Hike up Chick Hill

One of the Sabbaths in March while I was at home waiting for my passport, Jonathan went on a hike with some of the members of the Bangor church. Later he told me that it was a nice hike and he'd take me there sometime when I returned, so Saturday April 27 was the day. After lunch we headed out for 20-30 minutes east to Chick Hill.

Now, if any of you know me well, I'm not really much of a hiker. I enjoy a good nature walk, but when things start to get vertical, I start to chicken out. Then last year we lived in South Korea, a country that is about 70 percent mountainous. I put aside my dislike for climbing for the eight months we lived there in order to for us to fully experience the country. In a country with that many mountains, to experience it, you need to climb it. So, panting and sweating, I followed Jonathan up mountains, as we were both left in the dust by elderly Koreans who hike up mountains the size of the CN Tower several times a week (OK, maybe not that high, but probably close...those people are serious hikers!).

Now that we live in Maine, Jonathan seems to think that a day hike up Tumbledown Mountain (its very name does not inspire much confidence), Mt. Katadin, or Mt. Washington would be perfectly normal. And here I am, still recovering from some of our climbs last spring... But Chick Hill, surprisingly, was a perfect length of hike for me. I fully enjoyed the hike, once I knew we weren't starting out on a repeat of our hike up to a cave on the side of a cliff in Seoraksan National Park last April. Here's some pictures I snapped throughout our hike. Most of them are from the top of the hill, where we basked in the warm sunshine before heading back down.

Dandelion-esque flowers along the trail

Not sure what kind of flower they are, but they are bright and cheery

There was a large bird soaring overhead when we reached the top, but this is the only shot I could capture of him

Looking out toward the ocean. Apparently the mountains in the distance are in Acadia National Park.

My man :)

Tiny fungi on the rocks

Looking south

A small stream beside the trail (it looked prettier than this, but that didn't translate to my camera)

Chick Hill from below

One more last-ditch effort to snap a picture of the large bird (on the right near the tree). It didn't work...

Pretty lake on the drive home