We chose Jeannie’s (sorry, “The Great Maine Breakfast”) for today’s morning meal. There was a short wait for a table, but those few minutes passed quickly. And we had a bog garden to look at while we waited! Rich ordered another egg & cheese sandwich on a croissant, and I had two scrambled eggs with toast. We skipped the usual homefries to try baked beans instead—which weren’t as good as mom’s, but we both liked them.

After breakfast we spent some time by the waterfront, watching a geology class take place on the rocks and checking on some of the tidal benchmarks in the area. (All were well.)

Our main adventure for this gorgeous but cool day was to check out the Jordan Stream Trail and see if any improvements have been made since last year, when the bridges were all falling apart to the point that we couldn’t even cross them. A trail crew was at work last year when we hiked it, so we wanted to see how far they got.

We took the bus to Jordan Pond House to begin our adventure. Set up on the patio area near the parking lot was a “Friends of Acadia” booth, with several members of the organization trying to get people to sign up. We began talking with one of the men, who was interested in our abandoned trail-finding adventures. He mentioned the Acadian Ridge Trail, apparently a project of the Friends, that can be accessed from Norway Drive. He also mentioned some kind of a contest they had run where the winner could choose an abandoned trail and Gary Stellpflug, the trails foreman, would lead them on a hike. The winner chose the Goat Trail! This was so exciting to us, giving more evidence that the entire trail is still able to be followed, but the man didn’t have any other details. Another man stepped in at this point to mention that his friend had found some spiral steps near Wildwood Stables, and that we might want to search for them. I suspect the steps may have been part of the Van Santvoord Trail.

To our relief, the Jordan Stream Trail was in much better condition than last year. All of the bridges have replaced, at least with planks or with complete structures. Evidence of the old bridges is still hanging around, sometimes in piles off to the side, sometimes right next to the newer structure. We spent a lot of time today taking photos in the woods, walking slowly. We worked our way down to the first trail leading up to the carriage road, which had these old wooden blazes affixed to trees. When we reached the carriage road we noticed one across the road as well—could we have found the start of another old trail? I went to investigate. There was one more green-painted wooden blaze on the ground and another on a tree with blue flagging tape tied onto it. The trail seemed to lead only to the carriage road above, on a higher level, but perhaps there is more to be found here? We walked the shortcut trail back to Jordan Pond House.

We ended up going to McKays tonight, and it was an excellent choice. We asked for a quiet table in the back, and it was actually quiet the whole time and very peaceful and pleasant. I had a yuzu beer from Off Color Brewing—wow, was that bizarre, not to mention the bizarre dreams I had later!—and Rich had a kolsch.

Then to start Rich had a roasted corn chowder and I had a small McKays salad, which is tender baby lettuce with apple slices, Cashel blue cheese, golden raisins and toasted crushed hazelnuts. I’ve ordered it many times and always enjoy it.

We shared two entrees: tagliatelle with wild mushrooms, peas, and pesto sauce, and a burger cooked medium rare with muenster cheese, red onion, tomato, lettuce, and “secret sauce,” whatever that is. It was just about the best burger either of us had ever had! Perfect amount of char, very tender meat, thick patty, but not overwhelmed by toppings—just very well balanced. And not too huge. It came on a brioche bun which was also great. We were beyond pleased with both entrees! Best of all, we weren’t stuffed, just satisfied. We did attempt to order a slice of blueberry pie for dessert but the pie hadn’t arrived yet from Morning Glory, and none of the other desserts appealed to us, so we passed on them.