Night Ride in Acadia

It had been a long day that got even longer when we decided to explore the park by night. On our bicycles, we pushed and strained to get up the steep road out of the Sand Beach parking lot. Under the chilly glow of a full moon, a pitch black sky punched full of star-holes and a cool breeze feathering through the branches of the balsam firs, we silently cruised down the road. A calm ocean tickled at the rocky shoreline, the quiet disturbed only by the distant hollow ring of a bell-buoy offshore.

Coasting along, we pulled off into a deserted parking lot at the foot of the Gorham Mountain hiking trail. In the stillness of the night, the Park belongs to its creatures-we were the interlopers and would soon rethink our little excursion. A twig cracked-our flashlight swung around to reveal a set of glowing eyes the color of burnished brass. Staring, moving ever so slowly closer, then pausing-unblinking, contemplating.

We were frozen. Ticking watches echoed like firecrackers in our heads as we stood immobilized as minutes crept by as slow as clotting blood. All at once, the eyes blinked, turned and disappeared into the brush, heading back up the trail. A glimpse of a dusty yellowish haunch and tail were all we saw.
Filling our lungs with a breath we had been afraid to draw for so many minutes (or hours? or seconds?) we turned and pedaled until our legs were on fire, gulping the chilly air-back up the hill we had just come down, without letup until the car was in sight. We could not get in it and lock it fast enough. Panting, gulping water, sweat dripping from our faces, hearts hammering holes in our chests, we sat there in silence, relief flooding over us as we realized we were safe.

SG Sachs 4/25/2004
This story is fictional, however it was based on a brief incident in the Gorham Mountain parking lot in Acadia National Park. We had just returned from a hike up the mountain and were sitting in the car changing our shoes. It was late in the day, a little foggy and no one else was around. We both looked up to see a coyote loping down the trail that we had just hiked- he glanced up at us and just kept going on his way, off into the misty woods.