Acadia Cadillac Mountain Summit Hike Documented

February 27, 2024 These images were mostly taken with my iPhone to document the hike I took to the top of Cadillac Mountain (1,529 ft) and back down the Summit and Park Loop roads. I parked at the Cadillac Mountain entrance and started my hike at 8:30 am. I walked up the Park Loop Road to the beginning of the Kebo-Brook Trail. I stopped to talk to a young woman about the conditions of the trail. She said it was very icy, but I had Yaktrax Ascents on, and they work well on ice. It was about 9:00 am and she said she’d walked the loop. I had planned to go up and down the West Summit trail, but I figured if she did the summit loop by 9:00 am that I could manage the loop trail and decided to change my plan and walk it. I had just purchased the AllTrails hiking app. for my phone, and it was picking up a good GPS signal. I split off the Kebo-Brook trail onto Gorge Path which follows a fairly step gorge for about 2.2 miles between Cadillac and Dorr Mt. At the end of the 2.2 miles the Gorge Path turns rt. and continues to a .4-mile hike up to Cadillac Mountain Summit. These trails are not well marked and when I made it to the split of several trails, it was very confusing to tell which trail went to the summit. The arrow pointing to the summit trail wasn't a trail at all. It was just the side of Cadillac Mountain. I saw a trail following along the base of the mountain and there were several tracks in the snow, so I figured that was the trail to take. I had powered down my phone a while back because the GPS signal was using up power on my phone, and I only had 1/4 battery left. This path was a steep ravine going down between Cadillac and Dorr Mt. It didn’t take long for me to figure out I took the wrong turn. I headed back up to the split. I powered up my phone to check my position on AllTrails. It appeared that the trail that I didn't think could be a trail had to be the way to the top. I saw no signs of tracks and no markings. A little fear was starting to set in. Running out of phone battery, water and exhausted from the icy walk up, I decided I didn’t have much of a choice but to hike up the mountain. A short way up the trail, I saw a couple of tracks that made me feel like I was at least heading in the right direction. Little by little I pulled myself up onto rocks taller than my legs could reach. There were several times during that .4-mile stretch that I had no idea how I would continue to have the energy or strength to climb to the top. Did I mention I was carrying an 18 lb. backpack and my camera on a tripod. As I got closer to the top, I started feeling queasy. I stopped to rest. I took out a protein bar and ate ½ of it realizing it was making me very thirsty. I took one sip of water and swished it around in my mouth trying to conserve it. I had couple of dry heaves which probably meant dehydration or low blood sugar. They stopped so it was probably low blood sugar, and the protein bar took care of it. Pulling myself up the mountain using my tripod to help when I could wedge it into the ice, I reached the summit about 1:00 pm. This was still far from being the end of my journey. I was wishing I had the energy to enjoy some time at the top, but my aching body and blister on my heel told me to find a nice stone to sit on. After taking my Yaktrax off and spending a little time resting, I had to decide how I was going to get down from the summit. It was far safer to walk down the summit and park loop road (4.7 miles) which was twice as long as the West Summit trail down and it would be covered with ice and snow a big part of the way. I decided it was too much of a risk to attempt a trail I had never walked, especially without a phone or water. At that moment, the stress left my body. I knew the road trail would be safe and I could manage the 4.7 miles, even with a blister on my heel. I reached my car at 5:20 pm. I never knew a car could look so good. Looking back, I’m very proud that at the age of 73, I can still manage a situation that could have ended badly if I hadn’t been stubborn enough to keep on going and I hadn’t been in good shape. Would I do it again-NO. Well, maybe I'd do it in the Fall. Lesson learned: don’t change your plans when you don’t know what you’re getting yourself into. 😊