Gorham Mountain stands overlooking Sand Beach, Thunder Hole, and Otter Point, providing broad views of the coast and a great place for whale-watching. The weather was warm and dry - this made for much more crowded conditions here than last time I visited.
Gorham Trail connects to the backside of the Beehive, and the Bowl (a glacial tarn where folks like to swim). This was a 5 mile walk and gave me a good look at the Beehive. This day, a girl broke her ankle on the Cadillac Cliffs trail (a .3 mile spur off Gorham trail where you can see ancient sea caves); the rescue team was working on getting her off the mountain, so I was unable to do the Cadillac Cliffs today. They aren't kidding about steep rough footing and boulder scrambling on Cadillac Cliffs.
The
Beehive hike/climb is on my bucket list; not terribly physically demanding but you need to be mentally prepared...I've heard several accounts of folks making it up halfway and then realizing they were in over their heads. You aren't supposed to go down, only up - so you have to push on. I am trying to scout the climb and overcome my "fear of the unknown". Joe's Guide has some
awesome pics that made me think "I can do this"; however, I am still pondering it and will definitely start with some easier ladder trails...
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| Ocean Path on a bright sunny day |
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| A lot more people out today! |
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| Gorham Trailhead is about 1/3 mile down from Thunder Hole |
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| Starting up Gorham Mountain |
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| Waldron Bates planned and engineered many trails on this island |
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| These trails make clever use of existing granite with minor additions |
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| continuing up |
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| More well-designed steps |
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| quickly you reach the first rewarding view of Otter Point |
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| and looking northeast towards Sand Beach |
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| And beyond is the Beehive |
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| Look closely to see people climbing up the face of the Beehive |
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| a bit more up |
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| summit of Gorham at 525ft |
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| Looking around to the west side of Otter Point, there is Otter Cove |
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| Do you see the folks climbing Beehive? |
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| Look again - see the folks on the ledge? Yikes |
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| Down Gorham and then up the backside of Beehive |
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| approaching the summit of Beehive (the easy / back way) |
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| top of Beehive |
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| Beehive summit |
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| Looking north to Champlain Mountain, the Precipice, and the Porcupine Islands |
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| Looking down over Sand Beach from the top of Beehive |
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| And here comes a hiker, at the top of the climb - I could barely look over the edge; going DOWN is not recommended |
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| I turned around and headed towards the Bowl |
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| Lots of folks enjoying a dip in the Bowl |
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| A Beautiful Day |
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| Lots of huge tadpoles (and leeches, I hear!) |
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| looking north to the peak of Champlain |
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| Some other day, I'll continue here to summit Champlain |
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| Heading up from the Bowl and then down to Sand Beach |
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| A crew doing trail improvements |
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| a beautiful wooded path down |
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| well laid-out stream crossing |
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| Meeting of the Bowl and Beehive trails at the bottom |
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| This guy just came DOWN the Beehive - said it wasn't too bad |
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| Returning to the loop road at Sand Beach, Beehive trailhead |
