I'm going to say that yesterday was the "Triathlon of Visiting a National Park." We biked. We hiked. We ate.
It started out pretty early, as usual, but this time it was on bicycles instead of in the van. We got on the road outside our house and headed toward Loop Road, which is the main road in the park. We're not staying near an official road entrance, so we had to carry our bikes through an opening in the woods to the road. From there, we biked a couple miles to an a carriage road bridge. Again, we had to hop of the bikes and carry them to the carriage road.
The carriage roads are nice because there are no vehicles on them - only walkers, bikers, and horses.
We were on the carriage road for another mile or so before arrive at Jordan Pond and the Jordan Pond House. The House is famous for its popovers. We knew it could be busy by the time we returned from our hike and hoped to make a reservation, but they were already booked up. We'd just have to chance it after we came back from the trail.
Our trail for today was on the Spring Trail, which takes along and then eventually to the Penobscot Mountain. The trailhead was only a minute-walk from the Jordon Pond House. It started out wooded and took you over the Jordan Stream very early on.