After unhitching the bikes and getting set up, we were on the road - the Carriage Road that is. Carriage Roads are wider paths with more packed down gravel than you would see in a typical hike through the woods. There are no vehicles allowed. The Carriage Roads are only for bikers, hikers, and horseback riders.
The weather for this morning started out like every other day her so far: lots of fog, overcast, and occasional mist. Honestly, though, with the temperatures still in the 60s, it wasn't as bad as it may sound. The fog attempting to lift while still getting glimpses of the various ponds, forests, and mountains still made for quite the unique views.
But despite that excitement and energy that we had early in the morning, the first part of our trek was anything but.
We decided on doing the Jordon Pond Carriage Road Loop, which is an 8.9-mile ride past Jordon Pond, Bubble Pond, and Eagle Lake before cutting through some forests back to the Jordon Pond House.
The path starts at Jordon Pond and immediately inclines up along a mountain that overlooks the pond. This was the hardest part of the entire Carriage Road, and we almost didn't even do it. There were two problems. The first was that my dad's e-bike battery wasn't working properly, so it was a lot of effort for him to get up the hill. The second was that this hill was daunting for the best of bikers, let alone a 6-year-old Acadia, who wanted nothing more than to do some biking. We were about 8/10ths of the way up this hill - and remember this is how our bike ride started out, so it's early still - when decisions needed to be made.
Unfortunately, my dad turned around and cruised back to the Pond House to wait for us. We felt bad, especially once we found out that it wasn't really the battery that was an issue but a loose connecting wire.
As for Acadia, we could see it in her facial expression. She was frustrated and didn't know if she could push her bike up the hill anymore. But at the same time, her face was showing an attitude that she didn't want to give up.
She chose to push through, and it was the greatest thing to see. We made it the next 2/10ths of a mile and then the trails crested to a mix of flat road and downhill.
The roads were exhilarating. Acadia continued to crush it, while Aspen was helpful with the pedaling when we hit some hills. When we were on flat roads and downhills, Acadia would lead. Cara would follow. Then it would be Aspen and I. My mom was last just in case something happened.
When we encountered hills, Acadia would go for as much as she could and then deftly dismount and walk it up the hill. Cara would be her company. Aspen and I would go as far up the hill as we could before also hopping off and waiting. My mom did a mix of both.
In my opinion, the best part of the ride was when we got to Bubble Pond and hovered along the shoreline. It was still overcast and ever so lightly misting, but we got the coolest breezes and best views. We even passed a couple of horseback riders on this stretch, which made Aspen's day.
Despite biking nearly 9 miles and looping around the ponds for 3 hours, I really didn't get too many photos. It's probably not the safest call to be on a bike with a 4-year-old on the tandem while also taking photos.
After the ride, Acadia was the proudest we've ever seen her. She was absolutely pumped that she pushed through that difficult decision moment and made it through. Once back a the cars, we hitched the bikes back up and walked over to the Pond House, which was absolutely bursting at the seems. We put our names in at the restaurant to get some blueberry lemonade and popovers. It would be a 55-minute wait. Despite killing some time in the gift shop, hunger was taking over. Plus it was time to get the dogs.
We canceled our reservation and headed back to the campground to get Molly and regroup. My parents went back to get Kaylee and do the same.
Somewhere around 2 or 3 PM, we met back up in Bar Harbor. We first attempted to get food at Side Street Cafe, but they have a pretty strict one-dog-per-party policy. We decided to cut down to the harbor and eat at Stewman's Lobster Pound. They ended up sitting us in the same location that we sat with a baby Acadia and Lily way back in 2019. The lobster rolls were massive and delicious. The girls crushed their chicken tenders and mac and cheese, and then we all had enough energy to walk around Bar Harbor. We got some ice cream, did a little bit of shopping, and then headed back to our car to get back to the campsite.
Our original checkout date is today, Tuesday, so my parents came over to hang with the girls while Cara and I messed around a bit with camp to make departure day a little bit easier. By about 8 PM, everybody was exhausted and sleep would come soon.
However, Cara and I were having a hard time sleeping for one reason: we didn't want to leave. Our next stop takes us to northern New Hampshire and Crawford Notch State Park. Do a quick image search, and you'll see beautiful mountains and waterfalls. But a heat wave is rolling through, and our campground doesn't have electric hookup. It'd be too hot to hike and no relief with AC. Why drive to sweat out a long day?
The solution: head to the park office and extend our stay on Mount Desert Island for one more night! It will make traveling on Wednesday and Thursday quite annoying, but we think it'll be worth it.
Today's plan is to do a little bit of Bar Harbor, Sand Beach, Ocean Path, Thunder Hole, Park Loop Road, and maybe Cadillac Mountain. It's also getting a lot warmer here, and the sun is creeping through the clouds, so the pool might be an option as well.
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