Fawn Pond or Breakneck Road?

Fog again this morning! It was dense but didn’t cause any problems as I ran down to Mount Dessert Bakery for two plain croissants and a pecan sticky bun. As we sat on the porch enjoying our breakfast, it even appeared to brighten up for a minute, and I almost saw the sun … and then it started to rain.

Although we didn’t know it yet, this would be the theme for the day.

We waited a little while and the rain died down again, and the sky cleared up almost completely. The weather radar showed nothing much approaching, so we figured there would be plenty of time for a morning hike and that conditions would only begin to improve.

Since last year I’ve been thinking about getting back to the Lake Wood/Fawn Pond area to explore more of the old roads and trails in the forest there. Specifically, today my plan was to begin at the northern end of Breakneck Road in Hull’s Cove, where Rich would drop me off, and hike up to the fork off the main road to Lake Wood that we found last year to determine if it was indeed part of the old Fawn Pond path. Rich would wait at Lake Wood for my return.

In essence, it went according to plan. But in the details, things got hairy.

I hiked slowly along Breakneck Road, keeping an eye out for anything interesting to photograph and noticing—just west of the road—a cistern or spring surrounded by rocks that we had never noticed before.

I was also halfway hoping to cross paths with a woman who had pulled up to the parking area just as I was setting out on the road, thinking that she was likely a local with whom I might be able to share some lost trail knowledge, but for whatever reason she never caught up with me. I have no idea where she went.

I passed through the rockslide that occurred two years ago; now a well-worn path traverses the fallen talus, which remains in place. Soon after, I located the road to Lake Wood and turned onto it.

I climbed the rocky path for just over a tenth of a mile when I saw the smaller, steeper road branching off to the right that I had planned to follow. It was easy walking on a beautifully clear, obvious trail for quite a while, and I was sure that it would take me near to the Bates cairn I had found last time.

However, I was about .19 mile away from the cairn when I suddenly lost the trail at one of the typical lichen and blueberry covered rocky outcrops.

Also, at the same time, the mist and drizzle that had plagued me for much of the walk—initially so light that I assumed they were just drops falling from the wet leaves above—turned into a sudden downpour. I scrambled to get the camera and phone into plastic bags to keep them from getting too wet and put my rain jacket on (futile as that effort would turn out to be).

I poked around here and there, getting more soaked by the minute, unable to see through foggy and rain soaked glasses, and with a GPS that was waterproof, sure, but still hard to read through the film of water that constantly covered the screen.

Unable to explore methodically for the rest of the trail as I normally would do in better conditions, I had to just wander closer, in as straight a line as possible, toward the Bates cairn I marked last year.

Along my way, and along the way from the cairn to Fawn Pond, I found a few sections that sure looked like well-worn trail, but I just couldn’t connect them. I marked a few points so I could at least see if the trail-like segments made any sense later when I looked at the tracklog. (They don’t, really.)

The deluge continued and I made my way to Fawn Pond, eventually coming across very wide and well-worn paths that I knew well, after our explorations here last year. A few times while I was near Fawn Pond the rain stopped, or nearly so, and the sun almost came out. I almost had hope that my clothes would dry out a bit before I reached the car, but it wasn’t to be. The rain came back very quickly and almost as heavily as before. My shoes were absolutely soaked and will need two days to dry out! Hiking on them was like walking on squishy saturated sponges.

I was finally able to contact Rich while I was near Fawn Pond so I could let him know I was on my way back. The hike from Fawn Pond to Lake Wood was unremarkable other than the fact that I looked and felt like a drowned rat!

We spent the rest of the afternoon trying to dry out back in the room and sitting on the porch.

We had planned all week to have our anniversary dinner tonight at Jack Russell’s steakhouse, and we had worked up a real appetite for it by late this afternoon. We were the first ones in the door right at 4:00pm, and we got a nice table in the new part of the building right in front of the window. It was very cold when we first walked in, but then I think they turned off the air conditioning, and it became warmer and more comfortable very quickly.

Our traditional drink in such a place is a Tanqueray martini, so Rich ordered one for each of us, and they were cool and smooth as always. Delicious! We kept it simple with our meals tonight, ordering a small and a medium filet mignon, asparagus, and roasted red potatoes, which were exceptional. Rich had the au poivre sauce with his steak and I had the gorgonzola cream. We had just enough room for a light dessert, so we shared a blueberry crisp. It wasn’t too sweet or cinnamony and was filled with wild blueberries, and topped with a creamy vanilla ice cream and two dollops of whipped cream. Perfect!

The evening was relaxing, other than the fact that we needed our air conditioning unit swapped out because it finally failed completely. The replacement went smoothly and we had a new unit in place by 8:15pm.