Biking Acadia...Around the Mountain II

This ride kicked my butt, therefore I nicknamed it The Ride From Hell!  Bill found it in the book, "Discover Acadia National Park".  It was described as 18.1 miles, without the difficult sections found in the Around the Mountain loop.  HA!  that is totally false.  I swear this ride was 18 miles uphill and .1 mile downhill.  The book indicated it would take 5 hours to complete this loop; however, it took us about 3 hours to do the entire loop although we stopped for lunch and to take pictures and catch our breath.  I started walking the uphill sections after the first couple of hours.  I just couldn't pedal uphill any more!  

For the most part, this ride takes you through the woods.  However, there are a couple of sections with nice, distant views and you pass over several wonderful bridges built in the 1930's.

The morning was very foggy at our cabin but was clearing by the time we got started.  We began our trip at the end of Eagle Lake and went counter clockwise around the loop.

Eagle Lake with fog on the distant mountains

We traveled along the length of Eagle Lake but it disappeared fairly quickly as we pedaled up a nice, long hill.  Before too long we came across Aunt Betty Pond.

We rested our bikes along Waterfall Bridge

Hadlock Brook

and took a short walk down to the brook, where we ate lunch.

The view at lunch

As we continued our ride, we crossed the Amphitheater Bridge which is the longest bridge in the park at 235 feet.  The construction is absolutely gorgeous.

 

 and the Cliffside Bridge, my favorite.  There were nice views along this section.

 

 

We rode and rode and rode and finally reached Bubble Pond, which Bill told me was Eagle Lake and we were nearly done.  WooHoo! 

Cadillac Mtn from the edge of Bubble Pond

The end of Bubble Pond.  No fog now ;o)

Unfortunately, we had another mile or so to pedal before we reached Eagle Lake and our car ;o(  The fog burned off completely and the day turned out to be a beautiful one with temps warming into the 70's.

If you enjoy riding the carriage roads and want to spend several hours doing so, you will probably enjoy this loop.   There are several other loops you can enjoy if you want something shorter.

Thanks for stopping by...
;o)