I was going to combine pics of this climb with another in northern Maine, but it would just be too many pics. Stay tuned for that one if you're interested I guess, the pics are cool, much better than these IMO.
Anyhow, here's the scoop. Had a day off from work, September 21 as I recall. Weather was fair, hopped on the bike and rode to Acadia National Park. I had intended to climb this trail last Spring, but had forgotten Peregrine falcons nest there till Mid-August and the trail is closed until they've done their thing.
Here's a link describing the trail.
http://www.acadiamagic.com/precipice-trail.htm
This is the most challenging and well known hiking trail in Acadia National Park with an exposed and almost vertical 1,000 foot climb up the east face of Champlain Mountain. The trail is only recommended for physically fit and experienced hikers who have no fear of heights. The Precipice parking area is at the base of the Precipice cliff on the east side of Mount Desert Island about 1 mile north of the Schooner Head entrance fee station on the Park Loop Road. We suggest that you do not hike this trail alone and that you verify weather conditions before the climb.
The hiking trail has many rungs and ladders along the trail's length and is approximately 1.6 mile/2.6 km round trip. It can be closed late spring through mid-August due to the returning and endangered peregrine falcons so check with the National Park Service on this. Often, during this time, (Monday through Friday) there will be a Park naturalist at the Precipice parking area leading discussions and allowing people to view the falcons through a telescope.
I enjoyed it tremendously, it was a pretty unique climb.
twice, had to crawl through and under boulders
ALL kinds of iron rungs and ladders, pretty cool implements
side trail, closed
The "stairs" like this are pretty sweet
paging VaCaver. We don't have much for caves around here, I've climbed around through "slab caves" in Western Maine, very cool, but not exactly cavernous.
As I'm typing this, I'm realizing I uploaded more pics of the climb than the view. Dumbass
bwahahaha I made it.
the critters were just destroying pine cones all over the mountain. Little hoarders.
Winter is coming
I'll create a thread with pics from Big Spencer Mountain soon. Very cool mountain,
very different than this one.
Check ya later.