Walking Eagle Lake Carriage Trail Loop (6 miles), Sand Beach, Dinner At Red Sky

Lobster Boats Rising Early

Loading Herring And Cow Hides For Bait

Ready To Go

Cairns On Sea Wall On A Foggy Morning

Well, it's a sad morning as we are leaving after a wonderful week in Southwest Harbor.  We are, however, stopping at Thompson Lake for the weekend to visit with our good friends, Ron and Vickie, so that's the only good part about leaving.  We are driving to Camden first and hope to take a short hike in the Camden Hills State Park, just above the village, with great views.  Then on to Oxford, Maine and our friends and their 'grands.'

I almost did not go out this morning because of the fog but was on the Manset Public Dock by 6:20, in time to see guys loading lobster bait on to their boats, both herring and cow hides.  And then they were off, into the fog, with less than a 100 yards of visibility.

Reflections On Eagle Lake

Eagle Lake

We tried to leave earlier yesterday for our hike but to no avail as we wanted to have breakfast one last time in the Common Good Cafe. So after our popovers and oatmeal and a popover to go, we finally were on the road by 10:00 and were parking on the Eagle Lake Road because the parking lot was already full.  We knew it was going to be a long walk, so we packed sandwiches, cheese and crackers, a salad, and a popover.  I think we were more than ready.  The carriage trails are marked with numbers, so we knew we were walking from 6 to 7 to 8 and finally 9, each part just about two miles. We had read it was a good  trail for bikes, so we were not surprised to see lots of bikers on the trails, as well as hikers like us.

Carriage Roads

Sea Grass On Eagle Lake

The carriage roads are all paved with fine cinders, wide enough for two cars, so as long as we stayed to the right, we did not get run over.  That's not to say it was crowded as we were the only hikers much of the trail but people were passing us in both ways, either biking or walking.  The walk was similar to other walks, in fact, after a few miles, a bit boring as the landscape of pines, fir, spruce and maple rarely changed.  We stopped on and off, to take photographs when the woods opened up for a view of the lake.  We were in no great hurry, had our lunch out on some rocks overlooking the lake, the mountains, their reflection on the lake.  The hike was just over six miles and it took us three hours; we are not the speediest hikers on the trail.

I have to admit it felt wonderful to fall in to the seat of our car and relax before driving off to the loop road.

Beachin' It

Our goal was Sand Beach, always busy but we were able to find a parking space.  The beach is easily accessible, and we could not wait to wade, soaking our sore feet in cold, cold water.  And we relaxed, on our blanket, and had some more lunch.  A few people were swimming, one was flying a kite, others were sun bathing like us, many brought their dogs along so it was a busy place.

Cooling My Sore Dogs At Sand Beach

Sand Beach

We left  just after 3:00 and drove home via Seal and Northwest Harbors.  We then had a couple of hours to relax before our reservations at the Red Sky, little over a stone's throw from our cottage. That's why we love it here in Southwest Harbor...all the restaurants and stores are at most a five minute walk away so we don't have to drive.

We went out for dinner at the Red Sky, the classy restaurant in town. We had reservations at both Sips and the Red Sky but texted out friends from the previous evening to say they could have our reservation at Sips.  We got to Red Sky just after 6:00, asked Ursula, our hostess, if we could sit at the bar and she reluctantly, or so it seemed, agreed.  It was a good choice; we liked Doug, the bartender and he had a few good recommendations for dinner.  Evie struck up a conversation with her next door neighbor, a librarian from Long Island, who had been coming up to this area since the 1970's.

Dave And Jasmine At Red Sky

Soon, however, another couple sat down and we started talking with them, locals from Bar Harbor.  Dave is a professional boat captain, which means he captains a ship for a wealthy magnate, organizes and takes care of the 45 foot sailing ship, making sure it's ready to sail during the summer when they race and the winter when it is in dry dock, a full time job for six months and during the winter, he works at a sky area, three hours away,  His wife works at a hotel in Bar Harbor, in charge of special occasions, like weddings.  They love it here, especially in the off season when they can ski although they know the busy summer is the time when the locals make enough money to make it through the rest of the year.  For dinner, Evie had a lobster risotto which she loved, and I had special Maine crab cakes which we nothing special.  We did, however, love being at the bar, talking with both Jeff and Jasmine and David, which makes the night, even more important than the food.  Just as were about to leave, a couple sat down from Baton Rouge and they were on a road trip, by car, through NYC, Connecticut, Woodstock, VT, and so on.  We had to leave or they, too, would have been fun to get to know.

Red Sky Bar, Where Else?

After dinner, we hurried across the street to The Little Notch Bakery, to say goodbye to Lydia, our new friend and buy some blueberry turnovers.  We really like her and got to know her over the past few nights.  She is going on a road trip across the US before heading home to Serbia and hopes to be able to come back to the states next summer.  She is a neat gal and gave Evie a hug good bye.

Goodbye Little Notch, Lydia and Alicia

We were not very tired so we dropped in at the Dry Dock cafe, sat down with a bar full of drunk locals, most likely lobster fishermen according to our bartender, Jason, whom we remembered from our visit two years ago.  We stayed for one beer before heading back to our cottage, to find what The Donald was going to say next, always troubling but also entertaining.