UPDATE 4/3/15: Just learned of a way you can get a copy of “Best Easy Day Hikes, Acadia National Park” for free – by joining the American Hiking Society at the family level. FalconGuides, publisher of the guide, is one of AHS’s partners in its Families on Foot initiative, to encourage families, particularly those with kids, to hike.
Officially published today, April 1, and Amazon.com is already selling our new third edition fast! Only 15 copies of “Best Easy Day Hikes, Acadia National Park” in stock as of this morning, and more will be on the way.
(See sidebar for note about Amazon.com links in this blog. The book is also available for purchase online at www.barnesandnoble.com and elsewhere. And it should also be available in Bar Harbor at Sherman’s Bookstore and at the Hulls Cove Visitor Center when it opens up for the season.)
Light in weight, deep in content
The 4.2 x 0.3 x 7-inch, 2.7-ounce paperback is the perfect size for a day pack or even a large jacket pocket, and includes the newest trails, the Quarry and Otter Cove Trails, inaugurated just last June, during National Trails Day.
Quarry Trail in Acadia National Park goes from Blackwoods Campground to Otter Cove, and provides a link to Gorham Mountain and beyond.
These new trails are an important addition to the efforts by Acadia National Park and the Friends of Acadia to create a car-free – and carefree! – experience in the park, by connecting Blackwoods Campground to Gorham Mountain, and allowing Otter Creek residents and visitors to more easily stroll down to Otter Cove and other parts of the park.
A total of 21 day hikes are featured in the new book, including such popular ones as Sand Beach and Great Head Trail, Wonderland and Jordan Pond Path. But you won’t find the Beehive or the Precipice in this book of easy hikes, or the trails on Schoodic Peninsula or Isle au Haut.
For those hikes, you can refer to the 2nd edition of our “Hiking Acadia National Park,” or wait for the 3rd edition to come out in 2016, Acadia’s Centennial year.
“Best Easy Day Hikes” provides directions to trailheads, easy-to-follow maps, GPS coordinates, and a trail finder to help you select the best hikes for children, peak baggers or dogs, and bits of history and tips on avoiding crowds.
New to the 3rd edition: New Island Explorer bus stops, if you are visiting during peak season and want to make use of the increasingly popular fare-free service; and an appendix with contact information for the park, local nonprofits, historical societies, and chambers of commerce.
There are no photos, however, to help keep it a handy pocket guide. For color photos, see the big book, “Hiking Acadia National Park,” or check back at our blog as we continue with our historic hiking trail highlights series leading up to Acadia National Park’s Centennial.
Creeping buttercup provides a show of color in springtime along the Great Meadow Loop, a village connector trail to Acadia National Park. Thanks to Jill Weber for the flora identification.
The other thing that’s new about the 3rd edition, compared with the 2nd: An updated description of the Great Meadow Loop and Jesup Path, to encourage hikers to walk from Bar Harbor to Sieur de Monts like the rusticators of yore, an experience the park is emphasizing as part of Centennial efforts.
And there’s also an updated description of Schooner Head Overlook and Path, which is especially worth a stroll since the park reopened the historic vistas, as we by chance happened to witness in the works last September.
We’ve sent review copies of the book to Kurt Repanshek, editor of National Parks Traveler; Aislinn Sarnicki, writer of the popular 1-minute hike series in the Bangor Daily News; and Aimee Beal Church, editor of the Friends of Acadia Journal. So if there are any reviews of the book to share, we’ll be sure to do so.
And if there are other publications interested in a review copy, let us know with a comment below or via the About us page, and we’ll have the publisher, FalconGuides, send out a copy.
What you can see from Schooner Head Overlook, out to Egg Rock and its lighthouse, across Frenchman Bay to Schoodic Peninsula, after the historic vista was reopened by Acadia National Park last fall.
While record snows have delayed the springtime opening of the Park Loop Road and carriage roads of Acadia, may curling up with a copy of “Best Easy Day Hikes, Acadia National Park” help transport you to a time when you can walk the trails without snowshoes, crampons or heavy-duty winter coat.
Thanks to the insights from members of the Acadia National Park staff, in particular Charlie Jacobi, natural resource specialist, and Gary Stellpflug, trails foreman, as we re-walked the trails of Acadia and dug ever deeper into its long and storied history, for the 3rd edition of “Best Easy Day Hikes,” and also for the 3rd edition of “Hiking Acadia National Park.”
Results of giveaway of “classic” 2nd edition of hiking guide
Finally, we want to announce here that four people have won the giveaway of the 2nd edition of “Best Easy Day Hikes, Acadia National Park”, three of whom we’ve described on our Facebook page, and one of whom we’re still awaiting details from.
And because we haven’t heard back from a fifth winner by March 31 despite repeated outreach attempts, we have one more copy of the 2nd edition – now a classic with the 3rd edition out today! – to give away.
Existing subscribers to this blog (except for previous winners), or new subscribers who sign up by April 15, will have a chance for this final giveaway. So sign up today!
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Hi, I saw your ad in the FOA Journal and had to check out your web site. At first I thought, I don’t need an Acadia hiking book but I would like to support your efforts. But, wait! I think I need your Best Easy Day Hikes book because I have a lot of interaction with visitors from cruise ships and elsewhere. I always urge them to walk on the BH Shore Path and the GML and over to Bar Island, tides permitting, and i tell them about the connector trails. Now I need your book to be sure I’m giving out good information. Unfortunately there is no Kindle edition at this time. Will there be one?
Tis the season for hiking guide books. Aislinn Sarnacki, who has not yet reviewed your book, but I hope she does, mentioned a new book of hikes in Maine of which I am buying the kindle edition. The AMC has just produced a book of day hikes in coastal Maine written by the guy who edited the Maine Mountain Guide, my constant companion. One’s budget only goes so far. When it comes out, I will buy the new edition of Hiking ANP for the new trails, some of which I worked on as a volunteer, and the new Island Explorer stops. I did have the previous edition but it ended up in the Jesup Library book sale.
I always recomend A Walk in the Park. It is extremely dated, but its descriptions are detailed and very helpful to the novice and Tom deserves support for opening the history of Acadia’s trails to visitors. Now, it is impossible to get lost. There is a sign at every trail junction. Trails are thoroughly blazed. If one still gets lost, it is always possible to bushwhack down hill to a road or carriage road. Here’s hoping that your trail descriptions are more lyrical so as to entice visitors to get out there.
Hi Jim, thanks for checking out our blog, and for considering possibly getting a copy of our latest edition of Best Easy Day Hikes! Happy to support the great work of Friends of Acadia with the ad in the journal.
While we don’t include the Shore Path in Best Easy because it’s technically not part of the park, we have detailed information about Great Meadow Loop, Bar Island and the village connector trails. We worked closely with Charlie Jacobi and Gary Stellpflug and other members of the Acadia National Park staff, in updating our guide.
One way to try to get a Kindle edition is to let the publisher know through Amazon.com. When you go to the page for the book on Amazon, scroll down to the section that says “Product Details.” Over on the right there is a box that says “Tell the Publisher! I’d like to read this book on Kindle.” All you do is click on the link, and it automatically registers as a vote for a Kindle edition.
Our publisher has sent along a copy of Best Easy to Aislinn, and hope she will consider reviewing. She referenced our Hiking Acadia National Park book in her Jan. 2014 write-up of the Great Head Trail.
We do have a copy of a Walk in the Park, along with many other Acadia guides. But no matter how many guides there are, seems there is still so much to discover and learn about Acadia.
Thanks again for the comment!