Acadia & White Mountains Trip Day 2

We awoke in the Villager Motel around 5am. The weather was set to be completely clear on this day, and it was. Not a cloud in the sky. I wanted to get out and do some sunrise/golden light photography in the Crawford Notch area.
After a quick breakfast of instant oatmeal and instant coffee we made our way north on route 302. My goal was to hit the visitor center, and hit a couple of hikes there. We stopped at a few spots along the way, but due to this being a valley, there was not much early morning light yet. Not a big deal.
Arriving at the visitor center, which is actually called the Highland Center, it was rather active with hikers. They have a lodge here, called the Highland Lodge, which looked very nice. Perhaps it would be worth staying here at some point.
     We looked at the map at the Highland Center, and decided to do a couple of shorter out and back type hikes. We wanted to get a taste of hiking in the White Mountains, but nothing too intense. One of them was Mt. Willard, a relatively short summit hike. It was supposed to have amazing views at the top, so we decided to try this first. The trail-head was a little ways down from the Highland Center at a train depot. The interesting thing about Crawford Notch, is that there is a train that runs the length of it. At the notch itself ( which is a rock formation with a "notch" blasted through for the road), there is a tunnel that the train enters and exits rising up the side of the valley. Further down you can actually take this train to the top of Mt. Washington, but I digress.

Summit of Mt. Willard

     The hike was a relatively moderate rise of 900 feet in about 1.6 miles. The trails here are really well maintained, with some nice wide spots that 2 or 3 people could walk side by side. It was still relatively early in the morning, around 8 or so, so the temps were nice and cool. Since both of us have been working quite hard at running lately, and I have been ramping up the cycling training, our legs and lungs can handle a nice steady output. Personally, I am also down about 20 lbs from last summer, so that makes a huge difference. We got to the top and we were alone. Before us was a beautiful panorama of Crawford Notch and the valley spread out below. The presidential range was to the left, with Mt. Jackson in full view. It was quiet and serene. After about a 1/2 hour of relaxing we started to descend. As soon as we left, other hikers started arriving en-masse. We timed this one right.
    We next decided to do a waterfall hike. There are a number of beautiful waterfalls in the area, but we (foolishly) chose the most popular one, Arethusa Falls. This was a steady and relatively short hike, at 1 and a 1/2 miles out. We hit the trailhead and followed a large group of adults with a brood of children in tow. Now, I really enjoy seeing children out hiking. Kudos to the parents for actually getting them out there. I recently read a frightening article that children are reaching their peak of physical activity by age 10, replaced by sitting on their ever widening rear-ends on a couch, glued to a video game. I can appreciate the effort put in. But, I also have a low tolerance for screaming children. I am sure when they are your own, you don't mind, maybe you do, I don't know. But really, just talk lower, everyone can still hear you.
     We passed a number of groups, and somehow got in the middle of others. This wasn't quite as bad as our hikes in Yosemite Valley, but it was getting close. We made it down the steep embankment to the falls, and they were beautiful. However, there were people everywhere enjoying them. The camera gear I lugged was going to be wasted effort. I setup my tripod anyways, and got down to the business of framing some shots of the falls. There were some people that were standing right in front of me, in the waterfall. They kept looking at me, knowing what I was trying to accomplish, and still stood there, oblivious. As soon as a group of children came up and surrounded us, pretty much sitting on my tripod, it was time to go. It was not a big deal, as it was brightly sunlit, and long exposure waterfall shots just don't work in sunlight.
    We enjoyed our hike out, and ended up going back to the Crawford Notch campground to pack our gear. Before we left for the day, I talked to the old fella at the counter at the Villager Inn, and told him we wanted to stay another night. "No problem... I fix room up for you!". Ok then. We packed our gear at the campground, still keeping an eye out for bears, and checked out. I decided that the tent was going to be a no-go situation. I was going to have to invest in a new tent before we got to Maine. The rest of the evening we relaxed, and found a picnic table to cook a few burgers on our portable cooker.