Hiking and Biking

 A picture perfect morning!

Got up at 8:00, it was already 55*.  We left the cottage at 10:35 and it had warmed up to 68*.  We drove to Beech Mtn. for an easy, fairly quick hike.  We had to wait for someone to leave before we could park.  We left the trailhead at 11:15 and took the left fork in the trail.

While there still wasn't a ton of fall color, these leaves caught my eye.

We stepped off the trail to enjoy this nice view and I was able to take off the bottom section of my hiking pants.

We glimpsed this view of Long Lake, looking the other way.

This is the only summit with a fire tower.  It is occasionally occupied by volunteers, but not today.  

It only took us 35 minutes to reach the top and we could have done it faster except we were following a family with a super cute little girl, maybe 3, and that slowed us down a little.  We passed a little brown snake at one point but it was too fast for me to get a picture.

We hung out for about 15 minutes enjoying the view and the nice warm day.  Although the parking lot was full, it wasn't that busy at the summit.

Cranberry Islands (maybe)

Somes Sound

We headed down at 12:05, found a little color and spent some time with one of my favorite views of Long Lake.  Although I remembered this view, I wasn't sure this was the hike.

We ended up following the same family DOWN so, again, it took us a little longer, even though we passed them twice.  Arrived at the car at 12:45, the temp was somewhere between 69* and 72*.  

From there we drove about 20 minutes to a place on Echo Lake called Ike's Point to have lunch.  I thought it was a picnic area but it was not...hahaha  It was a boat launch but there were enough larger rocks that we were able to sit on the rocks and eat our lunch.  

The water was super clear and a woman walked down while we were there and went for a swim, although she did have a wet suit on, so I don't think it was very warm.

We changed into our bike clothes in the car...easier said than done and drove to the Brown Mtn. Gatehouse for our only bike ride of this visit, the Hadlock Pond Loop.  It's a 3.9 mile loop, crosses four beautiful stone bridges and took us about an hour.  We chose to take the loooong, gradual ascent, thankfully, rather than the short, steep one.  We would probably still be riding.  I didn't take pictures of the bridges because, quite frankly, we have done this ride a few times so I already have plenty of bridge pictures.  I did manage one picture of the only time we could see Hadley Pond.

Kind of a joke that it's called the Hadley Pond Loop since you hardly ever even see the pond.  Anyway, it's a nice ride and it did get out heart rates up.

We drove back through town and reached the cottage at 4:30.  Still 69* ;o)  We sat outside in the sun for awhile, came in when we got chilly.  For dinner, we went to Pat's Pizza in town and used our gift card for a small pizza and beverages.  The sunset was around 6:30, so we were practically eating in the dark by the time we finished, although there was one light which didn't do much to illuminate the outside eating area.  

We got back at 7:30 and started packing because we have reached the end of our stay.  We agreed it was a really nice day, we got a lot of exercise but didn't beat ourselves up too much.  

Thanks for stopping by...

;o)

Big Payoff, Little Effort

We said good-bye to Wendy and Dan as they headed home today. ;o( We left the cottage around 11:30 to hike the Beech Mountain Loop Trail, a new one for us.  I liked it right from the beginning due to the bathroom in the parking lot!  

This is the only hike in the park with a fire tower at the top.  It was fairly steep but only took us about 20 minutes to reach the summit.

Pretty incredible view from the summit and we were able to climb to the first level of the fire tower. 

Cranberry Islands

We had our snacks at the summit and we got to meet this pretty girl from Boston.

Hi Sugar!

Her owner said she was nervous around people but he brought her over to say hello and after a few sniffs and head scratches, she rolled over for some tummy rubs.  A very sweet girl.

We hiked down the rest of the loop trail and were glad we did.  It was a much more gentle trail which took us about 30 minutes; however, we stopped to enjoy the view of Long Pond.  It really was a spectacular day with a light breeze and temps around 77*.

We left there and drove to Bass Harbor Head Lighthouse where we ate our lunch among the rocks and the shore.  

Love this speckled rock!

The tide was in so we couldn't get a good view of the lighthouse but it's there...

There was still time for a short bike ride so we left Bass Harbor and drove to the Visitor's Center where we changed into our bike shorts in the car.  Not an easy task considering the limited amount of space ;o)  Mission accomplished and we headed off to ride the Witch Hole Pond Loop.  

We have ridden this loop before, but never starting from the VC.  Wendy and Dan have ridden it several times from this direction, describing the beginning as the "worst hill in the park", which we initially doubted.  OMG...it wasn't terribly long but it was VERY steep.  Wendy texted us to ride it without stopping.  HA, I had already stopped twice by then, as had Bill.  It was so steep that when Bill pushed off to get started again, the front wheel of his bike came off the ground, tipping him over backward.  He fell off and ended up running DOWN the hill to avoid being hit by his bike.  I missed it all as I left first and didn't stop until I reached the top, where I was waiting for him by this sign.

No Shit!

Thankfully, he wasn't hurt and we proceeded on our way.  This is a nice easy ride, not too many big hills and we didn't make any wrong turns.

Witch Hole Pond

Half Moon Pond

It was fairly late in the day and I really loved the way the sun struck this field, turning it a beautiful golden color.

As it turned out, we rode this loop on the same date in 2009.

We watched a beautiful sunset from Cadillac Mountain,

then drove into town for dinner.  Our plan was to have pizza at Little Anthony's but the traffic was so bad we couldn't get near the place, so we ended up at Pat's Pizza on the other end of town.  We got back to our cottage around 8:00 after a very nice, full day.

Thanks for stopping by...
;o)