loading the bikes onto the bus

As I mentioned in the previous post, Trip didn’t bring along good hiking shoes for the park. However, as we rode the buses from town to town we noticed signs for carriage roads. Remember the Rockefellers I mentioned from the gardens in Northeast Harbor? Turned out David Rockefeller owned all this property and had carriage roads built throughout. They’re crushed granite, not too steep in incline so that horse drawn carriages could manage them (they still have stables on the island), and lined with granite boulders as markers (nicknamed “Rockefeller’s teeth”) anywhere that someone could have gone off the road. And they’re perfect for bikes, so we hauled them out.

Acadia Gate

One of the local travel guides recommended a particular route as a good day ride. James had also cautioned us to stay to the western side of the island to have more space to ourselves, as the crowds stay east. Our first mistake was thinking we could bike to the entrance of the trails. The first mile wasn’t bad, but then the road narrowed so there was no shoulder, only a gravel/sand mixture which was deadly. And did I mention the uphill sections? And the lack of shade? We finally got to one of the entrances and beat it into the park to escape the traffic.

Second mistake – the maps aren’t written nearly as clearly as we had hoped (although this piece could be operator error as well). We accidentally did the ride in reverse. Which turned out to be a huge bonus, because we had several downhill slides at the end instead of uphill slogs. We still had to get out and walk periodically, which I blame on the fact that we were nearly summiting a few peaks, the small tires on our bikes (but which was much more likely due to our legs being woefully out of shape).

bike ride visitor

All in all it was a fabulous ride. We coasted down the hill past the gardens into Northeast Harbor and grabbed a bus to take us back home. I love the fact that the buses all have bike racks so no need to jeopardize our lives on the roads.

Well we loved it so much we studied the maps that night and decided on another ride the next day. We took the bus down to Jordan Pond and biked a series of carriage roads north past Jordan Pond, Eagle Lake, and several other small ponds up to the visitors center.

 

summit view

We then caught a bus into Bar Harbor for lunch. During lunch we were suddenly reminded of the solar eclipse (we hadn’t given it much thought because Maine was only expected to get 50% coverage by the moon). People standing out on the sidewalks were freely sharing their viewing glasses. Trip and I each took a look and I have to admit the sight was cool. No luck getting any pictures on my camera, with or without the filter, I’ll leave that to all the professionals who were in the right place at the right time with the proper equipment.

View of Somes Harbor from bike ride

We took a walk after lunch across to Bar Island. For 3 hours surrounding low tide every day, a rocky sand bar emerges and you can walk across from Bar Harbor to the island. Signs are posted everywhere not to get stranded on the island, but listed water taxi info for those unfortunate souls.

Sand Bar to Bar Island