Day Mountain and The Triad

Hiking buddies: Marina and Jamie

Weather: mid 70s, sunny

Mountains: Day and Triad (Acadia National Park)
Elevations: 583ft (Day) and 698ft (Triad)
Ascents: Day Mountain Trail, Triad Trail
Descents: Day Mountain Trail, Triad Trail, Carriage Road (via The Cleft), and Day Mountain Trail
Miles of trail: 3.9

Total miles this year: 89.8

It's Sunday, so you know what that means? This girl goes hiking. Now that we're getting into the hustle and bustle of the busy tourist season, I take my one day off and go on a nice, looooong hike. Away from the crowds. Away from all the cars and transports. Away from all the people on vacation who are glued to their electronic devices. I mean, seriously? You're on vacation. On a beautiful island. With a beautiful National Park calling your name, begging you to drop your phone and get outdoors. Seriously. 

Rant over. 

Today, I set out with no agenda. I just wanted trail under my feet. The weather was too perfect to really care where to hike, it only mattered that I take full advantage of the sunshine and go on a hike. Usually, I have a trail in mind days before Sunday arrives. Not today. I let Marina and Jamie decide! The consensus was... Day Mountain. 

This is a great hike for families with younger children (fyi); simple, fairly easy, with the excitement of crossing paths with the horse-drawn carriages on the carriage roads.

There are also some really cool caves, that I have only heard wonderful stories about, somewhere near the summit. I happened to come across a hiking book this evening on a walk downtown and saw "the caves" marked on the map. I'll have to do some bushwhacking and venturing around there soon. 

The trail starts out pretty level, easy going, with my favorite... planks! It's just under a mile to the summit from the trailhead.

We heard some bustling in the bushes, wondered what it could possibly be, turned the corner and... TURKEYS. A whole group of them just chillin' out on the trail. They scattered quite quickly. 

The first glimpse of scenery from the trail. Day Mountain is certainly not the best peak for sweet views. The experience of the trail and the surrounding wonders of nature make up for what it lacks in views. The birds were chirping like crazy this afternoon... not just the crazy turkeys. 

Every time the trail intersects with the carriage roads, I love looking at the flowers sprouting along the side of the road. Most of the buds I do not know by name, but these guys are easy ::wink::

The trail opens up to the sky momentarily. Take your scenic photos here, that's the best view you're going to get! 

The last section of trail to the summit is a bit of a scrambling doozy! For me, that's when the fun starts, get those lungs burning. 

We took a quick snap at the summit and then decided to continue on along the trail to The Triad. This would be another peak with a not so great view, but awesome trail work! The Day Mountain Trail descends over 0.5 miles until it reaches more carriage roads. Directly across the bridge is the trailhead for The Triad Trail. The post said 0.3 miles to the summit... I don't think we were anticipating gaining as much elevation as we did. In 0.3 miles the elevation gain is around 500 feet. Yikes. 

Look at that scramble! 

We might have gotten slightly lost/off trail at one point. The blue blazes were scarce, quite hard to see, so be careful. Not to mention, there was a mound of leaves covering the trail. They can be slippery little buggers. 

Need a good workout? Run up and down this section a few times... you'll feel it. I think it was at this point I asked, "who's idea was this?" Oh, yeah. Mine. 

I think that is the largest cairn I have ever seen... Don't worry, there are five rocks forming the structure, the fifth one is hiding out in the back, we checked. 

We stopped at the summit for a quick breather before heading back down. I'm slightly regretting not putting sunscreen on today. 

Once we made it down the 0.3 miles back to the carriage roads, we decided to take a walk along the Day Mountain carriage road until we met back up with the Day Mountain Trail. This way, we didn't have to summit the peak again. We ended up walking for about a mile and half, but I'm not complaining. It was quite peaceful and beautiful. 

We had a few encounters with these guys! Boy, were they huge. The horses pull carriages up and around Day Mountain to the summit and back down. I can't imagine how they are feeling on a hot day like today! 

The carriage road eventually met up with the Day Mountain Trail, at its first crossing with the road. So, we didn't have too much trail to hike down to get back to the starting point. Luckily, the planks are part of this first section of trail, so you know I was pumped to tramp along those again.