Monday morning we slept in a little bit because we were able to take a shuttle from our campground to Bar Harbor and the first one didn’t come until 9:11. Our division of labor was much more organized today! Breakfast was coffee, which Paul totally made enough of, and burritos. We packed up camp and parked the van in some sun in the hopes that the battery would be able to eke out a little more charge throughout the day (spoiler… it kinda did?). The bus dropped us off at the Village Green in Bar Harbor and we meandered down to Acadia Bike rentals. We rented a couple bikes, a couple helmets, and received some directions to the Bicycle Express bus that would take us to Eagle Lake. We had a good idea of what we wanted to do already because of the very friendly people we had met that first night! We weren’t quite adventurous enough to ride on the street in Bar Harbor, so we walked the half mile or so to the bus pickup and loaded our bikes.
A little background for today’s adventure: Back in the day Rockefeller donated Acadia to the government to turn in to a park. But some time around then he decided he wanted some trails through the island that would not be shared by automobiles, so he created 45 or so miles of carriage roads that meander through the forest and traverse the edges of the mountain lakes. These roads still exist today, and are accessible by foot, bike, and horse. The Bicycle Express bus picks you up in Bar Harbor and drops you off at the northern tip of Eagle Lake – which is where our bike adventure began. We had rented regular 21 speed bikes (although my bike functionally had 6 gears) and started off counterclockwise at the direction of the bus driver. Needless to say, Rockefeller was on to something. The carriage roads seemed to travel through a tunnel of trees, interspersed with stunning views. The driver had told us to start counterclockwise because you got the steeper part out of the way first. And boy were we glad for all of our totally applicable Peloton experience for the climb. We were also only a little jealous of the people who were gliding by us on e-bikes.
The halfway point of the first loop we did was the southern tip of Jordan Pond, and I can definitely see why it is one of the more popular destinations. The lake is absolutely gorgeous, with mountains rising all around it. My personal favorite part came a little bit later though, when we stopped at Bubble pond. We followed a mini trail down to a couple of rocks and just sat and basked in the tranquility. I think what stood out to me there was that there wasn’t a line of people waiting to see the spot we were at, we had it to ourselves (as much as you can have a spot to yourself at a national park that is). Tranquility achieved, we hopped back on the saddle to finish the first loop of our bike day, which took us back to the top of Eagle Lake for a total of around ten and half miles.
We still felt full of energy so we crossed the street and started on the loop to Witch Hole. I think both of us wanted to do it partially because it was called Witch Hole. Like how cool of a name is that?? Overall the path wasn’t as strenuous as the section between Eagle Lake and Jordan Pond, but there were definitely some parts where we started to feel that we were biking for the first time in forever. We stopped at Witch Hole for some much needed PB&J before making our way back to Eagle lake to be picked up by the Bicycle Express. We were both glad that we had rented regular bikes for the experience, but could understand how an e-bike would make it a lot more leisurely. Although I was a little jealous that Adela’s bike was faster than mine. Like I had to actually pedal downhill to keep up with her! After returning our bikes in Bar Harbor we completed the day by finding a restaurant that served whole lobster. It didn’t take long. The timing of our meal didn’t quite work out to get the bus back (we missed it by five minutes), so we snagged another drink at a little bar before catching the 4:45 bus back to Blackwoods.
The adventure continued when we got back to the campsite. This particular adventure was perhaps the most important of the day… the trip to the pay-per-15-second showers. We split $10 in quarters between the two of us (luckily their ATM dispensed ten dollar bills) and started the shower process. It was simultaneously refreshing and stressful. Refreshing because I was able to wash three days of bug spray off. Stressful because the time starts when you put quarters in, doesn’t stop if you turn the water off, and starts beeping when you have a minute left. It was probably the best $5 we spent on the whole trip. When we got back to our campsite we discovered that our hammock straps had been… “cleaned up” from our campsite. Fortunately we were able to retrieve them from the ranger station. We were both full from our late lunch so we skipped dinner in favor of a game of parks, a campfire, and another round of s’mores for dessert. We’ve discovered that the batteries in VANessa aren’t the most capacitative, so our current strategy is to leave the back doors of the van open and have the bug net up to get some air flow. That way we can minimize how much we need to have the air fans on before we go to bed. I think I only accidentally pulled the bug net off the van three times so far!
Our last morning in Acadia started with me making enough coffee for two people before firing up the grill to roast some potatoes and turkey bacon for burritos. Our favorite nature sound of the elusive Honda generator slept in too and didn’t start making its morning caws until 8:30. After breakfast we packed up the van, dropped off our little tag in the departure box, and said goodbye to Blackwoods Campground. We weren’t quite ready to say goodbye to Acadia though, so we stopped at Sieur de Mouns (probably not spelled correctly). We walked around the little garden of local plant life and strolled down the boardwalk before returning to the van to begin the journey to Vermont. We also stopped in the nature center… but were too intimidated by the rangers there to look around much. This last little jaunt brought our time in Acadia to a close, but we still have more adventure planned.
The second part of our campervanning/roadtripping adventure started with a much shorter drive than the first day. Today we had approximately six and a half to seven hours to reach our campsite in the Green Mountain National Forest of Vermont. This was primarily a transit day, since we didn’t want to drive the full eleven hours to the finger lakes in one day. Our first stop brought us to a random starbucks in Maine because I had a work meeting. I couldn’t get the starbucks internet to work on my laptop, so turns out we could’ve had the meeting pretty much anywhere but oh well. Since we were going to spend all day driving we thought it was safe to use the microwave here to heat up some chicken tikka masala for lunch. The batteries don’t have a lot of juice so it was definitely a luxury. Before we left we got some rejuvenation in the form of caffeine and started back on the road. We both decided that New Hampshire was our least favorite state, not for any reason other than we wanted to get in to Vermont and it seemed to take forever driving through New Hampshire. Along the way we did learn to not entirely trust Google directions when driving a van through the mountains. I started just seeing if we eventually reconnected with the road we were already on because I got tired of the “shortcuts” that consisted of driving straight up and straight down over little bits of mountain.
After passing through the cutest little town of Hapgood (we didn’t make it to the general store… but we should have) we found our home for the night: a campsite at Hapgood Pond. I had the pick of the litter when I chose it a couple of months ago, and it turns out campsite 16 is probably the best of the bunch. Secluded from the rest of the sites and right next to the entrance to the trail that goes to the lake. We were right next to the bathroom again though, which either means I am consistent in randomly selecting campsites or I might have to take that in to account in the future. Once we were settled, we got a fire going and I cooked our last couple of hamburgers on the grill. Our chocolate supplies were a little low for smores so we had to get a little creative. It turns out that while cookie m and ms make an acceptable chocolate substitute… I wouldn’t advise it being high on your list of s’mores ingredients. But if it’s all you’ve got then it will work. Just put the m and ms in the marshmallow after you’ve roasted it, don’t try to balance them on the graham cracker. We burnt through the rest of the firewood we had before calling it a night.
