Eagle Lake, Connor's Nubble and Bubble Pond

Got up around 8:00 to a clear and sunny morning!  WooHoo!!! It's about time.  Sat on the deck and enjoyed my coffee, watching a big fog bank along the opposite shore.  

Left the cottage around 10:30, 63* and sunny ;o)  Parked on the road near Eagle Lake and headed out for a nice, easy bike ride.  Well...easy except for the long, uphill ride along the edge of the lake.  But!  My notes indicate that the last time we rode this hill, I had to stop and walk up because I could not pedal uphill any more and this time...I rode the entire length of the hill.  I guess those hours at the Brickhouse are paying off. 

We rode to the trailhead of Connor's Nubble, locked our bikes and hiked to the summit, all of 588'.

Look at that blue sky!

We stayed up there for 25 minutes soaking up the sun.  It's such an easy climb with such great views.  However...Do Not climb wearing bifocal sunglasses and carrying a water bottle. There are a couple of places where both hands come in handy.

Eagle Lake from Connor's Nubble

Looking across Eagle Lake to Cadillac Mtn from Connor's Nubble

Mount Katahdin in the distance?

Looking the other direction

Going down was a lot easier!  We hopped back on our bikes and rode to Bubble Pond for lunch.  We had the only picnic table to ourselves, along with the view.

The wind was blowing 16 mph right off the water but it was still warm.  It was windy enough to create white caps.

The parking lot at Bubble Pond is no longer available to use so if you don't walk around the corner, you would never see this awesome bridge.

We rode back along the other side of Eagle Pond to our car, arriving at 1:56.

From there we drove maybe 10 minutes to the Asticou Inn for our fix of popovers and tea.  It was amazing how foggy it was there and we watched the fog roll in and out while having our treat.

We drove home through Bar Harbor and Bill waited in the car while I bought an "I (heart) BHM" car magnet.  Profits from the sale benefit a local non profit.

Got back to the cottage around 4:00 and sat down by the shore reading till 5:00.  

Bill grilled burgers which we ate with some green beans that Dave gave us and some broccoli.

Packed most of my stuff and the groceries, except for the food in the fridge.  We both agreed it was a good week although it went by too fast.

Thanks for stopping by...
;o)  

Eagle Lake, Shore Path and Bar Island

Tuesday, September 19

Wendy and Dan headed out for a bike to hike to hammock adventure.  They rode their bikes from the Jordan Pond House, to Deer Brook Trail, hiked up the trail to Sargent Mtn. Pond, set up their hammocks near the pond and spent some quiet time together.  Looks like fun!

photo by Wendy

We drove to Eagle Lake and rode our bikes around the loop.  Not the nicest day...

A picture's worth a thousand words

We stopped a couple of times to takes pictures but it took maybe an hour and that included me walking part of the way up a looooooong hill because my knees and thighs were killing me!

It's usually really pretty but not so much today, unless you're a fan of fog, which some people are...

I thought these super tiny pinecones were cute and the spider web was pretty awesome, which admittedly I would not have seen and enjoyed if not for the fog/mist/rain.

These yellow flowers were everywhere, so we asked one of the rangers what they were and the answer...ragweed!  Apparently there are several varieties...who knew?

And these lovelies are New England asters.

We watched these three ducks forage along the edge of the lake for quite awhile.  I thought they might be loons, which they weren't and it was pretty hard to tell what they looked like because of the low light, so they remain unidentified floating objects.

Three UFO's

We drove to the Jordan Pond House gift shop where Bill bought a nice, lightweight, hooded t-shirt and I bought a postcard for Lori.  We ate our lunch in the car in the parking lot...boring ;o(  

From there into town, where we parked near the road to Bar Island because it was super busy.  We walked along the Shore Path and discovered a new park area, called Grant Park.  On a nicer day, we would sit and enjoy a cup of coffee; maybe next year.

You can't tell but there is a very large cruise ship out there! 

Walking back to the car, we took the short "hike" over the Bar Island since it was low tide and you can only get there 1 1/2 hours either side of low tide.  You can learn a little more about Bar Island here, including which town has jurisdiction over the island, which might surprise you.

We came home and read for awhile (well, I might have taken a nap) and after dinner we went next door to play dominoes with Wendy and Dan...Wendy was the big winner!

Thanks for stopping by...
;o)

Acadia Mtn. and Sommes Sound

Tuesday, September 22, 2015

52* and cloudy when we got up at 7:30.  The four of us agreed to hike Acadia Mountain, on the "quiet" side of the island. 

Bill and I have never climbed this peak but Wendy and Dan highly recommended it, so we were looking forward to something new. 

The climb isn't very long; however, there were several steep, rocky sections to conquer.

The summit is only 681 feet and the hike took 2.5 hours round trip.  

Although it was cloudy, the view of Sommes Sound was awesome.

From here, we traveled a little farther to the second summit, which provided even better views of the Sound.  Acadia Mountain was originally called Robinson Mountain but was renamed under the leadership of George B. Dorr, the first park superintendent in the early 1900's.

Even though the temperature only reached the mid 60's, we still worked up a sweat. 

We sat for awhile and enjoyed the view.  Wendy spotted a couple of bald eagles, which was pretty cool.  We will have to climb this again on a sunny day, the view would really be spectacular.

Oddly, the hike down was just as steep as the hike up!  Bill and I aren't any faster going down either but Wendy and Dan are very good sports.

We drove a short distance to Eagle Lake, where we sat on a dock near the water's edge and had lunch.

panorama view

From here we could pick up the Beech Cliffs Ladder Trail, which we talked about hiking but decided against it.  Wendy and Dan wanted to do some shopping, which was okay with us.  One hike a day is about our limit anyway.

We dropped them off at Edgewater and grabbed our books for some reading at Sand Pond.  It was windy and cool so we didn't last long there but found another place along the rocks where we read and napped for an hour or so.  We went to JPH for our usual but were disappointed in the popovers once again.  

We went into town and bought a couple of riding/hiking books for Wendy and Dan's anniversary (tomorrow).  Bar Harbor isn't very big and guess who we ran into...  Well, not technically but we did come across one another and they gave us a couple of dog treats shaped like squirrels they had purchased for Titan!  

Did some packing when we got back to our cottage because we have to head home tomorrow ;o(  

 

Thanks for stopping by...

;o)

A Little Bike, A Little Hike

We started today with a bike ride.  We decided on a route that would allow Wendy and Dan to do some hiking without needing to get in the car and drive somewhere else.  We started at the Jordan Pond House and headed along the pond toward Eagle Lake.  The trail rises fairly steeply causing Bill and I to stop regularly.  I felt bad for Wendy and Dan because they were nice enough to stop with us so it takes them a lot longer to reach the destination.

Jordan Pond and the South Bubble

The morning had started out foggy but it cleared off nicely by the time we got started.  It was truly a spectacular day!  The color of the lake is unbelievable.

We stopped several times along the way to catch our breath and take pictures.

These water plants were green on the top and red on the bottom.

After peddling for approximately 50 minutes, we stopped at the end of Eagle Lake and had snacks.

One of the many beautiful bridges in Acadia

We continued in a clockwise direction around Eagle Lake.  Traveling in this direction is much easier than going counter clockwise; Bill & I learned that the hard way.  We still had to pedal a fairly long uphill section before reaching the trail head for Connor's Nubble and the Bubbles.  We hiked up the steep and rocky .1 mile trail to the top of the nubble where we took more photos, ate lunch and enjoyed the view.  I didn't remember the trail being quick so rocky!  It was made more difficult because Bill and I were carrying our bike bags and water bottles so we had no free hands.  The "kids" helped us by taking the bags and attaching them to their backpacks.  Poor planning on our part.

It's my bike bag, not my purse.

I totally forgot about the panoramic capability of my phone.

Eagle lake with Cadillac Mtn in the background

We returned to the carriage road and went our separate ways.  Wendy and Dan crossed the road and hiked to the Bubbles.  Bill and I rode back to the JPH where we sat in the sun for a little while before treating ourselves (again) to popovers and tea.

We stopped at the store on our way home and picked up crab cakes and potato salad for dinner.  Wendy and Dan invited us to join them so we ate together in Cottage No. 8, a nice ending to a really nice day.

Thanks for stopping by...

;o)

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)