Biking Acadia National Park Carriage Roads

Acadia National Park Carriage Roads make for a beautiful bike ride. At least on the level and downhill sections. Had there been any.

I don’t know what made me think that the carriage roads would be an easy ride on fairly level ground.

Maybe it was the description in the park guide that explained that Rockefeller used gentle  grading for the 45 miles of roads so they wouldn’t be too steep for horse drawn carriages. Well, I’m feeling really sorry for those horses.

We started biking, uphill, on the west side of Eagle Lake, continuing, uphill, to the end of Jordan Pond. OK, maybe there were a few short downhill sections. But we were pretty beat by the time we got to the Jordan Pond House even though it had only been about 4 miles. So much for the 11 mile "short" loop we had planned. 

At which point we hopped on one of the park shuttle busses (supported by LL Bean), which fortunately have bike racks. 

The driver told us amusing stories about the terrible driving he had seen while on the job. While we waited at least 5 minutes for the guy who was blocking both lanes of traffic with a SUV and trailer who was trying to back into a parking spot. Or maybe, he was trying to pull out. It wasn't clear which.

The driver dropped us off at the Bubble Pond stop and told us the 2 mile ride back to where we started was all downhill. Which was an exaggeration. But the uphill sections were much shorter. 

It didn’t help that we are out of shape and that I need a new bike. Also new knees.

We felt like those NYC Marathon runners who start off strong and then take the subway in the middle and finish off the run at the end.

The entire time biking we were left in the dust by athletes training for the Tour de France, and by people cruising uphill on e-bikes. 

We wore Loud Bicycle tee shirts to promote Loud Bicycle. No one asked about them.

The scenic bridges are a big thing in Arcadia.

A shameless plug for Loud Bicycle.

Mostly Butterflies and Birds and the Seagull Who Stole My Lunch

Monarch Caterpillar on Milkweed - Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens

Monarch Butterflies - all over

Swallowtail - Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens

Not a Monarch - Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens

Bald Eagle - Moose Point State Park

Note: no Moose

Glossy Ibis - Scarborough Marsh

Cormorant - all over

Deer - Several places. Yawn. Didn’t even bother trying to take pictures.

Trolls - Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens

Seal - Schoodic Peninsula, Acadia National Park. Saw it on Shabbos, so no picture. You will have to take my word for it. It was extremely cute. You will have to take my word for that also.

Something With a Dorsal Fin - Schoodic Peninsula, Acadia National Park

Possibly an orca? A porpoise? The trick is, when you see seabirds circling a spot in the ocean, there is usually some predator in the area.

This is the Seagull Who Stole My Lunch - Schoodic Peninsula, Acadia National Park

This is how it went down. First, he landed nearby. He kept hopping closer. We shooed him away. And then! When I was distracted taking pictures of the dorsal fin pictured above, he swooped in from behind and grabbed the wrap right out of my hand! He gobbled down the wrap and left the filling. But the joke was on him! The wrap was low carb.

Porcupine - Somewhere in these bushes. He didn’t hang around to pose.

I’d never seen a porcupine in the wild before!

Barnacles and Mussels - Schoodic Peninsula, Acadia National Park

Second Bull Moose Sighting! - This time at LL Bean

Islands and Ferries - Part 2 – Monhegan Island

It’s a 1½ hr boat ride to Monhegan Island from Boothbay Harbor. We went with Balmy Days Cruises (highly recommend). Leaving Boothbay Harbor at 9:30am with the return trip from Monhegan leaving at 2:45pm, we thought we would have plenty of time to spare. As it turned out, we could easily have spent another day there.

Soon after departing, the weather went from bad visibility ...

to worse ...

to zero visibility. 

Fortunately, I didn’t get seasick, because if I had, the “Just Keep Your Eyes on the Horizon” advice would have been useless. What horizon? 

Here is Bob talking to Emergency Backup Captain Thoren. Bob was asking about navigation and collision avoidance in the days before GPS, radar, radio, etc. Don’t know what made him think to ask.

Coming into Mohegan harbor

On land

The island is overrun with artists

The streets are unpaved

The Cliff Trail. “Generally considered a moderately challenging route.”

Remains of a 1948 shipwreck (a dense fog around the island caused a tug boat to run aground)

We didn’t even make it half way around the island on the Cliff Trail before running short on time. We had to cut through the interior to get back to the dock in time to catch the boat, the last (of only two) of the day. Fortunately, this trail took us past the Tourist Attraction Mandatory Lighthouse. 

View of the town from near the lighthouse, and then back to the dock.

Fun Fact 1: Emergency Backup Captain Thoren is a real captain, but was working as a first mate on our trip.

Fun Fact 2: Ships need to signal their presence in zero visibility or at night by blasting their horns frequently according to ecfr.gov . However, Thoren told us, our boat only needed to do a “ping” whatever that is. Lucky for us, or we would have gone deaf.  

I looked it up and per clause (i) of ecfr.gov: “A vessel of 12 meters or more but less than 20 meters in length shall not be obliged to give the bell signals prescribed in paragraphs (g) and (h) of this Rule. However, if she does not, she shall make some other efficient sound signal at intervals of not more than 2 minutes.” Such as a ping. 

Fun fact 3: In the days before GPS, radio beacons, and radar, ships would try and figure out their location and heading by observing the sun and stars. Later they used charts together with complicated devices such as marine compasses, astrolabes, sextants, chronometers, etc. Many of which still required being able to see the sky. 

Pretty amazing to me, considering I can’t even remember the difference between longitude and latitude, port and starboard, or even locate my car in a parking lot.