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Wednesday, June 22, 2016

Day 05 - Acadia NP Day 02



On our second day in the park, we decided we would tour the island on the motorcycles. We started our day fairly early with breakfast at Jordan’s around 6:30am.

After breakfast, we rode over to Thunder Hole. High tide was still about 3-4 hours away but we were still able to experience the thunderous sound the waves make as they push the air out of an underground cave at the end of a channel.
We stayed and listened to the booming sound and the waves crashing into the coastline for 10-15 minutes. At different parts of the overlook area we could feel the “boom” in our chests.
Back on the bikes we made our way up to Cadillac Mountain. At the base of the mountain, we saw the following sign.

“No Trailers or RVs”. We ignored the sign and proceeded up the mountain. Surely they didn’t mean trailers pulled by motorcycles and we figured Hitched would be exempt. We arrived at the top of the mountain without any problems.

The mountain at about 1,500 feet is the highest point on the Atlantic coast. You can see just about the entire mountain from the top and several of the islands. Some of the islands are inhabited with private homes, others just by birds. We wondered how one could live on an island, are there plumbing capabilities? The mountain is pink Cadillac granite and at the top the huge granite outcrop covers it.
Although the vistas are beautiful at the top, there are several beautiful vistas along the winding road to the top of the mountain as well.
After spending about 45 minutes on top of the mountain, we headed back down and made our way over to the Mt. Desert side of the island. We looped around the perimeter of the island and then headed into Ellsworth for some lunch.


We had intended on eating a Mainely Meats but they were out of business in this location (oops!). There was a sandwich shop across the street called “Flexit” so we decided to eat there instead. The food was really good. Michele and Rob had a Cubano sandwich with a street weed salad (Organic spinach and kale) and Jerry had a turkey sandwich.

After lunch, we headed over to Schoodic Point. This portion of the park is on the other side of Frenchman Bay. Here the coast line is very rugged with waves crashing into the rocky shoreline. There were more huge rocky outcrops of granite interspersed with black rock in between the large crevices.  We walked over the rocky shoreline and watched the waves as they crashed into the rocks.


We saw a lady working on a painting of the shoreline. Very impressive!

We spent 45 minutes mesmerized by the wave action and reluctantly returned to the bikes to head back to Bar Harbor. Along the way, we found a scenic pull off for pictures.


Earlier in the day, Rob received weather alerts for nearby rain. Initially the rain was well south of us in the Portland area, but by 4:30pm it had made its way up into Bar Harbor. We rode in intermittent light rain for about 35 miles. The temperatures dropped dramatically from the low 70’s to the low 60’s, with gusty cold winds, making for a chilly ride back. The rain picked up the last 2.5 miles from the inn but we made it back without the need to put on our rain gear.

Another great day at Acadia NP! Tomorrow we’ll do some more hiking for our last day in the park.

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