5 lessons from Acadia for Katahdin-area monument

When National Park Service Director Jonathan Jarvis came to Maine this month to gauge local opposition and support for a proposed Katahdin-area national monument, he got an earful.

Millinocket Marathon & Half

Gary Allen, founder of Mount Desert Island Marathon, used this photo of Katahdin, as seen from Millinocket, on Facebook, to try to help the local economy with a Millinocket Marathon & Half in December. Outdoor recreation can bring much needed jobs and dollars. (Image courtesy of Gary Allen)

He has only to look to Acadia National Park for these 5 lessons for a Maine Woods national monument, proposed by Burt’s Bees founder Roxanne Quimby and family. They want to donate nearly 88,000 acres east of Baxter State Park, and contribute and raise a $40 million endowment.

Over the years, we’ve hiked and backpacked all through Maine, along the entire length of the Appalachian Trail in the state, and in Baxter State Park. We’ve climbed all the mountains that are 4000 feet and higher in the state, as well as the 26 coastal peaks of Acadia on Mount Desert Island. In our travels, we’ve seen how Millinocket and other paper mill towns have struggled economically. And we’ve seen the hustle and bustle of Bar Harbor and other towns that have diversified their economy to include tourism and outdoor recreation.

While the Katahdin and Acadia areas seem worlds apart, these 5 lessons apply to both. Continue reading →

acadia national park hiking

Acadia Triple Crown: Run, walk for park, a cause – and bling!

Call it the Acadia Triple Crown: Join the free year-long virtual Acadia Centennial Trek to celebrate the park, do a real-life race to raise funds or give back to community in other ways, and reward yourself with a special medal.

Acadia Centennial Trek medal

Show your support of Acadia with this officially licensed Acadia Centennial Trek Medal, available exclusively on Acadia on My Mind Shop.

Or maybe create your own family or friends Summer Olympics with an event or activity that everyone, from toddler to grandparent, can participate in, give to a cause, and make everyone a winner with an Acadia Centennial medal of their own.

The officially licensed medal, featuring the Acadia Centennial logo set in a bright silver wreath, is assembled and mostly made in the USA by Ashworth Awards, the same company that has made the medals for the Boston Marathon and the Mount Desert Island Marathon and Half Marathon. (The ribbon comes from overseas.)

We designed the medal as part of our sponsorship of the virtual 100-mile Acadia Centennial Trek, hosted on Racery.com, to celebrate the trails of Acadia, and help raise funds for the park. At least 5% of gross proceeds from the sale of the medal go to support the park. The medal just became available on the Acadia on My Mind Shop, and has been submitted to the official Acadia Centennial Web site’s merchandise section.

acadia virtual race

Hailing from all over the world, Acadia Centennial Trekkers are all over the 100-mile virtual map, starting at Cadillac and ending in Southwest Harbor at the finish line of the real-life Mount Desert Island Marathon. You have until Dec. 31 to join and finish the free race.

As an Acadia Centennial Partner, we wanted to broaden the meaning of community and deepen the appreciation of Acadia throughout the year. So instead of limiting the Acadia Centennial Trek Medal only to participants in the Trek, we came up with the idea of the Acadia Triple Crown and teaming up with other Centennial Partners and local groups. (In reality, you can purchase the medal simply to express your appreciation and support of the park without doing anything else – but it’s more fun to earn the medal as part of a real-life fitness challenge or community effort!)

Among the Acadia Centennial Partners and local groups we’re formally or informally teaming up with, and the possible ways you can earn an Acadia Triple Crown: Continue reading →

Visiting Acadia during Centennial? Ask Acadia on My Mind!

ask acadia on my mind

Ask Acadia on My Mind!

Another in a series of “Ask Acadia on My Mind!” Q&As

If you have a question about Acadia National Park on your mind, whether you’re a first-time visitor or long-time fan, leave a comment below, or contact us through the About us page. We may not be able to answer every question, or respond right away, but we’ll do our best. See our page linking in one place all the Q&As.

We are starting to plan our first trip to Acadia National Park. We are looking into a trip in August but now I see it’s the very busiest month and I’m concerned it will be too crowded. I don’t like traffic and feeling like an ant on trails when hiking.

We hope to stay in a rental home for a week. Which locations would you suggest? How hard is driving around the area in August? We like to bike. Are there bike rental companies? Are dogs allowed on the hiking trails in the park? About how long does it take to get from say, Bar Harbor, to the Schoodic part of the park? Thank you! – Peter from Eugene, OR

Dear Peter,

We’re with you – we don’t like feeling like an ant on trails when hiking either! Good idea to start planning your trip so early, with bigger crowds than usual expected to be visiting Acadia National Park during this Centennial year. But even though August is the busiest month, it’s still possible to find relative solitude, as we have that time of year.

See our recent blog post “5 tips to beat the crowds while visiting Acadia National Park,” with such ideas as buying your park pass online and hiking popular trails early or late. For example, if you climb the popular Beehive Trail early (before 11 a.m. but the earlier the better) or late (4 p.m. or later), you won’t feel like you’re part of the swarm, or like an ant on a trail.

Island Explorer bus in Acadia National Park

Take the Island Explorer to minimize Acadia traffic jams. While the bus is fare-free, be sure to buy a park pass to help support this and other park services. (NPS photo)

Since this is your first trip to Acadia and it sounds like you want to minimize driving in traffic while maximizing access to bike rentals, dog-friendly hikes and the Schoodic section of the park, you might want to find a place to stay in or near Bar Harbor, preferably on the fare-free Island Explorer bus route.

We have a page of year-round Bar Harbor lodging, restaurants and other businesses that you may find helpful, although we don’t have specific links to rental home listings. We’ll soon be adding businesses that are open only seasonally to that page, so check back for updates. Continue reading →

5 tips to beat the crowds while visiting Acadia National Park

UPDATE 5/20/2017: See updated “7 ways for a stress-free visit to Acadia National Park”

With Memorial Day weekend around the corner and this being the park’s Centennial year, more crowds than usual are expected to be visiting Acadia National Park in 2016 – possibly even more than last year’s 2.8 million visitors.

crowds in acadia

Crowds in Acadia can make for an unpleasant experience as seen here on the Park Loop Road and Ocean Path. (NPS photo)

Here are 5 tips to avoid long lines, frustration of finding parking, and other aspects of what can be a maddening crowd. Yes, visiting Acadia National Park during peak times can be stress-free. Why line up behind dozens of other people to pay for a pass, or ask a ranger “Where’s a good place to hike?”

1) Buy your Acadia National Park pass online, go early or late to the main Hulls Cove Visitor Center, or get the pass at one of the other local sites. This is the first year that visitors can buy the usual 7-day pass – and even the annual pass – online. If you’re age 62 or older, you can buy the lifetime Senior Pass for $10 in advance at a participating federal recreation site near home, or via mail. Hulls Cove is open 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. in May, June, September and October, and from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. July and August. And there are plenty of other local sites you can buy a pass at, as listed on the park’s Web site:

acadia national park pass

For the first time this year you can buy Acadia National Park passes online, whether the  annual pass for $50, or the 7-day passenger vehicle pass for $25. If you buy online, the pass is e-mailed to you for printout. (NPS image)

  • Park headquarters – ME 233 (Eagle Lake Road) – passes sold 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
  • Bar Harbor Village Green Information Center – late May to Columbus Day, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
  • Thompson Island Information Center – early May to mid-October, hours vary
  • Sand Beach Entrance Station
  • Blackwoods Campground
  • Schoodic Woods Campground
  • Seawall Campground
  • Cadillac Mountain Gift Shop
  • Jordan Pond Gift Shop
  • Mount Desert Town Office
  • Bar Harbor Chamber of Commerce
  • Southwest Harbor / Tremont Chamber of Commerce
  • L. L. Bean in Freeport, ME

Continue reading →

Acadia boosts economy with $248M in 2015 visitor spending

Bolstering the case for national parks as an economic engine, a new report shows Acadia’s 2.8 million visitors last year pumped $247.9 million into the regional economy, while across the country, a record-setting 307.2 million visitors to all national parks spent $16.9 billion.

The report is sure to be brought up by supporters of a proposed national monument in the Katahdin region, which has been hit hard by paper mill closures, even as some area residents and officials vehemently oppose the idea, with Patten the most recent to reject it, by a 121-53 vote on April 19.

acadia boosts economy

Acadia National Park’s 2.8 million visitors spent $247.9 million in 2015, according to a new National Park Service report. (NPS graphic)

The parks’ economic impact is the most measured since the National Park Service refined its visitor spending analysis model in 2012. How Acadia boosts economy and other parks around the country affect whole regions is expected to be even greater this year, with more visitors anticipated during the Centennial year for both Acadia and the National Park Service.

“The big picture of national parks and their importance to the economy is clear,” said National Park Service Director Jon Jarvis, in releasing the report late yesterday, during National Park Week. “Each tax dollar invested in the National Park Service effectively returns $10 to the US economy because of visitor spending that works through local, state and the US economy.”

While the park service hasn’t publicly taken a position on Burt’s Bees founder Roxanne Quimby’s proposal to donate what’s now known as Katahdin Woods & Waters Recreation Area for a national monument or national park, the report will certainly add to the broiling controversy. Continue reading →

Springtime blossoms with things to see and do in Acadia

The peregrine falcons have returned to nest, the rhodora and lady’s slippers are within weeks of blooming, and Acadia National Park is getting ready to open the Park Loop Road for visitors.

acadia centennial

A book launch party on April 7 celebrates the first-ever biography of George B. Dorr, the “Father of Acadia.” Author Ronald H. Epp and publisher Friends of Acadia will be on hand at the event at the Jesup Memorial Library. (Image courtesy of Friends of Acadia)

It’s springtime in Acadia, a season of rebirth and renewal. And making this spring even more worth looking forward to: The Acadia Centennial, and special things to see and do in Acadia National Park.

For instance, this Thursday, April 7, there’s a party to celebrate the publication of the first-ever biography of George B. Dorr, the “Father of Acadia,” without whom there may never have been a national park in Maine. The festivities begin at 6:30 p.m. at the Jesup Memorial Library in Bar Harbor, with author Ronald H. Epp on hand, along with publisher Friends of Acadia.

On Saturday, April 16, a day after Acadia opens the Park Loop Road and Hulls Cove Visitor Center, the “Centennial Edition” of Acadia Quest launches, letting kids, teens and their grown-ups experience and learn about the park and its history in a fun, interactive way. It’s an earlier than usual start for the annual scavenger hunt, which runs until November.

Throughout the spring, events like Lego Day at the Seal Cove Auto Museum (April 9), National Junior Ranger Day (April 30 and May 14), free admission for the opening of a new exhibit at the Abbe Museum (May 1), art shows and musical celebrations, birding in the park and the gardens of MDI on International Migratory Bird Day (May 14), Acadia Birding Festival (June 2 – 5), National Trails Day and Acadia poet laureate reading (June 4), and many others fill the calendar.

rhodora

Pink rhodora goes well with the pink granite of Cadillac Mountain, and usually blooms in May.

“Spring opens our land and waters and brings adventure – this year with a special centennial spirit,” said Acadia Centennial Task Force Co-Chair Cookie Horner, in announcing the springtime events on the official Centennial calendar, in a Friends of Acadia news release.

Who says there are few things to see and do in Acadia National Park in springtime? Continue reading →

Trail magic casts spell on Acadia National Park hiking trails

There’s trail magic in Acadia National Park, and it shows up in the most wonderful ways.

acadia virtual race

Maureen Fournier, left, celebrates reaching the 100th mile of the virtual Acadia Centennial Trek, by hiking for the first time with Kristy Sharp. They virtually met while logging their miles for the race, and might have never met in real life if not for the Trek to celebrate the park’s 100th anniversary. (Photo courtesy Maureen Fournier)

Just last week, 2 hikers who might never have crossed paths except for the virtual 100-mile Acadia Centennial Trek – an official event to mark the park’s 100th anniversary – climbed together for the first time on the Acadia National Park hiking trails.

“We’ve never met before,” said Maureen Fournier, seasonal park ranger, of Kristy Sharp. “But now we’ve become hiking buddies,” e-mailed Fournier. “We have a lot in common too, besides hiking…and share our love for Acadia.”

Fournier, who goes by the Trek name @MG, and Sharp, who goes by the Trek name @TrailWitch, had a couple of close encounters while hiking Gorham Mountain separately as part of the virtual race, but only discovered they’d missed each other at the end of the day, while logging their miles for the Trek. On Wednesday, they met and scaled Acadia Mountain together, celebrating Fournier’s completion of the 100-mile route in 24 days.

“Maureen has a great knowledge of the park, a true passion for being outdoors and was great fun to hike with!” said Sharp, who retired to Mount Desert Island with her husband in 2011, after a career in criminal justice in Ohio. “I am truly thankful for meeting her through the Centennial Trek,” e-mailed Sharp, who is now a certified personal trainer and teaches fitness classes at the Harbor House Fitness Center in Southwest Harbor.

acadia centennial

Be part of history by joining the first-ever 100-mile virtual Acadia Centennial Trek, sponsored by Acadia on My Mind and hosted by Racery.com. You will have the option of buying a finisher’s medal to help raise funds for the park. You have until Dec. 31 to complete the free virtual race.

You won’t find a definition of trail magic in the dictionary. But for those who’ve done Acadia hiking trails, the Appalachian Trail or any other walking path, you know trail magic when you experience it.

The Appalachian Trail Conservancy calls trail magic “an unexpected act of kindness” that’s part of the AT experience for long-distance hikers. But the term has been used by many to refer to any unexpectedly wonderful thing happening on the trails, for day hikers or thru-hikers.

What trail magic have you experienced on Acadia hiking trails, or during the virtual Acadia Centennial Trek? Let us know in a comment below, or on the About us page.

Continue reading →

Acadia virtual race draws global field of runners, hikers

Sidelined by pneumonia for a few weeks, Jennifer VanDongen of Bar Harbor was behind in training for her 4th Boston Marathon. Then came the first-ever 100-mile virtual Acadia Centennial Trek, launched last month to celebrate the park’s 100th anniversary.

acadia virtual race

Jennifer VanDongen of Bar Harbor set a course record in finishing the virtual 100-mile Acadia Centennial Trek in 8 days. She ran or hiked most of the miles in Acadia, some of them with her daughters, but here she’s seen completing 13.1 of the miles at the Lamoine Half Marathon on March 5. (Photo by Bob Carroll, courtesy of Jennifer VanDongen)

“This Trek was a great motivator!” said VanDongen, outdoor track coach for Mount Desert Island High School. “I completed my daily run, then would go back out and log some miles hiking, sometimes with my daughters.” VanDongen, whose Trek name is @jennvan, crossed the Acadia virtual race finish line first, in just 8 days, logging most of her 100 miles running and hiking in Acadia, and watching her position on an online map of the Trek get updated instantly with each day’s entries.

Across the country, on the other side of the Atlantic, and from one end of Maine to the other, 153 participants have signed up so far for the free year-long Acadia virtual race. They’re logging miles by hiking, step-counting, running, biking, cross-country skiing, walking their dog, doing yoga or other workouts, whether they’re on Mount Desert Island, in Fairfield or Mars Hill, Maine, or in far-flung locations in California, Oregon, Hawaii, the United Kingdom or Denmark.

Sponsored by Acadia on My Mind as part of its Acadia Centennial Partner commitment, and hosted on Racery.com, the race helps celebrate the park’s 100th throughout the year. The virtual 100-mile route begins on Cadillac, goes over the park’s 26 peaks on MDI and along sections of the Park Loop Road, carriage roads, MDI YMCA’s Acadia and Fall Half Marathons, and ends at the real-life finish line of the MDI Marathon and Half Marathon.

There’s an optional finisher’s medal featuring the Acadia Centennial logo that will be available for purchase, to help raise funds for the park. And there’s an online guide to the virtual miles, with links to Google Maps photos and other resources that can let participants visualize where they are in the park as they pass each milestone in the Acadia virtual race.

acadia virtual race

A teacher at Lawrence Junior High in Fairfield, Maine, Marc Maheu can’t wait to hike the trails of Acadia this summer, so he signed up for the Acadia Centennial Trek to keep the park on his mind while he step-counted, rode an exercise bike and did other workouts during the off-season. He’s seen hiking the Jordan Cliffs Trail here last year. (Photo courtesy of Marc Maheu)

Some Trek participants have joined as a way to achieve their fitness goals, whether it’s training for marathons or starting a walking program. Others are inviting family, friends and co-workers as a new way to interact. Yet others are doing it to keep Acadia on their mind, wherever they may be, and whether they’ve ever set foot in the park or not.

“I make several trips to Acadia every summer to hike and bike some of the best trails I’ve ever had the pleasure to enjoy,” said Marc Maheu, a teacher at Lawrence Junior High in Fairfield, Maine, who finished the virtual 100-mile Acadia route in 2nd place, just 1 day behind @jennvan. “Since I’m almost 2 hours away, and school is still in session, I did all my miles virtually,” said Maheu, who logged his miles step-counting, biking and doing other workouts. Maheu, whose Trek name is @MNM, even invited a co-worker to join the Trek with him, and has continued to log his miles virtually on a personal “My Trek” on Racery.com, and is already up to 191 miles. Continue reading →

Bicycling Acadia carriage roads? Ask Acadia on My Mind!

Bubble Rock in Acadia National Park helped prove the Ice Age

Ask Acadia on My Mind!

Another in a series of “Ask Acadia on My Mind!” Q&As

If you have a question about Acadia National Park on your mind, whether you’re a first-time visitor or long-time fan, leave a comment below, or contact us through the About us page. We may not be able to answer every question, or respond right away, but we’ll do our best. See our new page linking in one place all the Q&As.

Hi, we are making our first trip to Acadia  June 26 – July 8. We will camp at Blackwoods. Is it possible to bike from the campground to the carriage roads? Concern is with vehicle traffic and if there is sufficient road shoulder. Thanks. – Jay Miller, Brighton, Mich.

Dear Jay,

Great timing for your first trip to Acadia. Not only is it the Centennial year – your final day is the actual 100th anniversary. Plus, you’re arriving soon after the fare-free Island Explorer bus starts running for the season, on June 23, giving you more options to get around the park car-free.

Island Explorer bus in Acadia National Park

While the Island Explorer bus is fare-free, be sure to get an Acadia National Park visitor pass to help support that and other park services. The Bicycle Express goes from Bar Harbor Village Green to Eagle Lake section of carriage roads. (NPS photo)

You have a couple of options for bicycling Acadia carriage roads from Blackwoods Campground. You can bike along the Park Loop Road for 3 miles to the carriage roads, or take the bikes on the Island Explorer not only to the carriage roads, but also even to the Schoodic section of the park, where new bike trails opened last year.

From the campground, there’s a short 0.1 mile dirt path that you can walk your bikes down to the 1-way Park Loop Road. Bike along the right-hand lane of the 2-lane road, following the traffic. Go under the ME 3 overpass, and at the next overpass, you’ll reach the junction with the carriage road system near Day Mountain. Walk your bike up the dirt path to the carriage road at intersection 17.

This 3-mile section of the Park Loop Road between Blackwoods and the carriage road system would be a less busy part of the 1-way road than the section over by Sand Beach and Thunder Hole, where cars often park along the right-hand lane, making it difficult to bicycle. And biking the Park Loop Road, where the posted speed limit is no more than 35 miles per hour, is certainly safer than trying to bike along the shoulder of ME 3.

This section of the Park Loop Road also offers access to Little Hunters Beach, reached by a hidden set of stairs on the left side of the road, about 1 mile from Blackwoods. Park your bikes and explore. There is also a new wayside exhibit here describing the area. Continue reading →

Off to the races! Strong start to 100-mile Acadia virtual race

virtual races

First day of the inaugural 100-mile Acadia Centennial Trek is in the record books. Join in any time; you have until the end of the year to finish the virtual race.

The first-ever Acadia Centennial Trek, a free virtual 100-mile race to help celebrate Acadia’s 100th anniversary, jumped into action on the Leap Day of Feb. 29, with dozens of participants strong out of the gate.

Beginning at sunrise, at the virtual top of Cadillac, @Mac (as represented by HM on the map) did an 11.4 mile run, ending just shy of Gorham Mountain. Never participated in a virtual race?

acadia centennial

Be part of history by joining the first-ever 100-mile virtual Acadia Centennial Trek, and have the option of buying a finisher’s medal to help raise funds for the park.

Not to be outdone, more than 30 other of the approximately 80 participants logged their miles, stretching out the icons down Cadillac Mountain Road, along the 1-way Park Loop Road, past Sand Beach and Precipice, all over the virtual map.

Participants all over the world have all year to join the race, log their 100 virtual miles in Acadia National Park, covering all 26 peaks of Acadia on Mount Desert Island, sections of the real routes of the MDI YMCA’s Acadia and Fall Half Marathons, and ending at the finishing line for the real MDI Marathon.

There’s the option to purchase a finisher’s medal, featuring the Acadia Centennial logo (details to come), to help raise funds for the park, part of our Acadia Centennial Partner commitment. Continue reading →

Ready, set, go! First ever of Acadia virtual races about to start

UPDATE 5/20/2016: Optional finisher’s medal to help raise funds for Acadia now available for purchase.

UPDATE 2/29/2016: New Acadia Centennial Trek page to serve as online guide to virtual 100-mile route, including mileage marker links to Google Maps views, other resources

On your marks! The starting pistol is about to go off for the first-ever Acadia Centennial Trek, a free virtual race that begins at the top of Cadillac and takes you 100 miles over mountains, on carriage roads, and along parts of the Mount Desert Island Marathon and Acadia Half Marathon.

acadia centennial trek

The virtual 100-mile Acadia Centennial Trek begins at the top of Cadillac; goes over sections of the Park Loop Road, carriage roads, and MDI YMCA’s Acadia and Fall Half Marathons; and ends at the finish line for the MDI Marathon. Each racer’s icon moves along the map with miles logged.

Whether you run, hike, walk or step-count your miles, and no matter where in the world you are, your position on the map of Acadia and MDI will move along as you log your distance. Only about a dozen more participants need to register for what might just be the first of many Acadia virtual races, before this year-long event goes live.

The Acadia Centennial Trek, part of our Acadia Centennial Partner commitment, is a special way to celebrate Acadia’s 100th anniversary, share about the park and local races and places, get more fit and encourage others. And it’s a way to keep Acadia on your mind, whether you live nearby or halfway across the world, whether you’re a perennial visitor or have yet to set foot in the park. There will also be the chance to purchase a finisher’s medal to help support the park.

ultramarathon

Christa Brey, the first to sign up for the Acadia Centennial Trek, is all smiles while running the 24-hour Croatan Ultramarathon in North Carolina in November 2015. (Photo courtesy Christa Brey)

The first person to sign up is Christa Brey of Lamoine, who works in the marketing department of Jackson Laboratory. She’s already invited a couple of friends to join her in the virtual race. Her map icon will be “CB,” and her runner’s handle, @Christa.

“I will be running and hiking. I run (a lot) in Acadia,” Brey says in an e-mail of how she’ll log her miles. A member of Crow Athletics, which sponsors the MDI Marathon, and a veteran of races real and virtual, Brey says virtual races are a “fun way to be involved from afar.”

It’s already starting to feel like a virtual Acadia running and hiking community. Thanks for being the first to join, @Christa! Continue reading →

Join virtual Acadia Centennial Trek to celebrate, help park

UPDATE 5/20/2016: Acadia Centennial Trek Medal now available for purchase, to help raise funds for the park

UPDATE 2/29/2016: New Acadia Centennial Trek page to serve as online guide to virtual 100-mile route, including mileage marker links to Google Maps views, other resources

Have you ever daydreamed about hiking all of Acadia’s 26 peaks, or walking the Park Loop Road or carriage roads, but you’re short on time or out of shape? Or maybe you’re in training for the Mount Desert Island Marathon or Acadia Half Marathon, and imagining the race route?

acadia centennial

Be part of history by joining the first-ever 100-mile virtual Acadia Centennial Trek, and have the option of buying a finisher’s medal to help raise funds for the park.

Well, your dreams can now become a virtual reality, during Acadia’s 100th anniversary year.

Join the inaugural 100-mile virtual Acadia Centennial Trek, which starts at the top of Cadillac; goes over the 26 peaks of Acadia on MDI, along sections of the Park Loop Road, carriage roads and MDI YMCA’s routes for the Acadia and Fall Half Marathons; and ends at the finish line of the MDI Marathon.

It’s a free race hosted by us, as part of our Acadia Centennial Partner commitment, to inspire people to think about our favorite national park throughout this 100th year, whether or not they’ve ever set foot in Acadia. It’s a chance to motivate us all to become more fit, think of the broader meaning of community, and ponder what Acadia does for us, and what we can do for Acadia.

Plus there’s the option to buy a finisher’s medal with the official Centennial logo, to help raise funds for the park. You can run for bling while running for Acadia!

Acadia Centennial

Optional finisher’s medal will feature Centennial logo

Sign-up for the race begins today, Feb. 26 (one of Acadia’s “three birthdays,” marking the date that Sieur de Monts National Monument became Lafayette National Park, 1919). And once at least 50 people have signed up, the race begins. You can run, hike, walk or step-count anywhere in the world, and you have through the end of the year to complete the route and log your miles.

If you prefer to bike, or you’re a wheelchair racer, all are welcome! Since biking 100 miles goes a lot faster than walking, hiking or running, pick your own handicap, whether 10 miles biking equates to 1 mile on the virtual route, or some other ratio you think is fair.

And if you’re already as fit as Gary Allen, the founder and director of the MDI Marathon, or an ultramarathoner in training, perhaps it should also be 10 miles to 1 – or maybe 26.2 miles to 1.

As virtual race director, we get to make the rules – but you get to bend them!

acadia centennial trek

The virtual Acadia Centennial Trek begins at the top of Cadillac, goes over sections of the Park Loop Road and carriage roads, and along parts of the routes of MDI YMCA’s Acadia and Fall Half Marathons, and ends at the finish line for the MDI Marathon, at exactly 100 miles.

Continue reading →

The call of Acadia brings organizer Jack Russell home

One in a series of Acadia Centennial features

Jack Russell spent a lifetime organizing people and heeding the call of public service. He didn’t stop when he returned 10 years ago to live year round in the home where he was raised on Mount Desert Island.

jack russell

Jack Russell, co-chair of the Acadia Centennial Task Force, helps organize volunteers during the annual Take Pride in Acadia Day, to get carriage roads ready for winter. (Photo courtesy of Jack Russell)

Russell, 72, is co-chair of the Acadia Centennial Task Force, which is organizing the celebration of Acadia National Park’s 100th anniversary this year.

A son of geneticists recognized for their work around the world, Russell came back to Maine with his wife, Sandy Wilcox, and moved into a home his family has owned since 1937 at the north end of Echo Lake.

Though he worked in government and private nonprofits in Michigan much of his life, Russell said his longing for Acadia was powerful and he returned virtually every summer for a vacation.

“Whatever zip code I lived in, I was very clear where my home was and I was clear I would be coming back,” he said. Continue reading →

Cookie Horner: A circle of caring, from Acadia to MDI youth

One in a series of Acadia Centennial features

Throughout her life, Nina “Cookie” Horner has been about caring – first, as a young girl, for Acadia National Park; then, as a nurse at the local hospital and high school, for a generation of youngsters born and raised on Mount Desert Island, until her retirement.

cookie horner

The love for Acadia National Park is an all-season family affair for Cookie Horner, center, and granddaughters Ellie McGee, 16, left, and Helena Munson, 18, right. They’re seen here cross-country skiing in January on the Upper Hadlock Loop of the carriage roads. (Photo courtesy of Cookie Horner)

Now, as co-chair of the Acadia Centennial Task Force, she’s come full circle, helping to celebrate the past of the place she’s cared for so much, and inspire new generations with the same passion.

The task force, which Horner co-chairs with Jack Russell, has already approved more than 300 Acadia Centennial Partners, from big organizations like L.L. Bean and Maine Public Broadcasting Network, to individual artists and local businesses, to partake in and support the year-long celebration of the park’s 100th.

And nearly 100 events have been posted on the Centennial calendar, big events like the Somes Sound Windjammer Parade on Aug. 2 and the 10-day Acadia Winter Festival that starts Feb. 26, to intimate ones like the One Park – One Read, a series of reading sessions for children and adults at local libraries this winter.

“There’s been an incredible outpouring of support for Acadia,” says Horner. The Centennial also presents opportunities for local residents to show “community pride in this beautiful place,” and for visitors to “discover something new.” Continue reading →

Warm your valentine’s heart: Finding romance in Acadia

Cozy up in front of a fire this chilly Valentine’s Day, and instead of the usual chocolates, roses or champagne, why not propose a romantic vacation, camping trip – or even wedding – in Acadia National Park?

romantic acadia

As a Facebook friend posted this morning from Mount Desert Island, “Roses are red, violets are blue, happy Valentine’s Day, from snowy Maine to you.” (Photo courtesy of Linda Thayer)

From catching the sunrise on Cadillac, to taking a horse-drawn carriage ride along “Mr. Rockefeller’s roads,” from camping out with a view at the new Schoodic Woods campground to enjoying a candlelit dinner, it’s easy to find romance in Acadia National Park and surrounding communities.

As part of our Ask Acadia on My Mind! series, we’ve answered a couple of questions about romantic things to see and do in Acadia National Park.

Last July, we helped Q pick some romantic settings for engagement photos. And in October, we assisted Aaron from Cleveland plan a camping trip in the fall to celebrate an anniversary with his girlfriend.

In honor of Valentine’s Day, here are some other resources for looking for a little romance in Acadia National Park: Continue reading →