12/7/14 Little Long Pond

Last couple of days were pretty much a washout - a short walk in the woods, but Kelley was uncomfortable with the crust snow and then yesterday walking around the neighborhood in the rain after a little new snow. Today is in the lower 20's so more ice crust on the new snow. Acadia is usually a few degrees warmer, because of the ocean so we decided to go do the carriage roads again. We started on the other side of the pond because I didn't want to take the path down.

Obligatory shot of the pond

Today there was no ice along the shore

When we got to the west side we saw the trail was snow and ice free and decided to take that for some protection from very strong north winds. Even the open meadow section was clear

We were glad to get back into the woods. After working around several downed trees Kelley went off exploring and didn't come back- very unusual - she usually stays within sight. I called and called and went up and down the trail but no sign of her. I started to worry and thought maybe she had gone up to the carriage road because she heard people. I bushwhacked up the hill - it was farther than I thought - calling all the while. Thinking maybe someone found her and though she was lost, I head down the carriage road to where we had started from and people park their cars. She wasn't there either. Now I was really worried and decided to go back down the trail we had started on as she is very familiar with it ( yellow on the map - my trek is in purple ) I got down the trail further than where she had disappeared and then there she was on the trail - looking sheepish. I was so relieved I couldn't really be angry and we continued our hike.

Though we didn't have to deal with ice, the trails were quite wet and the Jordan was high again.

When we reached the bridge we had an apple and then head down the east side of the pond. We usually meet several people and dogs but today there were none ( it never got out of lower 20's and was very windy)  until near the end. This dog was with a woman up on the carriage road but ran down to us on the inner path.

Other than Kelley scaring me it wasn't a bad hike. 2  1/2 hours