This 2.5-mile Hike Is One of Our Favorites
When people to come to Acadia, they mostly think of the mountains, the Park Loop Road, lobster, the lighthouse and did we say lobster?
But one of our favorite mellow walks has nothing to do with any of these things—unless you bring a lobster roll with you.
The Breakneck Road takes a 2.5 mile stroll from the Hull’s Cove Visitor Center and terminates at the Eagle Lake Road, close to the park’s staff headquarters. Massive sugar maples and oaks prove lovely sentinels on the path. Ferns and wintergreen tiptoe around the gravel walk as well.
It’s lovely.
It’s chill.
It’s part of Acadia National Park.
You might see a porcupine or two, so leash your dogs, okay?
It was also once the site of an eagle attack.
According to a 1928 copy of the Ellsworth American, a Hull’s Cove man, Raymon Hanscom, had to snatch an axe from a truck and beat off an eagle who was attacking him.
The blacksmith was left with “painful flesh wounds about his head and face, his nose and chin being badly lacerated” after the noon time attack.
He’d drive to get some wood. Then, “the eagle flew down upon the windshield of the car and when Mr. Hanscom tried to dislodge it, the bird attacked the man savagely.”
A vaguely similar event occurred, thirty-two years earlier on Great Meadow in Bar Harbor, the American reported.
HOW TO FIND IT
Maine By Foot has some great directions:
“The north trailhead is at the end of Breakneck Road, a short dead-end street off Route 3, just north of the Hulls Cove Entrance for the Park Loop Road. You can also park in the shoulder of Route 233 to access the southern trailhead. Look for the trail just west of the parking area for Eagle Lake and the nearby park carriage roads.”
WHAT IS GOING ON WITH THAT NAME?
In the 1800s, the road was for carriages, a major link from Hulls Cove to Northeast Harbor. There had been multiple accidents on a steep section near Breakneck Brook.
Davistown Museum writes, “In 1835, Brewer and John de Gilmore bought 6,144 acres, which included Cadillac Mountain, from the trustees of the William Bingham estate. This land later became part of Acadia National Park, which is traversed by the remnant of the ancient cross-island trail, including the Breakneck Road. When the great forest fire of 1947 swept through this area and destroyed much of Bar Harbor, water from the Breakneck Stream was used to save the Brewer Residence and several other buildings in Hulls Cove Village.”
Built in 1777, the road no longer hosts carriages or cars, but it is a lovely walk. There is a small parking area at one end. The Bar Harbor Town Council officially closed it in 1999 after multiple issues with ATVs. Bar Harbor owns the right of way beneath the path, but the road itself goes through Acadia National Park.
