from the Great Head trail and knew we had to do it, we had to be one of those ants.

The so called “ladders” were actually a few sporadic iron pipes set into the rock that were so worn they were polished to a glass like finish making this eternally clammy handed lady slightly nervous while schlepping up the cliff face.

But, no reward without some risk right? Check out that view! The beehive is another short hike but it will definitely get your heart rate up since it’s basically just straight up and then right back down in a measly 1.76 miles. There is an option to get to the summit without risking life and limb, but where is the fun in that? There is only one way traffic on the ladder portion though for safety reasons which is very comforting to know you won’t have a traffic jam while dangling off the side of a cliff. Again I would like to note, we definitely did not miss the colors. Absolutely stunning!

We made it to the top in one piece and also made a friend along the way who snapped this picture of us. One thing we have noticed since starting our journey is the first question almost everyone asks is “where are you from”. We have taken to saying “well, we are from here today”. Then we go into the story, Michigan-sold our house and everything we own-live in a van (down by the river? haha)-travel full time now. In the telling of our story in what already seems to have been countless conversations, we have been met with nothing but kindness and we could not be more grateful for the opportunity and the ability to connect with people who are kind during a time of turbulence in our country. It is very easy to get overwhelmed and angry or confused with all that is happening here and in the world right now and it’s sometimes hard to remember that there are still good people in it. From the exceptional Boondockers Welcome hosts offering conversation, camp spot suggestions and even sharing gifts of food, water, and their precious time to perfect strangers that scan our sticker and sign up to follow along with us on the blog or offer us a kind word and luck on our journey. We are just so glad to catch a glimmer of hope in everyday people at this moment in our collective history. So thank you universe for that little sparkle, much appreciated.

Speaking of history, we were lucky enough to get a last minute campsite in the campground in the park and so since the next day was a tad rainy, instead of forcing a cold wet hike we leaned into the “we have no timeline” thing and went to a natural history museum. This nerd was in heaven and clearly missed her calling as all the bones, bugs and taxidermy were calling my name. We made a stop at a coffee shop called Sassafrass (this is an almost daily nickname for either one of us depending on who is spiciest, so of course that’s the shop we chose) with an absolutely outstanding “Meemaw’s” biscuit with blueberry compote and a cardamom latte, yes please!

To round out the day we went to the Big Chicken Barn, which was a humongous building that used to be a chicken barn, can you even imagine the clean up of that thing…yowzer. It was filled on one floor with over 200,000 titles of books and the other floor was all antiques. It was like walking through history, some readers digest and magazines dated back to the 30’s and everything was so organized. This was a perfect rainy day place to look around. We followed the big book shop up with a stop at the “worlds smallest bookstore” which was a little shed put on by Pushcart Press where you could purchase used and new books by leaving money in a small tin. This stop was found on Atlas Obscura which is a site we use often when looking for interesting things to do off the beaten path.

We wrapped up the rainy day with another nights stay in the NP campground which we scored using the cancellation alert feature on the rec.gov app. I made a first attempt at chili in the van which featured Vermont black bear that was gifted to us from our Boondockers Welcome host. It was so tasty! Little did we know the coming days would bring us our first major hurdles…dun dun dun.

We rose early because even though we were in the park camping, the trailhead lots typically fill quickly and early. Momo (our van) had other ideas though and the dash lit up like a Christmas tree when we tried to get going. Although the lights were on, nobody was home, the push button start was not working at all. Fortunately I had enough signal to get online and talk with the robots aka ChatGPT to troubleshoot. After doing a deep cycle reset of the battery and pulling/ checking some fuses and relays, miraculously old M.D. (Moby Dick-Momo) started up. We patted ourselves on the back relishing the fact we were basically mechanics now and tried to find a trailhead that wasn’t full. After one strike out we found a parking spot and set out on what would be our longest hike yet.

We walked from the gate lodge parking on the southwest side of the park up to Jordan pond, around the lake to south and north bubble which you can see above my head in the photo, then back down around the other side of the lake and to the van for a total of over 10 miles.

The view from south bubble was definitely the best and we were so happy to have been able to complete another of Acadia’s iconic hikes. Our all day effort was handsomely rewarded by the van not starting…at 4pm on a Friday…in a National Park trailhead parking lot. Queue the dun dun dun please.

After trying all of our expert mechanic techniques from the morning to no avail, we resigned ourselves to the fact that we were stuck for the time being, and most definitely were not mechanics as we had thought before. We contacted a dealership in nearby Ellsworth but their technicians were gone for the day and they were closing shortly, we would have to try to get a tow there in the morning. A kind local stopped to talk to us and gave us the number for the local sheriff’s department so we could let them know we were broken down in the hopes of not getting a knock in the middle of the night, this seemed our best option.

After being woken up at 3am by a police officer knocking on the van door, he apparently did NOT get the memo from dispatch that said they would alert officers and the park we were there, we set about getting that tow around 7am. We ordered one through AAA only to be told 1.5 hours later we didn’t actually have coverage for “any vehicle” like we were told when we purchased the membership. Because the van has a bed in it it’s technically an RV which is an even more expensive plan that we did not have. So, next we made a call to our insurance, Progressive, who did order a tow for us which said about two hours for them to arrive, not ideal but at least they could get us. Fast forward 7 hours from our first tow request to when our tow finally arrived. Between calls to the tow service directly after our estimated wait time came and went, where I was scolded for not realizing “we are in the middle of nowhere, and it takes time to get there” and then further calls from Progressive customer service there were definitely some tears of frustration shed. The tow driver clearly could not “read the room” as he joked about the van falling off the truck and thought giving me bunny ears was a good idea as we watched literally everything we own be loaded onto a flatbed bound for uncertainty.

We somehow got through the squished, smoky ride to the dealership where we arrived too late to be seen by a technician, beyond exhausted and utterly discouraged that our final two days in the park were foiled as well as our brand new van being down for the count.
We were fortunate in that the dealership allowed us to stay in our van on the property even though that is not the norm. I will point out we did not ask for this, they offered this as a courtesy to us as we had explained our situation when we called earlier. We definitely do not condone staying anywhere without express permission. “Van Life” is not a common lifestyle and we don’t ever want to contribute negatively to people’s perceptions of this way of life. We were fully prepared to get a hotel if need be and had budgeted for this exact scenario if it arose. One downfall to having your house and vehicle in one came to pass very early in our journey, if the vehicle goes down you may not be able to stay in your house!
We were trying to focus on the positives though instead of giving in to all the worst case scenarios running through our minds. At least we didn’t have to pay for a hotel, we had enough signal to call a tow, the dealership was able to put us on the schedule for Monday to take a look (closed on Sunday) so we were squeezed in literally the very first available day instead of mid week like they had first told us over the phone… somehow it was going to be ok…

In an effort to keep that positive momentum going we made a plan to make some lemonade out of the lemons we were being dealt. There just so happened to be a 100 mile rail trail a couple miles from the dealership we were stranded at. We slept in, grabbed coffee and breakfast at a Dunkin which was right across the street and set off on a gorgeous ride to fill our Sunday afternoon.

The “down east sunrise trail” was a happy find. Eric, a veritable bloodhound for bike trails, found this gem and thought it a perfect option for our surprise day in Ellsworth Maine. It is a multi use trail for hiking, biking and also allows ATV’s. Sometimes trails that allow motorized vehicles can be a bit chaotic for cyclists, but all the drivers were very respectful and shared the path with us. We ended up riding about 40 miles round trip and hoped to grab some pizza at another Pat’s pizza which quickly became a favorite after visiting one near Bangor. Unfortunately it closed early on Sundays so we opted for some Thai instead which turned into a happy accident complete with a charismatic and hilarious waiter, homemade noodles, delicious steamed dumplings and a welcome change of pace. We trundled back to the van and continued to thank our lucky stars that we had enough signal to snuggle up and watch some Netflix after a day of fighting off the mopes.

We checked in at the dealership as soon as we saw someone walking around the next morning, popped inside and posted up in their seriously nice waiting area complete with clean bathrooms and coffee bar. I blogged while we waited and hoped that it wouldn’t be bad news. About two hours after our appointment time, we got good news. The technician checked all the same things we did, fuses and reset battery and they found that the battery was charged, just as we had, but that it wasn’t getting power on one side. Random fluke, the terminal/nut was loose on the battery making it so there was not a complete connection, they tightened this down and we were good to go! No parts needed to be replaced and they showed us where it was so if it happens to rattle loose again we can fix it ourselves. Literally the BEST case scenario is what we came out with here people, our efforts to stay positive paid off.

Would it have been nice if we could have figured that out without having to go through the tow fiasco, lost campsite fee’s, missed final days in Acadia and diagnostic fees, yes. Could it also have been much, much worse requiring days at the dealership, parts and more expenses 1000% yes. We went back to Bar Harbor to pick up our amazon order which contained our filter to fix our water issue which now paled in comparison to the last couple of days and then sat in traffic for an hour trying to get back out on the only road off the island, but, we were back in action so nothing could get us down! We headed toward Portland and then on to Baltimore next to visit an old friend but that is a story for another day. We successfully navigated our first major issue in the van, enjoyed one of our bucket list National Parks and even had a bonus bike ride, I’m calling that a win.