Tuesday, July 18, 2017

Biking around Acadia...


Yeah, it's my birthday.  Joan asked what I wanted to do today.  OK, some of it is none of your business, but I love a home-made breakfast, and wanted to take the bikes on some of the carriage trails in Acadia.  Joan asked, "Would you like spaghetti for supper?"

This is going to be a great day!

After breakfast, Izzy got some leash time, walking and sitting out on the patio.  Joan made us lunch to take on the bikes, and we headed out...


A selfie before rolling...


The first trail was uphill.  A lot.




To quote the philosopher Yogi Berra: when you come to a fork in the road, take it...



There are signs, but, without a map, it would be very confusing.  The first part of the trail where we got on was relatively unoccupied.  Further along, we started seeing more people...


Mostly families, but we did see one guy with his dog on the bike - no, I didn't get a photo of that; I was pedaling uphill and they were flying downhill.

We came to an interesting bridge - seemed to be a good place to take a breather, check the map, and get some photos...






Back on the bike trails...



It was a cool day - nice for biking.  Damp, though, as the coastal areas were under a fog advisory all day.  We didn't see the fog while riding through the woods, but it showed up on Eagle Lake...


Further down the trail, we came across these folks...


... looking at the fog rolling in, and considering whether or not to launch their kayaks.

A plaque about the pristine waters here...


And, the fog (still)...


We did a loop heading back towards the car; another tunnel...


Not sure about that "legs out" technique.  ;-)  This portion was downhill, though.

We stopped for lunch along the way, using those big rocks along the side of the trail as our "table and chairs"...

I commented to Joan that the pack seemed heavier than necessary... "Oh, I put all 4 ice packs in there to keep our lunch cool."  Yep, that would be it.  Feeling like a pack-mule...


Refreshed, we went back after it...


And, back to where we started...



The bikes fold up reasonably quickly - cleaning all the dust from the trails took longer than the folding and strapping down process.

We decided to see the rest of the park that we haven't made it to by car (some not accessible by the carriage and bike trails).  Heavily wooded roads...


We were interested in seeing the area known as Sand Beach...


Yep, it really is a sandy beach.  Most of what passes for "a beach" here is actually rocky.  This is a natural sand beach.  By this time, the fog was getting thicker and it was down to 62º, so I wasn't too concerned that I didn't bring my bikini.  Amazingly, there were 4 or 5 people in the water.  The 55º water.  Most of the people on the beach were wearing jackets.  We walked down to check it out...




The parking area was packed, but we found a spot.  They allow parking in the right lane of the one-way road in this area...


Moving down the road a bit, we came across access to a rocky cliff area...


Sheer cliff walls...



Yeah, I was there, again, too...


Yeah, that is a long ways down...


Further along, more fog and rocky shoreline...


A bridge in the foggy distance at the southern end of the island...


I think most of the infrastructure, like this bridge, was built in the 1920s and early 30s.  Impressive.

From there, it was back to the coach.  I took the computer outside to sit with Izzy while I worked on these photos...


As promised, Joan made a great spaghetti meal for my breakfast supper.  My day started and ended with phone calls from our sweet daughter.  A very nice day for "when I'm 64."


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