Friday, July 24, 2009

Day Five: Bicycle Touring Maine

East Orland, Maine - Mount Desert Island, Acadia National Park, Maine

Mileage Total for Day: 53 miles
Total Trip Mileage: 226 miles

As one of the girls on the trip would say- we "spanked it" this morning and killed 25miles by lunch time. We made it to Trenton, just outside of Acadia National Park around 2 p.m. Turns out, the trip down to Seawall Campground took longer than anything else.

Entering Acadia National Park

We had started to hit the tired point and that last 10 or 15 miles was pretty slow going. We stopped in one town and I bought a strawberry rhubarb pie to share. I'd been wanting to make a strawberry rhubarb pie all season, but never could coordinate having the strawberries and the rhubarb at the same time. So I strapped that pie to my bike and off we went.

We pulled into Seawall just in time for dinner. It was super foggy out and a thunderstorm was pressing in on us. We setup tents and considered how to coordinate showers, at the local store one mile down the road, or dinner. Three of us, the stinkiest, decided to high tail it to the showers while the others kindly offered to get dinner going.

Entering Acadia National Park

As we hit the entrance to the campground, the storm really opened up with lightening coming down nearby. We elected to wait it out under the wooden platformed bus stop. Thirty- five minutes later, thinking the storm had finally begun to break, we set off on our bikes. Without all the camping supplies and just the basics to take a shower, our bikes were super light.

Good thing too, because as we hit the open area next to the ocean the second wave of the storm came in. It was one of those moments of which you should never tell your mother about. We were right in the open, during severe lightening strikes coming down into the ocean next to us. We flew that one mile to the store faster than I have ever ridden.

We showered and strapped on two six packs to our bikes. Then we headed back to camp.

Foggy campground in Acadia

Foggy campground in Acadia

Foggy campground in Acadia

My lightweight bike in Acadia

Wet Tents in Acadia

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