Acadian Days and Rhythms

On Tuesday, the Riders of the Storm were ready to call the tour quits and settle down on the sunny coast of Maine. If there was one thing we all agreed on as our stay at College of the Atlantic came to a close, it was that we loved Bar Harbor. Though we were sorry to leave, Acadia National Park was the perfect spot for our last hours in the “the way life should be” state. Jessica, Bret M., Bob, Martina, and I met in the park that morning with kids from the Penobscot Nation Boys & Girls Club for the second mini Parks in Focus program of the tour. We were provided with essential assistance and local knowledge by College of the Atlantic students John Deans (Udall Scholar ’06) and Jasmine.

We were enormously grateful for their helping hands not only because they allowed us to include a couple more young activists in one of the most fantastic parts of the Legacy Tour, but also because, of the five riders helping in Acadia, only Bob had ever before visited the park. Jasmine and John agreed to help us out at the very last minute, and we could not have run the program without them. Both provided us with transportation and the ecological knowledge necessary for the environmental education component of Parks in Focus. For the digital photography side of the program, our trusty Bob took the lead – Bob also knows more than a little bit about the geology of Acadia. For Jessica, Martina, Bret, and me, the day was, well, a walk in the park.

We met the Boys & Girls Club group at Otter Point in the southeast section of the island where Jasmine took us down to the water’s edge and opened our eyes to the botanical and animal wonders of the tide pools. For the second half of the program we took the group inland to the Gorham Mountain Trail where Bob taught us all about the geologic history of the park. On the trail, the kids learned a few more techniques for taking photos. Though the program ran for a solid four hours, the time came quickly to a close and we said goodbye to the kids, rewarding their efforts and attentiveness with a plethora of Udall goodies and some Clif bars. We soon found ourselves lying on Sand Beach alongside the other riders who had spent the early afternoon clearing drainage on the park’s carriage roads with help from Acadia’s Volunteer Coordinator Jonathan Gormley and other park volunteers. The riders who volunteered were also lucky enough to meet with the Deputy Superintendent of Acadia National Park.

With our projects done for the day, most of us took the time to relax and get a bit sunburned on Sand Beach while a handful of the riders climbed a steep mountain known as the Beehive for a fabulous view of the island and surrounding ocean.

We left the park that evening and drove late into the night to arrive in Portland for a mere nine-hour hotel stay. As I drifted quickly to sleep that night, I thought back on our wonderful and far too brief stop in Maine. Did you know that COA has a masters program? For those of us on the bus who see this tour as a great way to explore potential future places of residence, Bar Harbor has made the first cut.

By: Savanna Ferguson