For the next 45 minutes of walking and until you reach the summit, granite dominates the mountainside. The blue paint trail markings on the rocks are worn and sparse. Studying the things near your feet can be as exciting as looking afar. Morning hikes are great for dewy spider webs between cracks in the granite. At midday in springtime, ants wander the white petals of Canadian mayflowers and bunchberry blossoms.
Lichens grow green on stumps, roots and rocks.
Ferns uncurl from their fiddlehead beginnings. It seems that all of Acadia's walks provide a sensory overload, and this hike is no exception. The bark is rough, the pitch sticky, deer moss puffed, delicate. There are many different places to park and ways to gain access to Sargent Mountain. The one that I took assured me of a safe, open place to put my car.