Ben Kimball's photostream  

When I was a senior in high school I finished a quest to hike every mapped trail in Acadia National Park. One of the final links involved hiking up Bernard Mountain (a.k.a. Western Mtn.) on the Sluiceway Trail. After enjoying the limited views from the summit, I started looping back down via the South Face Trail. About a quarter mile along, I suddenly found myself briefly walking through a forest unlike any other I'd seen on the island. I remember there being a staggering greenness, with an incredibly lush understory of mosses on the forest floor. It instantly etched into my memory as the magic spot, a place I felt incredibly lucky and honored to have discovered for myself.

Last week I finally went back. And it was just as spectacular as I'd remembered. I waited until a drizzly, overcast afternoon, and ultimately got even better weather than I'd wished for. The top few hundred feet of the mountain were socked in the clouds, which produced this hushed, almost ethereal feel at the magic spot. Anyway, this is the conifer needle covered trail as it passes through. And that's me grinning away like a fool up there in the corner, enjoying a right fine reunion.

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"I believe I've waited long enough."

Listen/Watch: Walk (Foo Fighters) -- I love this song; been playing it a lot lately. And the video (a spoofy riff on Michael Douglas in Falling Down) is pretty fun too.

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Hunters Brook in Acadia National Park on Mount Desert Island, Maine, just before it reaches the sea down at Hunters Beach. Out on the beach (the light in the distance), a heavy surf pounded the cobbles under a steady, drenching rain.

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at Pemaquid Point on the Maine coast

This shot was a stroke of luck. On my way back to western Massachusetts from a visit to family on Mount Desert Island, I decide to take the slow road -- U.S. Rte. 1 from Belfast to Brunswick. On a whim, I veered south on rough and curvy Rte. 32 at Waldoboro, heading down towards Pemaquid Point and one of the most photographed lighthouses pretty much ever. Despite growing up on the coast of Maine, I'd never been here before because you really need to set aside a good chunk of time to turn off and explore any of the mid-coast peninsulas, and that just never happened.

When I arrived, it was about 5PM and the sky was mostly overcast with some hazy clouds. The seabreeze and the land breeze were duking it out, though, and the sun occasionally poked through. Once I found this reflection, I waited for that one moment where the sun was out, the wind abated, and no kids were playing in the field of view. It was cloudy and windy and there were a lot of kids, but patience finally paid off (briefly). All three of those factors occurred simultaneously for a total of about one second and I got this shot. I was pretty psyched at the time, and I'm so happy with the result now.

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My first ever personal encounter with Arethusa bulbosa. This tiny plant is uncommon to rare across its entire range in northeastern North America, and I feel very lucky to have finally been able to see one.

Moment of earnestness: I love this stuff. Rare wildflower hunting. I swear, every time I have an experience like this, down on the ground amongst the ticks, sweating in the mid-day heat, futzing with my lens trying to get the focus just right while being as careful and respectful as I can be of the surrounding habitat, I'm that much more certain that I like this world better with these treasures in it. And I get that much more passionate about biodiversity conservation. This is me at my most evangelistic: I highly recommend it =)

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