Acadia to Massachusetts

Bass Harbor, ME to Acton, MA July 15th, 2009

The plan for today was to putt around Mt. Desert Island and Acadia National Park for a couple hours then head down the coast of Maine to meet with autocracy, from the forum. With only ~40 miles of road on the island that I wanted to see I figured it should only take me a couple of hours. I got a lazy start after a going to sleep VERY late last night but I was on the road by about 10am.

Acadia National park is the smallest park in the entire country but roughly 3 million people visit it every summer. Having not fully realized this I went to check out the Bass Harbor Head Light, a lighthouse that you can almost drive up to. The area to view the lighthouse was only about 8ft x 20ft and there were at least 20 people down there trying to get a good picture of themselves with the lighthouse. It was very claustrophobic so I got my photo and left post haste. The rest of the park would follow the same pattern, stop amongst the crowd, get picture, run out of there.

The next stop was the visitor center for an informational movie about the park and island that turned out to be pretty decent. It was a worthwhile stop for sure. From there I started the park loop, a 27 mile loop of road that goes through the park and is only one-way for the majority of it. The first photo op was an overlook only a quarter mile from the visitor section but showed the difficulty that I would have stopping for photo ops as I passed it and had to double back. Once the road becomes one-way this will be impossible and several photo ops will be passed...

The park loop was a mix of coastal vistas and inland landscapes showing off the variety of features of this "bald" island. One of the first features I got to was a steep rock face that reached up 1,000 feet or more that was the home of a nesting Perigren falcon and two offspring. Looking up into the clouds I was able to see the two birds playing and chasing each other. A very cool site.

The next "feature" I came across was the rather unique Sand Beach. The coast of Maine is made up of mainly rock, making for not so pleasant beach going experiences. Insert this ONE sand beach in the middle of a National Park and you've got a hit with the vacationing crowds. The very uncrowded one way road that I had been riding on turned into a very densely populated bottleneck rather quickly and even getting into the proper parking lot proved to be no simple task. Once I finally got down to the beach I was amazed at how many people were filling the short stretch of non-rocky waterfront. Another seeming oddity is that there were this many people here but the water was still only around 50* F and wasn't very swimmable. It didn't stop the masses from flocking to the beach though to frolic in their bathing suits. After the crowded beach it was good to see some less populated rocky beaches and I even stopped at Sea Lion point.

Continuing on I got to Jordan Pond and Jordan Pond House for a quick brunch, consisting of Blueberry tea and popovers. Apparently this is something that needs to be partaken in at least once in your life and is a local favorite. Popovers are a muffin-like pastry made with very airy dough. The tea was very good and the popovers were very tasty with butter and jam! I'm glad that I made the stop here.

Next up was Cadillac Mountain, the tallest point on the eastern seaboard. The bald granite top is what's left over from eons of erosion and is what led to the naming of the island, Mt. Desert (Bald Mountain in French). The drive up was pretty fun and was only hampered by some traffic and a 25mph speed limit. Darn National Parks. The view from the top was gorgeous though and worth dealing with the throngs of people.

Now it was time to hit the road. I was running about two hours later than I had anticipated and wanted to make it to Acton, MA for the night. I headed out and continued down US1. It was a very pretty drive that took me through one small town after another. The annoying part was that it took me through one small town after another. This meant a steady stream of 25 mph limits that did not help me get anywhere fast.

I stopped in Portland to meet another forum member, Autocracy. We chatted for a bit and lamented that I was running late and missed an opportunity for a ride on a good road. But that was the nagging issue, time. I wanted to make it to Acton before it got too late so I took off shortly.

Back on the road I made decent time towards Acton, at least better than I had been all day. It actually felt good to be back on an interstate highway and out of the small towns. Traffic was fairly light but law enforcement was thick so traffic moved awkwardly. I missed my exit for Acton and in turning around I had to deal with several miles of stop and go traffic through a construction zone. Not fun at all.

Once in to town I had to stop and ask directions but I got where I needed to without much issue. The only problem was that I got into town after EVERYTHING had closed so I missed out on some good pizza. It was replaced with some good food from Dunkin' Donuts. A good alternative.

Pictures