ABANDONED TRAILS OF ACADIA NATIONAL PARK: THE ORANGE AND BLACK TRAIL

I decided to do one blog on one trail with many parts, that being the Orange and Black Trail, for the trail we see today is not the trail you would of seen back in the late 1800's or early 1900's, for it is a trail which has evolved over the years with entire sections having been abandoned by the Park Service. And its not just that sections have been abandoned over the years, but even the one section of the official trail you hike today has undergone many changes effecting the course the trail follows. Why so many changes made to the official Orange and Black trail is pretty easy to answer, rock slides wipe out sections of the trail and thus the trail has to be rerouted around the rock slides, and all one has to do is hike along the Orange and Black Path to see why that area is so prone to rock slides.

To fully understand this trail, you have to realize it is a trail with a beginning, a middle, and an end and each of those sections have under gone their own changes over the years. Perhaps no section of the trail bears this out more than the beginning of the trail, for its starting point and the course it followed has shifted dramatically over the years, but to set the stage for those changes, I want to first talk about two men and their journey into researching and documenting not only this trail, but many of the trails in Acadia National Park. I am talking of Tom St. German and Jay Saunders who together researched and published the book, Trails Of History; The Story Of Mount Desert Islands Paths From Norumbega to Acadia. This was not a book that was lightly thrown together over a couple of weeks, this book was thoroughly researched and is a historic gem that future generations of trail enthusiasts will be turning to for many years to come. In their book, as it relates to the Orange and Black path, they state the following, "As the Orange and Black Path descended below the cliff over which Brunnow hoped to scale, he built a second connecting path across the freshwater meadow (todays Bliss Field) . A rock staircase, currently abandoned, leads up to the Orange and Black Path. This short trail provided quicker access to the business at hand, the building of the Precipice Trail."
That is an important piece of information to understanding what the old maps show and what it was me and my youngest son discovered on the side of Champlain Mountain, what i came to call the Lost Rudolph Brunnow Trail, and I knew as soon as we discovered it that it was once part of the Orange and Black Trail, because if you look at the old map, this trail we located runs from the Orange and Black trail right down to the Schooner Head Road, directly across from high Seas, the estate of Mr. Brunnows. Old articles even state that the Orange and Black Path began across the road from his home, it could not be any clearer. So why would Mr. Brunnow construct two seperate starting points for the Orange and Black trail, we have our answer in Trails of History, one was the beginning section of the official Orange and Black Trail, the second trail being constructed in order for work crews to more quickly access the Precipice Trail, which Brunnow and his crew were at that time working on. I was surprised to learn that the work crew employed donkeys to help get their supplies to where it needed to be. Now to come full circle on the beginning of this unique hiking trail, as you will see from the two maps below, todays starting point of the Orange and Black Trail is located at the same location as the start of the trail we discovered, which from this point forward i will refer to as the Work Crew Path, directly across the road from High Seas, but instead of running somewhat southernly, as it originally did, todays path runs in a some what northernly direction, until it crosses the Park Loop Road and connects with the center section of the trail.

I already pretty much covered the center section of the trail and the changes it has gone through as the result of repeated rock slides over the years, and if you have been lucky enough to have hiked the Orange and black Trail, you most likely reached the Precipice trail and thought, man, that was an amazing hike, yet you had actually only hiked the first two thirds of the original Orange and Black Trail, for the final third of that trail lies further down the Precipice Trail, abandoned by the Park Service many years ago. When the Park Service abandoned the lower section of the Orange and Black Trail, they removed perhaps one of the most skillfully sections of trails Brunnow build, which included the Hanging Steps, a long flight of steps which seem to defy gravity and hang in mid air. But this was not the first time the Park Service had removed a masterful piece of trail work from the trail system, for many years the Homans Trail had also been abandoned by the Park service. for years i had thought me and my son had relocated the trail, and we hiked it for years after discovering it, but than I read where Tom St. Germain had actually located the lost trail two years before we did. This is a trail that never should of been abandoned to begin with, and now that it has been reopened it can once again be enjoyed by all.
But unlike the Homans Trail, the lost section of the Orange and black trail remains abandoned today. I have had so many people ask why I thought that section of trail was abandoned to begin with and I can only conclude that the answer lies in the Hanging Steps themselves with its drop offs on either side, if you were to slip or fall while attempting to climb the stairway you would no doubt end up with some serious injuries. That said, the Hanging Steps are truly a sight to behold and got their name, it has been written, when a Ranger first visited the site and said, "the steps appear to hang in mid air and ever since they have been called the hanging steps. But there is more to this lost section of trail still, for hidden in the large boulder field is three or more hidden stairways, two of which where part of the Orange and Black Trail, with a third leading up through the center of the boulder field, to a large flat area that once served as an observation deck, where hikers could go to in order to take in the breath taking views from higher up. These stairways lie hidden around the corners of large boulders but can be located with a little searching of the area.
So in order to locate this lower section of the trail, now abandoned, you must hike down the Precipice trail until you reach a section of the Precipice known as the turn-around, a very large boulder with a couple iron hand rungs that is not so easy to get over, thus its called the turn around, placed there by the Park Service to get hikers with less experience to turn around and avoid going up the Precipice.
Climb down off the turn around and there is a rough area of boulders in the woods to the right, and the trail goes to the left, here you want to exit the woods straight ahead to where you step out onto flat open granite. If your approaching this area from the Precipice park area, hike up to the turn Around, the first Iron Rungs you come to on the trail, turn away from it and head out of the woods onto the open granite. Now follow the open granite upward, that in fact is the only choice you have, as you approach woods along the last section of open granite, there is more of a noticeable slope to the granite, continue up to the woods where you will find a well worn path in the woods, this is the route the path took years ago, but much further ahead there is a section that appears to be a dead end, this is why I always tell people, if your going to visit the Hanging steps or that boulder field with its hidden stairways, you should follow the instructions below which is where the other end of this trail once began by the Park Loop road.

Park at the Precipice Parking area, or get off the Sand Beach bus there, by request only so let the driver know in advance. The bus is free and departs from the Bar harbor village green like every half hour. Walk out to the side of the Park Loop road and go right, staying on the right hand side of the road, moving in the same direction as the traffic. Up ahead there will most likely be many cars parked along the side of the road, and a well worn path, unmarked, that enters the woods on the right. Follow this path to a towering sheer wall of granite, you may encounter rock climbers as that wall is used by the local rock climbing schools. At the wall turn left, follow the side of the wall a short ways and turn right. Now make your way up toward a twisted old white birch that seems to block the path. At this point it is worth noting that the original path did not continue straight ahead, it turned left out into the boulder field where hikers passed through and along narrow spaces to reach stone stairways, so if your into exploring, go for it.
the quick and easy way is to continue past that twisted tree and keep moving upward, not too far ahead the trail turns right where you begin to see your first stone steps, not the famous Hanging steps, when the path reaches them there will be no question you have found them. At the top of the hanging steps is some iron hand rails and some beautiful views.
A good number of people have contacted me and asked it the path ends at the hanging Steps, no, it does not. If you look around you will see where it continues, entering the woods, the path makes its way to the open granite described earlier, follow the open granite downward at an angle, you can't go left or right, until you come to the Official precipice trail by the Turn Around.. Right will take you back down to the parking area.
as for that boulder field, if your into searching out boulder caves, there are a number of them there, we found one that six or seven people could easily get out of the rain in.