Map ‘complete’ guide to Acadia Park

If you’ve hiked in Acadia National Park or Baxter State Park, you know the importance of having a good map – both to have on the trail and to plan your trip.

And if you’re a stickler for detail, the problem is finding a good map that not only contains good trail maps but has other relevant information as well.

Look no further. James L. Witherell, a copywriter-consultant and Registered Maine Guide, has produced the maps you want. He’s a one-man show when it comes to gathering, producing and distributing his full-color maps. The Complete Map and Guide of Acadia National Park, Bar Harbor and Mount Desert Island is a 7.5-minute topographical map that is in its third edition. The 1:24,000 scale, 18-by-30-inch map has 20-foot contour intervals and is based on U.S. Geologic Survey topographic maps. The only part of Mount Desert Island missing from the map is the northern tip from Trenton down to Western Bay on the west and south to about Salisbury Cove on the east.

This two-sided map not only has all the trail names and carriage road signposts noted, it has suggested tours that can be done by foot or car, cruises by boat, fishing, swimming, camping and bird watching information, and several bike tours within the park.

The latter is no doubt included because of Witherell’s passion for bike riding. He used to compete in bike racing and has logged numerous years of 8,000 miles or more on two wheels.

Want to know where the 12 stone bridges are on the carriage roads? They’re numbered and labeled in blue. Carriage road intersection signposts are numbered and marked in yellow.

How about the telephone numbers for a whale cruise, the Chamber of Commerce or local bookstores? Or the telephone numbers for the police department or hardware stores or sea kayaking tours? Where are the movie theaters? How about the museum names and numbers, or the number for the Island Explorer or a supermarket? Or more important, where are the public rest rooms? You’ll find that information down the outer margin on either side of the map.

In short, you’ll probably find just about everything you need to know on this map, and for around $5 it’s a bargain.

Ditto on the bargain for the Baxter State Park map. While there isn’t as much tourist-related information as the Bar Harbor map, this one shows you all the trails and distances from major trail intersections on the major trails. The lower portion of the park is on one side printed horizontally in a 1:24,000 scale. It covers the area from Lower Togue Pone to just north of Mount Katahdin and east to west within the park boundaries. The other side of the map is in a 1:38,000 scale and includes the rest of the park from South Turner Mountain to the Freezeout Trail and Grand Lake Matagamon. To check its accuracy, Witherell had Baxter State Park director Irvin ” Buzz” Caverly and Lester Kenway, the former trail manager for Baxter State Park, check the map over for details. It passed their scrutiny.

I asked Witherell, who majored in English and psychology at the University of Maine, where he got the idea for making a map. “I ‘discovered’ Bar Harbor and Acadia and thought it was a great place, but at the time you had to buy several different maps and guides” to be able to explore the park. “I thought, ‘Gee, somebody ought to do a complete map of the area.'” That was around 1997.

One night his college roommate called out of the blue to chat and it turned out that his roommate’s wife worked in the park visitor’s center where guidebooks are sold. This got him thinking, Witherell said, about making his own map. He put his penchant for detail, his love of camping and biking, his outdoor adventuresome spirit and his recreation guide’s license to work, grabbed his tweezers, labels, glue and a topo map and began making his own map.

It took a lot of driving, hiking and bike riding, but by the time he published his second revision, he figured he had a winner.

Check it out, you may think so too. They’re for sale in shops and gift stores all over Bar Harbor and you’ll find them in Cadillac Mountain Sports stores as well. If you can’t find one, call Witherell in Lewiston at 777-7141 and I know he’ll be able to put you in touch with a store near you.

Here’s an update on the second annual Rippleffect Regatta in Castine that I told you about last week. I was finally able to pin down Executive Director Ted Regan last Friday. He’d been out straight for the week mopping up from the previous weekend’s undertaking, and there still was a Boston Whaler to retrieve from Augusta (six flat tires due to a bent axle and errant fender bolts). There were also two five-gallon latrine pails aboard which were in desperate need of “burping” lest they exploded.

But he remained his effervescent self. As he and I chatted on the phone he handled at least five other things. The bottom line for the three-day fund-raiser? Around $50,000! There were 56 paddlers who each raised about $750 (some far more). There were 45 volunteers who packed and transported gear, cooked meals, set up camp and generally made the experience a holiday. And there were seven motor boats that provided support for the operation.

The feedback was wonderful, Regan told me. “[Last year] it was an adventure, this year it was Club Med,” was how one person summed it up. It went so well, he added, that all of the volunteers have signed up for next year’s undertaking.

And what an undertaking it is. Think about the logistics of moving 110 people 45 miles around Penobscot Bay during three days. And it has a hefty price tag attached as well. But thanks to corporate sponsors such as UnumProvident, Munis, Green Design, SFI, Full court Press, Fleet and Current Designs the $32,000 cost was covered leaving all the donations raised by paddlers to go toward the youth-oriented programs offered by Rippleffect.

Regan said he’s already planning for next year’s regatta in Castine as well as a smaller one for Casco Bay to help pay for the purchase of the 22-acre Cow Island where Rippleffect will offer its experiential and environmental education programs for kids. Cow Island will be a part of the Maine Island Trail with programs offered during the week and weekends open for public visits.

Jeff Strout’s column is published on Thursdays. He can be reached at 990-8202 or by e-mail at jstrout@bangordailynews.net.