YESC Maine Expedition 2013 - Day 5 & VIDEO

3:15am came very quickly this morning as I rose to wake the crew for our drive to the top of Cadillac Mountain. Before I began the group wake up, I took a peek outside to see the beautiful night sky, but instead, was greeted with extensive cloud coverage. After conferring with Emma, we decided to push our Cadillac Mountain sunrise to another day.

Good thing! The cloud coverage remained all day, and heavy fogs moved in throughout the day. With the cloud coverage and colder temperatures, we knew we needed to bundle up extra for our whale watch and puffin tour!

We boarded the Atlanticat at the Bar Harbor Whale Watch Tour and, after a warning that the limited visibility would impede our ability to see whales, other travelers left the boat for refunds. However, YESC stayed strong, bundled up, and departed at 8:30am sharp from the dock for Petit Manan National Wildlife Refuge. Petit Manan is an island 17 miles northeast from Bar Harbor, and the objective of our journey was to find nesting Atlantic Puffin.

The gang just before departure!

We were handsomely rewarded for our perseverance! Not only did we get to see lots of Atlantic Puffin, we were treated to a variety of seabirds such as Great Shearwater, Arctic Tern, Razorbill, and Common Murre. These birds are only seen far out in the ocean so these are hard birds to find. Life birds for most of the group!

Atlantic Puffin in flight! We saw a large amount of puffins floating in the waters off Petit Manan, and some even flew right around our boat!

Great Shearwater doing what it does best - flying low to the water and "shearing" it with its wings!

The seabirds certainly treated us well, but the visibility definitely impacted our ability to find whales. After much searching, we were finally treated to two Minke Whales swimming nearby the boat! In addition to the whales, we saw Harbor Seals, Harbor Porpoises, and Dolphins. Those mammals were all too quick for me to snap any photos, but the views were quite enjoyable!

Connor, Harrison, Shaelyn, and Austin were the strong survivors of the group. They remained on the top deck of the ship for the majority of the cruise despite the arctic-seeming temperatures and winds!

In the video below, Shaelyn gives us an update while aboard the Atlanticat. You can almost feel the high winds:



Our eBird checklist from the tour is below. "X" means the species was observed, but a total number was not counted:

Bar Harbor - Whale Watch, Hancock, US-ME
Jul 10, 2013 8:30 AM - 12:15 PM
Protocol: Traveling
20.0 mile(s)
Comments: Estimated mileage. Traveled from Bar Harbor Whale Watch Tours Headquarters to Petit Manan to an unknown location in the ocean. Temperatures were very cold, winds were very high, and visibility was low due to fog. Checklist taken from the Upper Main Line YMCA Earth Service Corps Maine Expedition 2013 - www.umly.org/yesc
16 Species:
Great Shearwater  8
Wilson's Storm-Petrel  2
Northern Gannet  4
Double-crested Cormorant  2
Laughing Gull  X
Herring Gull  3
Great Black-backed Gull  X
Common Tern  X
Arctic Tern  X
Common Murre  X
Razorbill  X
Black Guillemot  X
Atlantic Puffin  X
Rock Pigeon  4
Song Sparrow  1
American Goldfinch  1

After the whale watch, we spent some time cleaning the cabin before heading into Bar Harbor to tour the town. What will tomorrow bring? Depends upon the weather (which is calling for 30% chance of scattered thunderstorms - who knows what that means!)

Looking forward to an awesome day tomorrow!

- BQ

YESC Maine Expedition 2013 - Day 4

Scholars will maintain that today, July 9th, 2013, was 100% Earth Service HARD Corps!

Day 4 of the 2013 Maine Expedition began with a wonderful morning bird walk. We ventured to a row of fields on Eagle Point Road and were treated to spectacular views of Bobolink and Savannah Sparrow.

The main objective of the day was to complete a hike known as "The Four Peaks," a 4.5 mile hike which offers breathtaking mountaintop views including a view from the second largest peak in the park, Sargent Mountain.

 Our ambitious route is outlined in red

The hike began around 10am, and as we ventured past the trail head, we were greeted to the sounds of Swainson's Thrush and Red-Breasted Nuthatch. After some great sightings, we encountered serious elevation change for a very long time. We stopped for frequent breaks as we climbed, but the trip up to our first stop, Bald Peak, proved to be a difficult one. As we ascended up the mountain, the low-hanging clouds quickly enveloped the mountain top. Although we were not treated to a spectacular view, we enjoyed the cooling sensation of the fast-moving clouds furiously blowing over the mountain top.

Austin with the disappearing Bald Peak

We paused atop Bald Peak for a considerable amount of time to rest up. Much of the group was very exhausted from the steep and treacherous trip up the mountain. While we were letting our legs rest, a pair of Common Ravens sounded off and flew past the group before disappearing into the cloudy abyss below.

Mountain top after mountain top proved to be even more grueling as we powered over rocks and fallen trees to each destination. Even though each mountain was higher than the next, there was still a considerable amount of descending that had to be done after each peak before the next. As Zach said, "These wouldn't be labeled as separate mountains if they just kept going up!"

We flew the YESC Flag on all four mountain peaks. Here, the flag is flown at Gilmore Peak at 1036 feet. Not pictured: The massive gorge behind the flag, unfortunately covered by clouds.

Our final stop was on Sargent Mountain at 1373 feet above sea level. This climb proved to be the most difficult as it was not only the steepest, but it came after three challenging climbs to the other peaks. The arrival was magnificent! The highest winds and heaviest cloud coverage made for a dramatic arrival.

The heavy cloud cover seriously reduced visibility at the Sargent Mountain summit. My camera had difficulty focusing on us! At least the flag is flying proudly in the background.

As we descended down the Maple Spring Trail, we all reminisced on how we strangely began to miss the uphill climb instead of the tedious downward scaling over rocks. The rest of our journey from Sargent Mountain's summit was downhill, but criss-crossing over streams and fallen trees was very difficult when going down. After an hour and a half of downhill movement, we finally arrived back at the van!

Well, four mountain tops over 4.5 miles with approximately 1,000 feet of elevation change? I'd say that is what Earth Service HARD Corps is all about! I think it's safe to say that this adventure is surpassed in difficulty only by the Pool of Jade hike on the 2004 and 2008 Colorado Expedition. Needless to say, today was an absolutely unforgettable day in YESC history.

Well, time for bed. We are waking up at 3:15am to watch the sunrise on Cadillac Mountain, the first sunrise in the United States.

More updates tomorrow!

- BQ
 

 

YESC Maine Expedition 2013 - Days 1-3 & VIDEO

Hey gang,

The first three days of the Maine Expedition have been truly unforgettable! Below is a recap of the last three days with YESC Member Shaelyn:

Maine has been an absolutely wonderful experience these past few days. Since our arrival on Saturday, we have kayaked in Kilkenny Cove, birded in the evening as well as the morning, hiked to the top of Gorham Mountain, witnessed breathtaking views, and visited Marlboro beach for a fantastic sunset. We have many excursions ahead of us, and I am genuinely looking forward to the rest of this trip. 


Also, check out a video update from Connor:


We're looking forward to another amazing day here in Acadia National Park. Today, we're off to conquer four peaks of Acadia: Bald Peak, Parkman Peak, Gilmore Peak, and the second largest peak in the park: Sargent Mountain.

More updates to come!

- BQ