Biking on Carriage Roads in Acadia

On Monday, we enjoyed biking the carriage roads in Acadia.

We parked at Wildwood Stables (as it was too early in the season for carriage rides to have begun), and rode up Day Mountain Loop and up to the summit of Day Mountain.

What a difference a bright blue sky makes!

Going around the Day Mountain loop...

... going up Day Mountain.

View from about halfway up

Greens and blues

Carl riding by... while Carl can take a picture of me riding while he is also riding, I do not have the coordination to do that, so I have to ride ahead, stop, get off the bike, get my phone out, and take pictures! As a result, they are a bit more staged than his pictures are!

A selfie at the top of Day Mountain

Another selfie - this time Carl was riding toward his phone on the tripod. We were hearing a road compactor (steel roller) coming up the road, and thought we'd better get the phone and tripod out of the roadway before he arrived!

Marker at summit of Day Mountain

Carl heading back to the bikes...

... and at his bike at the summit of Day Mountain.

View from the summit

While Day Mountain is not the tallest peak, it is neat that the summit can be reached by bikes and carriages (and hiking) but not by cars so we were all alone at the summit (minus the road grading guy!).

Carl wanted to get a picture of our helmets -- we got these Sena communication helmets back in the winter. They connect via bluetooth and a mesh network, and we can talk with each other easily while we're biking. They are supposed to work up to 1/2 mile apart, but we find that our usable distance (with trees and other things coming between us) is somewhat less than that amount. We also find them disconcerting to use when we're close enough to hear each other's voice - as there is a little delay, and hearing an echo is not pleasant. But overall, they not only provide a helmet for head protection, but also provide the additional communication function that we like.

Another picture at the summit as we were preparing to head down.

Back down the mountain.

When we finished the Day Mountain Loop, we decided we wanted to do a bit more riding, so we headed up along Tri Lakes Loop, taking us by Bubble Pond, and then Eagle Lake...

... where we saw a goose family (hard to see them in the light and shadow).

The waters in these lakes are used for drinking water for Bar Harbor.

So pretty!

A selfie at Eagle Lake.

We took the carriage road around Eagle Lake, and then joined back up with part of the carriage road system along Jordan Pond that we had traversed on Saturday, finally ending near Jordan Pond House...

We passed a Gate House and this lodge...

Information about the Gate Lodges

Here is a video compilation of some of the sights and sounds as we biked: https://youtu.be/P0pEHsvANfg

Our route back toward the campground took us past the road up Cadillac Mountain. There were signs all around indicating that you had to have a parking pass to go up, but I had heard that wasn't in effect until later in May, so we decided to go. There was a Ranger Station at the base of the road, but Carl's Golden Age Passport got us by that and we headed up to the top.

Carl took pictures of the signboards...

... and then duplicated the picture on the sign board with our view!

Another example, looking toward the islands...

... and these were our views -- looking down toward Otter Point where we had been earlier in the day...

... and out toward the islands...

... and more islands.

I was amused by the island names off Bar Harbor in Frenchman Bay: Long Porcupine Island, Burnt Porcupine Island, Sheep Porcupine Island, and Bald Porcupine Island. I think there could have been a smidge more creativity, but, what do I know?

We stopped in Hulls Cove for an early evening dinner at The Chart Room...

Carl got Lobster Roll...

... and I got Scallops.

Both meals were very good!

This was a view of the sunset from Gracie on our last evening at Mt Desert Narrows RV Campground.

 

It was still chilly on Monday, but sunny and great weather for bike riding. We never would have done the rides we have done at Acadia on our conventional bikes, and, even though we had to disable the throttle, the pedal assist was great to allow us to make these trips (our bottoms get much more tired than our legs!).