Heading North to Down East

I had a great day yesterday riding around Acadia National Park. I left all my gear in camp and had the luxury of riding unloaded all day. I rode out on Park Loop Road and then took a detour to crank up Cadillac Mountain which is the highest point on the eastern seaboard north of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil at a whopping 1532 feet. The climb was maybe a bit tougher than riding up to Crown Point in the Columbia River Gorge but not by much. I actually really enjoyed a nice consistent climb instead of the constant up and down that I've been dealing with all trip. The views heading up were quite nice.


This is the top of Cadillac Mountain, which is named for the same Frenchman after whom the car is named.


The downhill was great.


I then rode along the shore for a while.


The coastline was pretty but really can't compare with the Pacific coast.

At Jordan Lake, I got on the extensive carriage road network that extends over a good part of the island. John D. Rockefeller Jr. spent a bunch of money helping develop national parks including Grand Teton in Wyoming and here in Acadia where he had the carriage roads built. They are fantastic to ride.





I rode by a nice lake.


There are signposts at junctions.


And, lovely stone bridges.


There was even an elaborate carriage house along the way.


Rockefeller was certainly a visionary to create such a fantastic place.

Today, I'm taking a passenger ferry to the Schoodic Peninsula thus avoiding some busy roads and getting out on the water. Currently, I'm hanging out in Bar Harbor, the lobstah kitsch capital of the world.


It's quite a nice town with a pretty village green and cute streets.





As in many national parks, there is a great free bus service with bike racks to most places on the island to reduce traffic.


I have two more days to ride the rest of the Maine coast and then I cross into New Brunswick in Canada. This part of Maine is called the Down East, I'm not sure why, since it's really up north. It's more sparsely populated than farther south and the traffic should be less, too.
-- Post From My iPhone

Location:Cottage St,Bar Harbor,United States