A Hiking Adventure

Earlier in the week, I asked Scott if we could go somewhere today. So, we agreed that we would go somewhere, do something fun today. It was supposed to be 75 degrees according to the weather reports earlier in the week, but it turns out it was about 65, if that. We overslept so we had a slow start, but we finally left our house around 10:15 or so. We had to stop in Ellsworth to get some food, since I am completely low on groceries. But finally we were at Acadia National Park in Southwest Harbor area. We decided to climb Beech Mountain, because it looked like a short enough hike. When we got there, we let the dogs out to to go the bathroom and they met another dog, which they were excited about. Right about then, it started to pour. Oh, lovely. So we got into the car and decided to have lunch. It is interesting trying to make PB&J in a car with two dogs and plastic utensils. But finally we were able to eat and then the rain lightened up enough for us to start out on the hike. We gave the dogs some food and water, and got ready to go. Scott let go of Mia's leash to get his backpack ready, so I let go of Moxie so that I could get my sweatshirt on, etc. Well Moxie decided to get a head start on the trail, and Mia took off after him. No amount of whistling, yelling "food" or "treat", or their names caused them to turn around. I headed up the trail after them, and Scott was still at the car. At one point the trail split but I was pretty sure the dogs went up. Finally Mia came back to meet me, but Moxie was still no where to be seen or heard. Scott caught up with me and we went on up the trail. About 10 minutes later, we finally caught up with Moxie. I was relieved because I just keep picturing us going the whole trail and Moxie being way off in the woods somewhere and us not finding him.

Anyway, after that we tried holding their leashes, but Mia was basically pulling me up the slippery rocks. So I decided to let go of her because she is usually really good about coming back to us. Then a little later, Scott decided to try it with Moxie again. The first time, he took a very long time to come back. But then we just kept giving treats every time they came back to us, and by the end of our hike, Moxie was hardly going ahead of us at all. Once we finally reached the top, we met a few other people, but the dogs were good after the initial barking episode. Scott started up the fire tower, and the dogs with him, until the both realized they could look down and go scared. But a second try with some treats allowed them to go up as far as we could (it was closed at the top). It was so funny watching them, because they were still nervous but they did it.

Overall it was a great trip with some pretty views, despite the intermittent rain. After the hike, I convinced Scott (with some arm twisting) to go to Seawall. Seawall is one of my favorite places in the state, but today's stop was a short one. One of my favorite parts was when Moxie slipped and fell right into the ocean! So funny!

On the way home, we stopped at LLBean and Cadillac Mtn Sports, at Scott's request. Then we stopped in Hampden at McLaughlin's for lobster rolls. I was so craving lobster after driving by all the lobster pounds, so I was very happy when we got home and ate our lobster rolls. Yum!

A good day. Very tiring, but good.