The First Summit

For my love of word play, I had no choice but to name this blog post as such: The First Summit.

This Friday, I’m flying to God’s blessed Southland for Thanksgiving with my family. I’ll be home for a full week and couldn’t be more excited to spend time with them, to enjoy the fall foliage (which should be in its full fiery glory in North Carolina’s piedmont; it’s almost all gone up here), to eat Bojangle’s (it’s been Bo-Time for about 4 weeks now), and to be warm without a coat. The week of vacation marks for me the completion of the first leg of this little walkabout. Here’s what I have to show for it:

1.  A life, friends, and a sense of comfortable stability
2. TONS of progress at work
3. City and outdoor adventures
4. A church home where I am well supported, learn a lot, and am involved (I’m going to start helping to lead worship with singing! yay!)
5. Miles of Maine terrain taken in (probably well over 800, I’d think)
6. A greater self knowledge as well as greater confidence in my abilities and skills
7. A persistent sense of awe and spiritual growth

Not bad for 50 days work, with a summit being that I’m over the hump of feeling green and have found my stride.

The second reason I must call this post “The First Summit” is because I went hiking in Acadia National Park this weekend, and clearly, there were literal summits there. My friend Kari who's in my corps asked if I had any weekend plans and we decided rather spontaneously to make a day trip to the park.

Oh.
By.
Gosh.

We left early in the morning to make the 3 hour drive. We crossed a neat bridge.

We passed through cute small towns

We arrived in Bar Harbor just in time to see the finals of very unique town competition. They were having bed races; different groups create a themed bed on wheels, push someone on it, and hope that their time is fastest. So lucky to have gotten there when we did to see this weirdness because after the last competitors went, the crowd dissipated in about 2 minutes.

Everyone was wearing pajamas :)

Bar Harbor is soooo Maine-y

 We got to Acadia after doing a little walking around Bar Harbor. There were 3 trails/areas we visited: the Beehive, Sand Beach, and the Great Head. I was so exhausted after the 5 hours of hiking we did, and we did only a small portion of what Acadia has to see. I am very excited to go back at different points during the season. I can only imagine how gorgeous it must be in the snow and in summer's green.

The Beehive

Dear Mom, I'm going to climb on big rocks. Love, me

REAL

There are many, many, many photos to see.

My future home

My other future home

Not terribly high, but seems much higher since it's right next to sea level and because the climb was essentially vertical.

WE DID IT!

I imagine him saying a prayer in a little baby voice; "Dear God, thank you for this pine cone and all its nutrients to power my little body because I'm just a little guy but I have lots of stuff to do." Danimal, you know the voice.

I have never seen this type of squirrel before; it is tiny, tiny and eats only pine cones.

Yes, we climbed using the above mentioned fixed iron rungs.

Moss!

This is a gorgeous lake that I think is called the bowl. I hoped that a moose would surface from under water at some point, but c'est la vie, I live another moose-less day.

Sand Beach- I can't wait to visit here in the summer. It's amazing to see the ocean next to foresty cliffs.

LITTLE CHILD.

Mountain, beach. Love.

The woods seemed to be primarily white birch and Christmas trees. This was the beginnings of the Great Head trail which led right along the cliffs.

View of Sand Beach and the Beehive from the cliffs; I dangled my legs off the edge. Danger mouse!

I love, love, love the tidal pools. Kari and I scaled down the cliffs to walk around on these.

Feeling so small!

Expecting Ariel to pop up singing "Part of Your World" at any given moment.

OH, BARNACLES!

 The flora and fauna on the sea rocks were stunning.

Muscles

Under the water in a tidal pool.

We walked on this ridge as well.

Growing on the rocks; this is not even the true vibrancy of the color!

Cliff drops far down over this edge.

SNEAKY LIL DUCKS THOUGHT I WOULDN'T GET A PIC.

Busted.

Good day, Acadia.

 Maine, in some places, really is mystical. Anyone who comes to visit me will have the pleasure of visiting this place that leaves you awestruck at every angle, quite literally. During Kari and I’s hike, each new “summit,” made generally just a few feet from the previous summit, was stunning, commanded total attention, and caught any adequate words in your chest until eventually, their built-up pressure could only escape as gasps and sighs and breathy one-syllable exclamations- wow; man; gosh- and Thank-You-God.

I really like making parallels, and so I can’t help myself in making the parallel here that every small summit for each short span of time in Maine has left me with inadequate words and only this sense of awe- wow; man; gosh- and Thank-You-God.

Isn’t it funny that driving from Lewiston to Raleigh takes 17 hours?

Headed down south to the land of the pine,

JB