Tales & Trails of a Traveling Wiseguy

Maine Week Travelog #6
Acadia National Park - Tuesday, 15 Jun 2021, 7pm.

Whoever named things in Acadia National Park had a weak way with words. They used up all the obvious name words like "Sand Beach" for a beach with, well, sand. When it came time to name a pair of knobby hills in the middle of the park all they could think of was Bubbles. So this afternoon we hiked first to South Bubble then North Bubble.



Atop South Bubble is this interesting balanced rock. It is named— wait for it— Bubble Rock. While Hawk and I were content to admire it from various angles, every kid under the age of 20 who was up there with us— and not a few of their parents— immediately took it upon themselves to try to push Bubble Rock off the cliff. It'll be a shame when one of those knuckle-draggers succeeds.



Also at the top of South Bubble is an awesome view south across Jordan Lake and to the Atlantic Ocean beyond. It's hard to see much of the ocean, though, because of the fog layer remaining this afternoon.

Most hiking guides suggest following a loop trail down to the edge of Jordan Lake from this summit and then coming back around toward the parking lot. South Bubble's taller sibling, North Bubble, is given no love. We decided we'd rather visit both bubbles than see a lake up close in the gloom.



The trail to North Bubble is steep. The South Bubble trail was by no means flat, but getting up to North Bubble requires ascending several staircases of natural stone and following blazes across slickrock. That's familiar terrain for us, though. Bare granite trails are all over the pace in the Sierra Nevada range, and we love them.



Views from the top of North Bubble are occluded by trees— perhaps that's why hiking guides give it short shrift— so I've included this photo of Jordan Lake and South Bubble (left edge) from near the top of North Bubble. If it were at the top, South Bubble would seem shorter.

After climbing both bubbles we returned down the trail to our car. Sunset isn't technically for another hour or so, but with the fog layer in the sky it's twilight already. We'll head back into town after this for supper.

We've headed out of town this evening... and it's not just to get a shot 105 miles away from home. It's a legit, leisure road trip!

Friday Night Halfway

Tonight we're bedded down in Ukiah, CA, 155 miles from home. It was a not-hard trek up to here, well north of San Francisco along US-101. We left home at 6:45 after work and a quick supper of leftovers and arrived 3 hours later, having made a 30 minute stop for snacks and stretching our legs halfway here.

Even here is but a halfway point, too. Partly that's because there's little about Ukiah to recommend it as a destination... even though we have stayed in Ukiah a few times before! But mostly it's because Ukiah is a convenient way-station, a Friday Night Halfway stopover. Tomorrow we'll continue onward to Crescent City, on the far north coast of California, another 240 miles away.

Time for a "Vaccication"?

A lot of people right now are planning or taking "vaccications"— vacations to celebrate their vaccination. I've also seen the concept called "revenge travel". It's still too early to take revenge on Coronavirus; Hawk is fully vaccinated but I've had just 1 of 2 shots. Thus we've kept our plans for this trip cautious.

1) We are planning to travel around 1,000 miles total, but it will all be in our own car. We're not traveling via planes or trains, or transiting through airports or train stations. This cuts the risk way down.

2) We're planning outdoors, uncrowded activities; we're going hiking in remote areas! We're not visiting people indoors or even going to crowded outdoors places. This also cuts the risk way down.

3) Finally, we're planning to eat meals by buying groceries and takeout. We're not going to eat inside restaurants, or even in hotel common rooms, just because we're away from the conveniences of home. This, too, cuts the risk way down.

When will we take bigger trips again? Basically, a) after we've both had full vaccinations and ideally b) as nationwide infection rates drop from their current plateau. We did start booking an east coast trip for June earlier this week. With luck we'll see a clear path to take a flying trip before then, too; perhaps by Memorial Day.

About This Weekend...

But enough about what might happen weeks from now; let's talk about our plans for the next few days.

Saturday we'll drive up 101 out along the coast, stopping by Redwood National Park. There's a tall-trees hike there we were thwarted from being able to trek when we visited last October. We've got a permit now for it, so we'll hike it on Saturday. (Okay, so maybe there is an element of revenge travel to this trip!) After that we'll head up to Crescent City for the next two nights.

Sunday we'll visit a few waterfalls in the redwood forests around Crescent City. We've got a book of waterfall hikes with several ideas marked; really a lot more that we can do in this short trip. We'll finalize our picks in the morning based on weather and energy levels.

Monday we've taken the day off to stretch this trip out to a 3-day weekend. We've got another waterfall hike marked; this one along the coast instead of in the redwoods. We'll also visit Agate Beach at Patrick's Point State Park again as Hawk so thoroughly enjoyed picking up shells and rocks there last time. Shortly after laying out her collection of spoils, in fact, she started talking about when we could go back.

When something occurs frequently the phenomenon needs a name. This week I realized there needs to be a name for "news" articles that are actually just advertisements. These are the pieces in my news feed, usually several per day, with titles like "Five Unbelievable Deals at Amazon Today!" (someone's flogging their affiliate links) and "Three Secrets of Chik-Fil-A" (a transparent ad for the restaurant chain, and the research for the article consists of quoting two Reddit posts). For these fake, advertising articles I propose the term advertarticle.


I thought about this again yesterday when I saw an advertarticle from Lonely Planet about how Lake Tahoe is a great place for travel right now in the Coronavirus pandemic. Oh yes, there are multiple levels of stupid in that.

1. The advertarticle was transparently a ploy to drive people to bookings sites for air travel, hotels, and vacation rentals— which Lonely Planet earns referral fees from.
2. Among other things the advertarticle touted was that Lake Tahoe is a great place for summer fun right now. Uh, no it's not! It's December and very much winter right now. Temperatures at water level at Lake Tahoe's 6,224' elevation are around freezing with snow in the forecast almost every day this week.
3. This is not only a terrible time to travel because of the Coronavirus pandemic but especially so in California (3/4 of Lake Tahoe is in California) where state public health rules nominally prohibit leisure travel right now. The advertarticle is not only mindless but irresponsible.

As if to highlight the money-grubbing absurdity of #3, news— actual news— posted later in the day that Lake Tahoe is shutting down to tourists on Friday (San Francisco Chronicle, 9 Dec 2020).