Judith Bush

Maine’s Ice Age Trail, Down East

The Maine landscape is made up of many interesting features created by vast sheets of glacial ice that covered Canada and the northern United States during the Ice Age. The Ice Age Trail will take you through one of the finest and most accessible areas of glacial moraines, deltas and eskers. It is located along the coastal “Down East” section of Maine and follows the retreating margin of the last great North American continental glacier, called the Laurentide Ice Sheet. The trail consists of stops along highways and country roads. It will take you from the top of Cadillac Mountain in Acadia National Park, across the spectacular and remote sand barrens that are home to some of the nation’s largest wild blueberry crops, and on to the easternmost tip of the United States.

Following the Ice Age Trail

You can visit many interesting sites along the Ice Age Trail in an afternoon, or explore larger sections of the trail in day or two. As you travel the Trail, please note that much of it crosses rural areas. There are few stores, gas stations or motels, except in the larger towns, as indicated on the map. Plan your needs accordingly. The season may affect your experience; for instance, many of the blueberry barrens are quite busy during harvest time, and some coastal sites are best viewed at low tide, but the Trail can be explored year-round.

http://iceagetrail.umaine.edu/content/intro.php

Inspired by a clipping: The Nature Conservancy has “Bear Mountain Lodge” there, which looks interesting. (www.bearmountainlodge.com). I think there’s a Friends Meeting there, too, which J&M N from Palo Alto Meeting attend at times.

We had a great - but very windy - visit to Mt Diablo in late December of 2006. I made a Yahoo Trip Planner before we went, collecting information about the area. We weren’t up to braving the wind for much hiking, but we did enjoy ourselves.

At the peak, the wind and views were both breathtaking. Actually, the wind was more breathtaking, but we could still see one of the Farallons and the snow capped Sierra range. We indulged in a little geographic geekery, making note of the baseline and meridian used for surveying much of Norther California and Nevada.

From http://cdec.water.ca.gov/cgi-progs/queryFx?MTD the average wind speed when we were at the peak was 40 mph, with gusts to 59 mph.

Rock City was fascinating and beautiful—and warm and on the lee side of the wind. There is a ribbon of Eocene sandstone, the bedding layers tilted almost straight up, that wraps around the side of the mountain. The rocks are worn with odd caves and knobs, and concrete smooth surfaces (with a regrettable amount of modern petroglyphs). [There wasn’t a book for sale on the Diablo geology, but this site is great. I wish i’d seen the roadside geology guide before we went, but with the trip fresh in my mind, i have explained for me that the bright red soils i saw were “red radiolarian cherts.”]

You can walk across the bridge on the bay side, with wonderful views of the city. There’s a good deal of road noise and the pollution from the traffic can affect a sensitive sinus. The wind, water, light, and fog dance around the two orange towers, making a headache the next day well worth the experience.

The crowd does thin out after the first tower, but one does need to keep an eye out for the cyclists.

From 2000 to 2004, we lived on the Presidio in the Baker Beach enlisted family quarters. That far western corner, the Richmond, and the drive south along Ocean Beach are familiar to me. It’s not the San Francisco many folks know!

Bird-watching, biking, walking, jogging, kite-flying, dining…

I don’t know much about the water sports on the lake, although we keep intending to go rent a canoe for a lunch-time paddle. And i really don’t know anything about the golf course.

I am a stream keeper for Stevens Creek and a member of the Stevens and Permanente Creeks Watershed Council . My “reach” is from Critendon to Moffett.

If you need a burrowing owl for for your list, this is the place to check—there’s a mound across from Michael’s restaurant where the owls seem inured to the human users of the trail that passes within yards.

We had a wonderful late lunch there on an unseasonably warm November day last fall. The sky was incredibly clear, the waitresses a bit overcome with the hear. Nonetheless, the service was gracious. I had the cheese plate, which was delightful. The prices seemed reasonable to me, but i’m used to bay area prices. I am not used to such a stunning view!

(Photo of the rustic and beautiful interior)

We walked on the beach and climbed the peak in the state park, had a wonderful seafood meal, and poked around a bit in the antique stores. Very pleasant—it’d be wonderful to visit again!

[Argh—the photo is oriented correctly on my system]

I think we’ll be arriving just around sunset. Hope the hotel is as nice as it seems from the amenities. I’m looking forward to exploring the state park. The natural history museum looks interesting. Hoe the birding is fun for this novice!

http://www.sonic.net/bristlecone/WhiteMts.html

North of Death Valley