Acadia National Park is absolutely incredible. Compass Harbor is about a five minute bike ride from where I live. Down to the Y and straight through route 3. Compass Harbor, also happens to be one of the places on the island I have studied most. Last summer I started getting more into the park, exploring different sites and locations. Maybe because of its proximity, maybe because it's a site favored by my friends, I ended up hanging out a lot there. Lots of first times.
In Compass Harbor I discovered an interest of mine I had never paid attention to: rocks.
That fall, I took Geology of MDI. That class changed me. It ignited in me a curiosity about my surroundings that has somewhat changed my academic pathway. Because of that class is that I took Global Change Ecology/Impacts & Mitigation during Semester at Sea, and that I naturally then gravitated towards the Climate Justice movement.
For Geology of MDI we had to study a site in deep detail. I chose Compass Harbor. Me and Halle Arno, my partner in crime, went there several times and enjoyed the beauti of the site. Saw cruiseship. Sunrises. Sunsets. Studied the good old Bar Harbor Formation, the history book of the island; and the pieces of Granite, Gabbrodiorite, and basalt erratically placed all across the shore. A festival of chaos the allows life to occur on top of it.
Anyway, Compass Harbor is inspiring, full of life. During the fall it provides one of the most beautiful natural show. Leaves turn yellow, brown and then fall on the soil. Mushrooms grow where fallen trees helping them return to the soil. Streams run down the slopes watering the forest. Quaking aspen shakes at the softest bow. Acorns, moss, grass, and ferns coexist connected underneasth by fungal mycellia, forests' umbical cord, forests' web of life.
This term I'm studying the natural history of the island. And once again I have chosen Compass Harbor, with the hopes to acquire vocabulary and knowledge to describe everything around me.
Here are some pictures of what I've seen so far.
