This morning started with a drive to Ellsworth and with seeking a home for my bright blue car over the next six days. I stopped at the Comfort Inn in Ellsworth where I will be staying for two nights during my wanderings (although not two consecutive nights) to ask permission to leave my car in their parking lot. Permission granted, with a suggestion to leave the car in a spot in the lot right across from the front door. I found it very interesting that during our conversation the manager looked at my face and asked "Is that a bruise?". I think that most people (strangers, that is) either aren't curious or don't have the guts to ask. I told him that bruise is over a year old, a remnant of last year's crash, and that this trip is my return to touring.
Time to start riding...
The road out of Ellsworth started as a commercial strip, but it changed very quickly into a 2-lane road heading for Mt. Desert Island. This is an island that is very close to the mainland; the bridge was much shorter than I expected. I headed to the east, towards the entrance to Acadia National Park. I stopped at the visitor center to pick up a map and to see if the rangers could tell me anything about the roads on the non-park side of the island, my planned riding territory for tomorrow. It sounds like the west side of the island has less traffic than the east side, and I didn't think the east side had much traffic at all. Of course that could be due to the fact that today was not a weekend day. And speaking of traffic, I'm finding that what I think is no traffic at all is viewed quite differently by some of the folks who work and live here. My light traffic is their heavy traffic.
The roads today were definitely rolling, In fact at times I could say they were more hilly than rolling, but I suspect that is because my normal riding territory is pretty flat with some rolling hills. Riding in Acadia, I felt like someone removed the flat sections - I was either crawling up the hills (yes, I was on my bike moving slowly, not really crawling) or flying down the other side. For the most part the road conditions supported speed, but I have to admit when I looked down and saw 33 mph on my cycle computer I figured it might be a good idea to slow down. It was also a day of optical illusions, times when my eyes said I was heading downhill but my legs and my bike said that I was definitely riding uphill. Does that ever happen to you, or is it just me? I suppose it is some kind of optical illusion, and it's happened to me on other tours too. It is definitely a bit disconcerting.
As I pulled up to the park entrance station in the aisle for holders of park passes, I started to stop so I could pull out my pass and show it to the ranger. Before I could stop my forward progress, she looked at me, asked if I had a pass, and when I answered yes just told me to go on through. Very nice. Another cyclist pulled up as I was finishing my quick conversation with the ranger, didn't stop and just said "I've got a park pass". We rode together for a short time. He told me that he lives 20 miles from here, and usually rides in the park 2 or 3 days a week. Now that's someone who is definitely getting a lot of benefit out of his park pass! What a nice location for regular rides. I suppose it could get boring to ride here, just like I get tired of the roads I ride all of the time at home, but I wouldn't mind having the problem of needing to repeat rides in a beautiful place like Acadia National Park.
Information on Acadia National Park can be found on the National Park Service web site at http://www.nps.gov/acad/.A good part of today was spent riding in the trees. There is only a short section of the Park Loop Road that is close to the water and that offers views without wandering out on the cliffs, although when I look at the park map that section is longer than I thought. I usually prefer not to hide in the trees, but I have to admit that the tree-lined roads in the park were really beautiful.
I stopped at Sand Beach - and thought enough to exchange my bike shoes for my Chaco sandals before heading out in the sand. As I was changing my footwear, I had a conversation with a woman who was driving a taxi-van. At the time I saw her she was sitting in the parking lot, but it turned out she was driving some folks from the cruise ship parked off of Bar Harbor for the day. Apparently a good part of this taxi company's business is driving private tours of the area. Conversation ended, and now it's time for a short wander on the beach fronting some very cold ocean water. According to one of the tourist publications, the water temperature right now is in the 40s. Cold! It's funny, I saw a little boy stick his feet in the water, and then go back to tell his mother that the water wasn't cold. She called him on that, saying "you did't really get wet, did you?". Funny!
It's amazing to see a sandy beach in this area with a very rocky coastline. Both were beautiful.
My next stop was Thunder Hole, but it really wasn't thundering today. I assume that's because the tide was out; it seems that higher tide would help the thundering. I'm tempted to change my plans for tomorrow and and head back there in the morning. My plans are to ride on the western part of the island before heading back to Ellsworth, but I could be tempted by doing part of the eastern side one more time. I guess I'll have to see which direction my bike turns in the morning!
I stopped at Jordan Pond, which appears to be the only stop in the park with food service - it was mid-afternoon by then, and it seemed like a good idea to get some ice cream. Somehow the peanuts, energy bars, and Gatorade that I had been downing all day needed a little supplement. It's amazing - I didn't see too many cyclists on the road, but there is a long row of bike racks there, and they were all full of bikes. Apparently there are a lot of visitors here who are spending time riding the (unpaved) carriage roads here. As I got closer to Bar Harbor I saw a van pulling a trailer full of bike racks. I suspect it was on the way to Jordan Pond to pick up riders and rental bikes.
When I pulled out of the parking lot at Jordan Pond to head back towards Bar Harbor I saw a deer in a field, happily eating and swishing his (her?) tail back and forth to distract the bugs. Of course I did try to get a picture, but I'm afraid the deer is going to look like a small dot in the middle of a sea of green. It was worth a try though.
I wandered into Bar Harbor before heading back out of town to find my home for the night. I figured that since this weekend is the week before the 4th of July that everything would be pretty busy here. That's really why I made reservations for tonight as opposed to finding a place to stay when I arrived here. I had a reservation at the Fairfield Inn, which is a bit outside of town near the ferry terminal. As I rode through town I found that most hotels and many B&Bs had vacancy signs out. It was still early enough to cancel my reservations, but I decided to stay with what I had arranged. While most of the restaurants are in town, it turns out that Stewman's Lobster Pound is right next to my hotel. Ah, the dinner conundrum solved! I was able to sit on the deck overlooking the ocean, and I had a very nice Cobb salad that included fresh lobster as one of the salad components. A good dinner, and I'm happy. Time for a rest now...
