Mansell Mountain Hike

Greg, Kim, Chloe, and Thomas

   The skies were overcast and 55 degrees on a 8 am start up I-95 and across 1-A to Ellsworth.  We completed the Subway sandwich stop and headed to the big island and up Route 102 to Pretty Marsh as the sun started to show up.  We drove to the dirt park road at Seal Cove and allowed it to Gillies Field Parking.

Chloe gearing up at the Pilot.

Kim stretching at Gillies Field parking.

Trail Head Marker beside Gillies Field

Selfie with Chloe-I blinked she did the opposite.

Kim and Chloe on the start of the trail.

Selfie with Kim and Chloe walking by me.

This is the time about 15 minutes into the hike.

The trail follows a spring run off and gets rather steep rather quickly.

We finally caught up with Thomas.

The light was beautiful through the late spring forest.

Glacial Erratic.

Attempt at trick photography.  Chloe holding Thomas.

Exposed ledge allows for great westerly views of the coast and Southwest Harbor.

That's Southwest Harbor.

A little past the summit and we needed to backtrack to the summit to get to a trail called the Great Notch.

This shows the pump station where we usually park and walk to the swimming ledge on Long Pond.

This is a zoomed in view across to Beech Mountain's Fire Tower.

We backtracked through this section of forest to the summit and the intersection beyond.

This is the actual summit in the middle of the woods with no views.

Heading down a steep section into the Great Notch.

This sign is at the intersection in the Great Notch and there is a hiker response box here also.

Time at the Great Notch.

We headed toward Long Pond on the Long Pond Trail with the idea to follow the shoreline back to the ledge that we like to swim from.  We always wondered where the trail kept going so this hike gave us that answer.

Time at the Swimming Ledge.

This is the ledge that can be crowded on a hot summer day despite the mile hike to get here. The following shots are all taken along the trial back to the pumping station area which is the trail head.

This trail connects the the ledge near the summit where I previously included views and it a tempting trail to try next time because of its name and the intersecting topo lines on the map.

Time getting back to the Gillies Field.

We drove Bar Harbor which was extremely crowded and had dinner at Galeyns.