One afternoon in October 1997, after driving down from Millinocket in the morning, we did the five Tomcat mentioned, plus Cedar Swamp at the end, which had a porcupine on top. We finished the hike at dusk.
I’ve mentioned this before, but one of my favorite loops is North Bubble to Conners Nubble, then back to the carriage road and around to Jordan Pond Trail, then up the back side of South Bubble.
A memorable one we did when my son was little was when we parked at the Cadillac Mountain North Ridge Trail head on the Park Loop Road, then walked along the road to the Dorr Mountain North Ridge Trail. We climbed Dorr, crossed the gorge to Cadillac, then returned to the gorge and followed the Gorge Path back to the road. (The Gorge Path is what the trail through Avalanche Pass reminded me of when I first climbed Mount Colden in 1998, before the big slide came down during Floyd and opened things up.) We actually lost the trail at the end and just bushwhacked straight ahead until Susan spotted the road off to our left. We came out on the road just barely within sight of her car parked way back to the left. Luckily for us, it was a white car, so it was still visible in the gloaming. This was in late October 1996.
The Beehive is similar to the Precipice Trail, but I thought it was scarier, if you want a challenge. When Susan and I climbed it, we descended by the back trail and went over to Gorham Mountain, too.
There was an old ‘‘Windows to the Wild’’ episode repeated not too long ago about an island just offshore of Bar Harbor that can be reached by foot at low tide. Supposedly the park service doesn’t really advertise the trail, because people can get trapped on the island when the tide comes back in. I think you only have at most three hours for the trip.
