Coast Walk 19 addendum – Asticou Stream Trail

I know, I know, it’s a little unorthodox to have an addendum to Coast Walk 19 when, technically, Coast Walk 19 hasn’t happened yet. Here on the blog, I’m still stuck a mile or two away trying to contact property owners along Roberts Point and Wheelwright Way so I can start Coast Walk 18. However, in real life, two of my interviewees mentioned the Asticou Stream Trail so on the morning of October 6, 2017, I checked it out.

The trail is also known as the Asticou Brook Path, and since the signpost has both names I’m going with the biggest sign)

The path starts just across Peabody Drive from the Azalea Garden and winds down to the harbor through a little stream valley running along the edge of the Asticou Inn property.

It’s part of the Land & Garden Preserve, but is maintained by the Northeast Harbor Village Improvement Society.

It’s not a long trail – I think if you walked straight through you’d reach the shore in 10 minutes. I, of course, rarely manage to walk straight through anywhere. There’s too much to look at:

Slime mold or puffballs? I’m still trying to figure it out.

The only thing I’ve found about its history is a note on the Memorials of Acadia National Park blog: “Gordon Falt [was] a 20-year Path Committee chairman. His memorial, which is alongside the wooden steps descending east from Main Street via Old Firehouse Lane to the harbor’s parking lot, states: Gordon H. Falt, Devoted Designer of the Beauty of this Village and Staunch Sustainer of its Trails. 1900-1981. Among the trails he built was the Asticou Brook Trail.” So it must have been built sometime before 1981. Tell me more if you know the trail’s history!

The day I visited, a seal was lolling around out near the Thuya Landing. Too far away, but I took a photo anyway to prove I saw her:

A loon was flying back and forth, very busy about something.

The view back toward the stream mouth:

You can walk along the shore a little way, and then the path continues back up through the meadow to meet Route 198/Harborside Road.

WORKS CITED

Lenahan, Donald. “Northeast Harbor’s Schoolhouse Ledge – a Place for a Peaceful Hike,” Memorials of Acadia National Park, September 5, 2012. acadiamemorials.blogspot.com/2012/09/northeast-harbors-schoolhouse-ledge.html  Date accessed: January 10, 2017.