Dan with his buddy Bill Hikes to North Bubble and Connors Nubble in Acadia National Park, Mount Desert Island, Maine (2024)

Travel info on my 2016 Prius going from York to Bar Harbor, Maine

Each spring Bill Buggie, a longtime friend from my summers in the Writing Program at the University of New Hampshire, and I meet in Bar Harbor for two days of hiking at Acadia National Park. Bill comes south from New Brunswick, Au Canada while head north from York, Maine.

We love us some Bar Harbor Motel on the main drag into Bar Harbor. It’s a very comfortable retro setting, bordering Acadia National Park itself. In May, sun rises near 5 AM so I can walk on the park trails early or to the College of the Atlantic campus at dawn. Then it’s coffee and the monstrous banana nut muffins with Sports Center. As a muffin/biscuit/homemade bread kind of guy, I have my slice of carbo heaven here on the coast of Maine.

Arriving at noon on this mid-May Wednesday, we drive towards the Bubbles parking lot. Last September, Hannah and I came away empty-handed in search of parking spot here. Channeling our inner Guys and Dolls (1955 musicale staring Frank Sinatra), we hope that Luck will Be a Lady Tonight, or more specifically this afternoon. And the Chairman of the Board must be looking down on us as Ms. Luck guides us to an open parking spot.

Let my pictures take you on our four-mile, two-and-a-half hour climb and hike through the woods of Acadia National Park.

We begin at the P in the center of the map, go right to first North Bubble, then Connors Nubble, and return via Eagle Lake

I’ll do all my own stunts climbing high above Jordan Pond.

Bill is as amiable hiking companion as you would want as we slowly rise to the summit of North Bubble.

Thanks to the Civilian Conservation Corps (1930s) for creating these stone steps to North Bubble.

On the cliffs of North Bubble with Jordan Pond in the distance.

As Bill and I descend from North Bubble we have Eagle Lake in the background as our destination.

Bill and I go back and forth with questions #1, #2, & #4 of the world famous 36 Questions that lead to understanding. With Hannah, I responded to #1 with Barack Obama; today it is my mom and dad. They’ve so many stories I want to hear. With an upcoming trip to Europe, Bill describes a perfect day (question #4) in Switzerland. I say to him, why not do that? And why not let each of your three traveling companions create their own perfect day on that trip? Why not, indeed!