It was Tuesday. The long weekend was gone, taking the insane crowds with it. The day would begin with watching the sun rise at the top of Cadillac Mountain, the first spot in the continental US that the sun hits. It was cloudy, but there was always hope that it will clear up just enough, just in time. As we began the ascent up the summit road, those hopes started fading as we were quickly surrounded by thick fog. Then came the surprise as we went into the final turn before the summit. There were cars parked on both sides of the road. As we got to the parking lot, we realized that the crowd was not only still around, but everyone seemed to have come to see the famed Cadillac Mountain sunrise! As we struggled to get a spot, our fading hopes turned up again — all these people couldn’t also be as stupid as we were, hauling ourselves out of bed to watch sunrise on a dreary, cloudy morning. We did get a spot, a prime one, after circling around for what seemed to be an eternity. Then it hit us. Our car was parked facing the eastern sky, and there was nothing but dense fog, and you couldn’t see beyond ten feet! Add howling wind on top of it, and you get the idea. Was there going to be light at the end of the fog ? Maybe a few minutes later ? No one among us was interested to find out. There were plenty of optimistic souls though, who I followed into the fog and in a matter of a minute, reached the cliff edge. A couple was sitting with their feet dangling, another was looking pensively standing right at the precipice. Everyone was hoping against hope that the sun would come out of hiding. It didn’t happen. The statistics wasn’t in our favor either. This was a pretty common occurrence up at Cadillac Mountain.
At the end of the day, we went back to the mountaintop. This time, even though there was haze, we could see the view everyone comes up here for. The sky exploded behind the mountains at sunset, and “trumpet man”, perched on top of a huge boulder, played a particularly ordinary tune, but also one that I will remember for some time to come. We had come to the end of our stay in Acadia.
