Day 10 – July 1st, 2019 – Bar Harbor, Maine to Lincolnville, Maine: ~100 miles
We explore Acadia National Park.
Missed Day 9? – Day 9 – June 30th, 2019 – Lincoln, New Hampshire to Bar Harbor, Maine: ~250 miles
I still haven’t fallen in love with the RT by this point, however I am impressed with how integrated the bag mounts are.
Just like Mt. Washington from yesterday, Acadia National Park was going to be one of the highlights of our trip. Unlike yesterday, the weather was great and we’d actually get to check this highlight off our list. This was Vy’s perfect day – not much riding, lots of hiking!
Sometimes you hike up, sometimes you hike down. We scampered down some rocks…
…and our reward was this beach that we had to ourselves.
Here are two different ways to ride on three wheels. Living in California, it’s always jarring to me when I see riders without helmets.
It’s extra weird to see someone who cares enough to have a helmet for themselves but not for their passenger.
If you don’t have your own ride, a company called Acadia Outfitters will rent you a scooter..
Best ride of the day. The back of the hack said “Pokey”.
2nd best ride goes to this classic Land Cruiser!
As you can see from the plate, this rig’s been on a long trip which presumably started in Switzerland.
This guy looks geared up, but if you look closely you’ll see that he’s wearing flip-flops! Interesting choice.
Baby Jack wanted to get some beach action as well. This time around, we headed down some steps to Little Hunters Beach.
It’s…very rocky.
Our plan for lunch was to visit the Jordan Pond House, a restaurant with a beautiful view that started back in 1893.
Lunch, too busy. Apparently they were practicing social distancing before that was a thing. The restaurant is best known for their popovers, which is basically the American version of Yorkshire pudding. There were lots of empty tables so we assumed there wouldn’t be a wait, but we were surprised to hear that it would be at least an hour before we could get a table at 2pm. They aren’t kidding when they suggest to make a reservation! So we just grabbed a couple of snacks (and a delicious blueberry soda), admired the view for a bit, and went back to more hiking.
An excellent photo opportunity is provided at Bubble Rock, which is atop South Bubble Mountain. The hike up is just under a mile one way, and this future rockslide is believed to have been deposited by ancient glaciers that carried it from approximately 40 miles away. Will you be the person who pushes it off the edge? We clearly weren’t!
This couple was creating their own photo opportunities.
We wrapped our walking adventures with one last scamper alongside the water.
I pulled over to grab a shot of the RT with the Cranberry Isles behind them. It’s a series of five small islands – one has summer residents, two are owned by private residents, and two have a combine year-round population of approximately 140 people. Must be nice to have Acadia as the view in your backyard!
I didn’t notice this Harley until it was too late – I feel like the photo would have been tremendous if I took it a second earlier (and if there wasn’t a car in the background).
I don’t want to admit how long it took me to take photos from this viewpoint, but it was enough that Vy decided to find some shade and catch up on her emails. Oops.
I wised up and we got back on the bike. I got a laugh thanks to this sign.
I also got a laugh thanks to this dog.
One place Vy wanted to check out was the Rockland Breakwater Lighthouse. Apparently it was her way of making me walk more! When we were parking, an elderly couple came up to Vy and I and the husband said that he owned a BMW R50 four decades ago when he was courting his wife. It was a sweet moment.
The breakwater is built out of local granite, and about 700,000 tons of rock were used to build it. It was built in the 1890s and official sources say it’s 4,364 feet, though this little carving I found suggests otherwise.
By the time we got to the end, the sun was coming down.
The lighthouse was built in 1902.
The town of Rockland claims to be the Lobster Capital of the World.
We had to put that to the test, so we tried out a local place called Claws.
Ha.
Lobster rolls in hand, we had to check out “The Sauce Bahh”.
We couldn’t find a reasonably-priced hotel in Rockland, so we backtracked 20 minutes to Lincolnville to stay at a cute cottage at Glenmoor by the Sea. They claimed to have a beautiful view of Penobscot Bay, but by the time we got there it was too dark to see anything. Guess we’d have to find out in the morning!
On to Day 11!