To this date, Martha and I (and DaLea has joined us for the last two trails in Iowa and West Virginia) have ridden all 35 of the Rail-Trail Hall of Fame trails. This trail in Maine is the 36th inductee. When voting week came in 2022, we inundated the voting with votes for the trail—we are allowed multiple votes, which we took advantage of—because we really wanted to go to Maine, especially eastern Maine and Acadia National Park, for a biking vacation. When the trail won, we began our planning for lodging because places fill up so fast around Acadia National Park. We were fortunate again that Martha was on the ball in locating good places to stay and planning our on-road bike route to see several light houses on Maine’s eastern coastline.
We decided to start the trip by flying to Bangor, Maine, where Martha and Ed met DaLea and me with their truck and camper and drove us all an hour or so to Hadley’s Point Campground in Bar Harbor, just outside Acadia N.P. After Ed and Martha found their campsite and DaLea and I got checked into our convenient, clean, and sparse cabin, we headed over to Acadia for a hike on the South Bubbles and the North Bubbles trails. It was late afternoon but visibility was still good, so that at the two tops we could see other sections of Acadia and had enough time to explore around the big balancing rock at the top of South Bubbles. The two trail total hiking was a little more than two miles out and back, moderately difficult but quite do-able. It was a great way to introduce us to Acadia!
After the hike we went to C-Ray Lobster across from Hadley’s Point Campground for a delicious dinner of lobster roll and lobster panini sandwiches along with blueberry pie for dessert. Good choices. Back at the cabin, we surveyed the sparseness that I mentioned earlier: we knew we were supposed to bring our own sleeping bags and pillows and wash towels, so that didn’t surprise us. What we didn’t know was that for three quarters you put in the coin collector, you get seven minutes of hot water. We learned to take time efficient showers! Another sparsity was lack of any table or chairs or anywhere to put our suitcases, so if we wanted to sit down in the cabin, we had to sit on our beds. But we will say that it was economically and geographically convenient for our main purpose of seeing the national park, so we are not complaining.
October 3:
On Tuesday morning we arose early—early for me anyway—and had a quick breakfast sitting on our beds in our cabin—food we had brought from home, except for the milk, which Martha kept in her camper frig and drove it over to us each morning. Ed picked us up at 7:30 to drive into Acadia to the Ocean Path Trail, which we hiked on and enjoyed the coastline view. It was just under two miles and an easy walk. We ended up at Thunder Hole, a narrow place on the coast where the ocean makes a roaring/clapping sound as the tide enters the hole and hits the land and then flows back out. At that spot, we took the island shuttle back to the car and then drove to the top of Cadillac Mountain for a neat view of Bar Harbor and surrounding area. Ed drove back down, while Martha and DaLea and I walked down the North Ridge Trail, a little over two miles. It was a bit steep and rocky but pretty scenery all the way down. I don’t think I would want to walk up the trail, so we were fortunate that Ed was willing to pick us up at the bottom. He hiked a little way up and met us on the trail, so he got to do a little hiking also.
From there Ed drove us—thank goodness for Ed—to the Eagle’s Lake parking lot where we unloaded our bikes and began our 13-mile bike ride on the unpaved and a bit hilly Carriage Trail around Eagle’s Lake. Most people we saw had rented electric bikes, so we have to pat ourselves on the back for our stamina in doing the bike ride on a regular bike using our own leg muscles and breathing capacity. We stopped for our sack lunch at Bubble Pond near the beginning of the ride. On this trail, we picked up Aunt Betty’s Pond Loop, which was where most of the hills were. The end of the Carriage Trail took us back to Jordan Pond House, where we intended to buy one of their popovers with ice cream, but they were sold out, so I settled for a blueberry popsicle instead. We sat on the great lawn by the Jordan Pond House and enjoyed the view of the people and mountains. (We could see where we were at the North Bubble trail top.)
After our treats, we walked the Jordan Stream Path, about 1.5 miles, in the woods and enjoyed the scenery and the stone bridge that crosses the path. It was a full day of being outdoors! Great time! Back at Hadley’s Point, Ed grilled us hamburgers and hotdogs, and we enjoyed dinner in their mosquito tented picnic table outside their camper. (I might add here that today we deviated a little from our planned itinerary—substituted the Bar Island trail for the hike down Cadillac Mountain–and it all worked out well.
October 4:
Wednesday morning awake time was even earlier than Tuesday, but it was well worth it. We arrived at Ikes Point on Echo Lake by 7:30 am, ready to go kayaking in the early morning, hoping to see some Loons. It was a wonderful experience out on the calm waters, and we did see some Loons at one end of the lake and some neat cliffs at the other end of the lake. We stayed out about an hour, nice and peaceful. After Martha and Ed loaded the kayaks—once again thank goodness for Ed—he drove us to the Beech Mountain Trailhead on a different side of Mount Desert island from Bar Harbor, close to Echo Lake.
All four of us then hiked the Beech Cliff Loop Trail and the Beech Mountain Loop Trail, for a total of about two miles but with some moderate uphill climbing. ( I have to add how lucky we were before we started hiking to drive to the wrong place to park because at the wrong place we arrived at a large recreational facility for youth groups that had the cleanest, nicest restrooms—an important factor at our ages—and the person in charge courteously let us use the facilities. Compare this to the parking lot outhouses, and you’ll understand my comment.) From the tops of these hikes we had great views of the surrounding valleys. The hikes were not real steep but very rocky and therefore quite strenuous because we had to keep our eyes on the trail just ahead of us so we would know where to take our next step on the accumulation of rocks. After the hikes we drove to Bass Harbor, Maine, where we had some tasty claim chowder soup for lunch at Thurston for Lobster.
After lunch Ed drove us all to the Bass Harbor Lighthouse. It was so crowded on the access road, though, that poor Ed just had to stay in the truck with the traffic while the three of us walked to the lighthouse to see it and then walked back, and he did a U turn and gave up trying to see it for himself. A small parking area at the lighthouse is the reason for the traffic jam. On the way back to Bar Harbor, we stopped at a roadside place for a great ice cream cone. Because of time shortage, we skipped the Hadlock Brook Loop bike ride on our itinerary, but that was okay. We drove back to Acadia thinking we might go into the visitor’s Center, but it was way too crowded, so we went on to find a parking place for our Sunset Cruise with Acadian Boat Tours. That went from 4 to 6 pm and was quite interesting. The fog made it somewhat difficult to see, especially on the return part, but we saw several of the nearby islands and heard some good history from our tour guide. I’m glad we did that. After the cruise we had dinner in Bar Harbor at McKay’s Public House. Comment here is that even though we were not there in the “tourist season,” there were plenty!!! of tourists visiting Bar Harbor in early October. My memory of this says “don’t go to Acadia in the summertime” unless you want to be with the crowds everywhere. Parking was a problem even for us in October. I can imagine the problem in the summer!
October 5:
Thursday morning. Time to check out of Hadley’s Point Campground and move on to the real purpose for the trip—to ride our bikes on the Eastern Trail. After a three-hour ride to South Portland to the Portland Head Lighthouse, we unloaded our bikes, had a picnic lunch, walked around the lighthouse area, and then left Ed as we took off for the Spring Point Lighthouse. We had to deviate from our planned bike route today and Friday, since rain was expected on Saturday, so we moved the rides from Saturday into Thursday’s and Friday’s rides. This means that I don’t have my itinerary as a reference for how far our rides were this day, so I’ll have to guess. And I don’t have my odometer with me to refer to either. Between the starting point and the first lighthouse, which was neat because it was way out on a huge rock walkway, was probably 8 miles.
We were on city streets, not on any trail, that Martha had mapped out with an app on her phone, following part of the pathway of the Maine Lighthouse Ride, which had been the week before and about one hundred miles long. The streets weren’t really crowded, though, so it was okay. Leaving the Spring Point Lighthouse, we headed for the Bug Light Lighthouse, a neat smaller white lighthouse with a black top, located also in South Portland, Maine, also known as Portland Breakwater Light, with intricate architecture resembling Greek Revival architecture. It was a cute little lighthouse, and its location is the start of the South Portland Greenbelt Pathway, which leads into the Eastern Trail.
So that’s where our official start of the Eastern Trail occurred. It was about 3 or 4 in the afternoon, and we rode about seventeen miles, about half of it on the no-motorized traffic Greenbelt and the other half on regular roads, which was a little hectic at times due to traffic. Martha’s app guided us well. On the way we went through the Scarborough Marsh—the state’s largest salt marsh conservation area, which was interesting geography and saw a few birds.
According to the trail information, we rode along a seven-mile stretch of sandy beach, but I honestly don’t remember any beach along the trail—only on Friday when we left the trail to ride to the Goat Island Lighthouse. So maybe we saw it, and maybe we didn’t. If we did, it must not have been very spectacular to me. We finished this day’s ride at the Paradise Park Campground, where Ed had already set up their camper and checked DaLea and me into our cabin. This cabin was like a “honeymoon suite” compared to the other one—we had separate bedroom, a shower with free hot water, a refrigerator, a couch, a table and chairs, and a smart TV! After settling in, we all drove to a nearby pizza place Martha found on Yelp and then to an ice cream place for dessert. Great choices for food.
October 6:
Friday morning, and our last day of bike riding. Note that the Eastern trail is on the site of the former Eastern Railroad connecting Boston to Maine (1840’s). Only about 24 miles of off-road trail are completed of the planned 65 miles, which is supposed to extend down to the New Hampshire border. When completed, it will be part of the 3,000 mile East Coast Greenway, which will connect trails from Maine to Florida, and part of the New England Rail-Trail Network, which aims to unite the regions six states of Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. The three of us agreed that if we are still around and able to, taking this trail in ten years would be another welcoming experience. For now, though, we are content to do the 24 miles completed.
Ed dropped us off near where we finished the trail yesterday, and we rode the trail for another seven or eight miles until we had to leave the trail a couple of miles early because we wanted to head for Kennebunkport, Maine, in order to continue our lighthouse excursion. We were on public roads from them on, following Martha’s app, and had some hills to take on, but we did it! I can’t go as fast as them, and they told me I needed to wear something brighter so that they can always spot me in their rear view mirrors. Nice to be looked after. We went for about ten miles through the coastal towns and had great views of the Maine east coast. Eventually, we reached our goal for lunch—the Cape Pier Chowder House near the Goat Lighthouse, which due to fog was unfortunately not very visible, but the atmosphere in the area was memorable. And thank goodness they had a public restroom.
Leaving there, still on public roads, we headed for the East Point Sanctuary, approximately another ten miles, where we were taking a little walk to try to see another lighthouse in the fog and then meeting Ed. At one point along the way, we came to an old cemetery and stopped to take photos of the gravestones for Dalea’s latest adventure in photographing and recording for Billiongraves.com. When we met Ed, we loaded our bikes on the truck one last time and headed back to Paradise Point Campground. We all agreed to go back to the same pizza place for dinner and to the same ice cream place for our desserts. Too bad I can’t remember the names of either, but they were both good enough to visit twice! (Note from Martha: The pizza place was Pizza by Alex and the ice cream place was Fielder’s Choice).
October 7:
As predicted, when we woke up, it was raining, or at least sprinkling, at Paradise Park Campground. We packed our suitcases, rolled up our sleeping bag and pillow, and gave it all to Ed and Martha to pack for the trip home today. We had decided to sleep in a little, just a little, and spend our time this morning going to the L.L. Bean store in Freeport, Maine, on the way to the airport. In my perspective, it was just like another large sporting goods store. I looked at some other hiking shoes but didn’t find anything that I liked that fit, so I didn’t buy anything except our lunch from one of the many food trucks in the parking lot. It was fun, though. Then at the airport, DaLea and I passed the waiting time putting together a jigsaw puzzle of Maine that was just half worked on in the airport waiting area. That was different and fun. Our flight home was uneventful, and Ron and Johnny picked me up and Barry picked Dalea up, and we arrived home safely after another great adventure together. I’m so glad I asked DaLea to come to Iowa with us last year. She’s a wonderful roommate and cycling companion, and she and Martha get along well. We have a good threesome.
Now I’m writing this a month later while I’m in DC for the arrival of our new little grandson Owen Jackson Swofford. It’s been a busy month since the bike trip, especially because Ron and I went to Salt Lake City for the last week in October. I feel like I’m gone a lot this fall. And it isn’t over—for two weeks I’ll be back here in DC to help take care of Olivia and Trevor and hold Owen, and Ron and Johnny will be coming up also for a few days. Henry and Daneille are good to have us up here so often. We like coming.
Note from Martha: Joyce did such a good job documenting our journey to the Eastern Trail that I decided not to post a duplicate entry. Instead, I added the photos and videos to enhance her post.
Old Orchard Beach
Georgia Pedal Pushers 