LAKE WOOD, ME

From: richard@West.Sun.COM (Richard M. Mathews)

  LAKE WOOD is a small fresh-water lake on Mt. Desert Island.  Most of the
  lake is contained in Acadia National Park, and it has a public beach at
  one end; however, a short walk around the lake brings you to a popular
  local nude sunning and swimming area.

  The lake itself is fairly shallow and warm enough for comfortable swimming.
  It's small enough that some people swim across it.  There are a couple
  of logs anchored a little ways off the nude area which you can sun on,
  dive off of, etc.  The nude area is a collection of rock ledges on the
  side of the lake.  They are oriented so that they get the afternoon sun,
  so you may not want to get there until at least late morning.  You can
  scramble down to get to the water at either end of the ledges, or you
  can jump or dive off.

  WARNING: You must be careful, since there's quite a bit of rubble in the
  water at the base of the ledges, so you have to dive "far enough" out.
  I don't know how deep the water is, either.  I wasn't willing to try
  jumping or diving myself, although I did see a number of others doing
  it.  KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING!

  I understand that this is quite a popular spot -- I was told that there
  were 60 people the day before we first visited.  The usage seemed to be
  predominantly "local" (this includes people coming down from Ellsworth,
  half an hour away on the mainland), but there were some visitors as well.
  Almost no one was clothed here.  Although there were a few couples, we
  didn't see any families with children.  (They were probably at the sandy
  public beach at the end of the lake.)  The users were generally friendly;
  some were ... colorful.

  DIRECTIONS.

  Opposite the Acadian Restaurant in Hulls Cove on Rte 3 (a few miles
  north of Bar Harbor), turn inland on Crooked Road.  (If this sounds
  imprecise, don't worry.  Hulls Cove is about two block long.)  About
  half a mile along Crooked Road, you will see a collection of gravel
  pits and quarrying operations.  Just past the gravel pits, the second
  dirt road to your left leads to Lake Wood.  (There is a Park sign near
  the beginning of the road giving the public access hours for the area.)

  The dirt road first reaches a grassy parking area, then turns right and
  down hill to larger parking areas and eventually the beach.  You want
  to park in the first, grassy area and walk on the trail that continues
  straight ahead.  The trail passes through woods, then through a
  semi-open area (with excellent blueberry picking in season), and then
  back into the woods.  A short way further on, it comes to the top of
  the ledges by the lake, and several side trails lead down to your right
  over the ledges.  Make your way downhill and you should be at the nude
  area.  (There will probably be nude people around.  If not, look around
  a little more.)  The total walk in from the parking is probably about
  ten minutes.

  If you have trouble finding the trail, or finding the lake from it (I
  don't expect that you will), you can also go down to the public
  swimming area, than work your way to the left around the lake shore
  until you get to the ledges (look for the nude people, or for the logs
  anchored off shore).  This is considerably more of a scramble, though
  the trail is much easier.
  	[Original from Neil Faiman <faiman@moira.enet.dec.com>]