Breakfast at the Friar - good but took a really long time for some reason. (R:”this guy is a pain in the ass, he keeps asking about the bacon … make them wait!”) We went back to the room and drove over tot he farmers market - good idea because we came back with a ton of goat cheese and maple syrup!
Our plan for tody was to look for the Dane trail on Day Mtn, and then probably descend on the Day Mtn trail. We drove to the Visitors Center and got the park loop road bus. The driver was a real hoot, putting on a one woman comedy show the entire time. R wondered where she got her happy pills! The rest of the people ono the bus were friendly as well and there was jovial conversation the whole time until a bunch of them got off at Sand Beach. We stayed on until Wildwood (“now you’re making me feel bad I didn’t mention Wildwood!” she said when really we just wanted to make sure she remembered to stop there! We had to wait for a series of carriages/wagons to pass when we first arrived but then we were able to climb to the carriage roads and cross the bridge toward Day Mtn.
It was a very beautiful day. We spent it on Day Mountain as planned. We hiked up the abandoned Dane Trail (have you ever done it?) from the carriage road. It’s steep but not a killer. Pretty easy to follow, using cairns along the way to help us through the more overgrown sections. It was warm and very humid in the woods. We were covered with spruce needles and spider webs. We sure enjoyed our little secret trail! Every once in a while we heard cyclists on the carriage road nearby. When we emerged at the carriage road near the summit, we spotted a man and his wife taking photos. Turned out to be a very nice and interesting couple from NH and we talked with them for a long while, and enjoyed a little snack and lots of water. We took the carriage road back down-I had never done it on foot, only by bike. It’s long but scenic with a beautiful assortment of plant life on display. We ended up finding three more sets of steps in the woods, too! I need to figure out what trail they might have been part of.
Because we had a later than usual start and we walked the carriage roads down it was already just past 3 when we arrived back at the stables. According to the schedule the bus wouldn’t arrive till around 3:30 so I figured I had plenty of time to use the restroom. I was washing my hands when I heard the bus outside! I flew out and sprinted over. (The driver said I obviously had a lot more hiking in me if I could sprint that fast!) Turns out it was a special, an extra bus they had put on for the day in case there were large crowds (due to the four cruise ships in port). There really weren’t, he said, so he was done after this run. This worked out really well for us because we got to the visitors center and back to our car fifteen minutes earlier than we normally would have.
We figured it would be the perfect time to get a table at Asticou and it was. The place was nearly deserted when we arrived at 4, and it was still warm enough to sit outside on the lovely balcony overlooking NEH. What a nice relaxing place! We ordered popovers, of course, crab/lobster cakes with green onion mayonnaise (yum!) and a lobster roll with fries to split. Two beers, a wheat beer and IPA. Everything was delicious. And after all that we got one more order of popovers! I couldn’t resist and they were fantastic.
Back to the room by 6 and rested, watched videos, took a bath and read Pathmakers for the rest of the evening!