Unbeknownst to us the spare bedroom at our rental had a taxidermied bear under it. Craig and I had been in the room several times before my sister in law arrived and didn’t notice it. Then when she arrived and we went to make the bed, there was silence, a gasp and a scream. Of course this was all happening at night and thus making the “not what you expected” factor rise a lot more.

Before we left Craig and Kerry took some fun pics. Kerry has been vegan since the start of the year, so it seemed perfect to have her reading her book, “Simply Vegan”.

Of all the reasons to come to Maine this is by far my favorite; biking the carriage trails of Acadia. The hills are deceiving and I’m in awe of people who just fly by me. Today we did a 9 mile loop with a stop at Jordan Pond House for some pop overs.

Route: We parked at Bubble Pond, headed up to the Jordan Pond loop, went by Jordan Pond House, then around the mountain, down the backside of Eagle Lake and then back up to the Bubbles parking area.

Observations along the way:

• I bike up hills at 3-4 mph
• Stopping for longer than a minute after mile 5 garnered much longer start ups
• 65 degree weather and cloudy is perfect for me for biking
• Pack a small point and shoot camera
• Get an extra battery pack for the iPhone
• Listening to the Crystal Method for most of the trip seriously kept me moving?

Accomplishments:

• First ride of the season, 9 miles
• Did not have to stop on the hills, just went slow and steady
• Did not stress about hills, but accepted them and chose to conquer them

We managed to time our ride perfectly again to bump into the horse and carriage teams leaving the stables with their passengers. Each group waved to us and said Hi.

As always I loved the ride, had a great time and wish I could do it every weekend. A slightly easier version would be nice everyday to get to work.

We had fun later in the trip where we seemed to be the only ones on the trail and we shot some video. Craig is going to be compiling it into something fun to watch and I’ll post when he does.

Kerry and I decided to explore Great Wass Island today. The weather was perfect and we wanted to get out of the house, as well as get some exercise. My inlaws and Kerry had gone to this island last year but I never made it. It definitely ranks up as one of my favorite trails to hike.

The trail included several varieties of terrain, from roots and dirt, to boardwalks and several large boulders. I love the trees through these island landscapes, they’re small and scraggly growing in directions clearly blown by the Atlantic wind. In the woods the temperature was perfect, we worked up a good sweat. Along the trail I managed to scare a red squirrel and a spruce grouse.

At the terminus of the trail we got an incredible view of the Atlantic Ocean. We had the whole beach to ourselves for quite a while.

The rocks were wonderfully sun baked and kept us warm as the wind picked up and made for a chilly but sunny lunch. We were able to keep with our vegan eating packing left overs. It was a great way to spend the afternoon. According to the LoseIt app, our 2.5 hour hike totaled 1100 calories burned.  We spent a total of 3.5 hours out on the island.

Onto tomorrow and more adventures!

This year we’ve taken two weeks to vacation/retreat in Maine. The house as it turns out is being rented out to the public for the first time and I think we are the first renters. The view and location are incredible. We’re only 45 minutes from Bar Harbor and 20 minutes from Ellsworth. High speed internet was supposed to be in place, but it took a while for the internet company to get things going. With that said, Fairpoint is so much better to deal with than AT&T.

Unlike last year we’ve had incredible weather. Almost everyday has been sunny with a light breeze and as I said before, gorgeous views. I’m incredibly grateful for that. We’ve spent a lot of time reading and brainstorming projects and future plans. We’ve made some delicious healthy meals and working on sun tans. We both managed to get decent burns after sitting out for 5 hours on one day.

We made a trip into Bar Harbor and enjoyed town life and lots of lobster. I visited my favorite store, Cool As A Moose and picked up some new Life Is Good swag. Today begins the second week and we’re off to do some biking and enjoy the outdoors.

A few weekends ago, we had finally set a date for our [Kelly, Debbie and myself] 30th birthday weekend away. It should be noted our birthdays are all in February and March. It has taken this long to get everyone’s schedules together. Just before the trip Kelly had to back out due to having contracted the swine flu. We only had a few more weeks left in the year, so we opted to go ahead with the day trip.

To add to the chaos of the weekend, we were also being deluged by tropical storm Ida. Our plans were to visit Newport, RI; shop on Thames St, eat at the Red Parrot and then head out to the cliff walk and mansions. We managed to keep our plans with several puddles, umbrellas and rain drop dodging runs.

The food at the Red Parrot was very delicious and we spent quite a while just catching up. Then we ventured back on to Thames and did some fudge shopping and Christmas gift shopping. We browsed through the GAP and the General Store. We decided to try to see at least one of the mansions before we headed to dinner. Turns out they have really short hours and high costs. It was $18.00 a ticket and we got 45 minutes in the mansion before they closed at 5pm. We visited the Breakers which Craig and I hadn’t been to in a very long time. They had some Christmas decorations out but not the full regalia as it will be this week.

If you’ve never been to Newport, RI and have never seen the mansions, it’s worth the cost and trip. They are amazing. To create these today would be nearly impossible, the raw materials would be too expensive, even for the Bill Gates of the world. The land is is beautiful and the views are amazing.

After the mansions, we tried to see if the ocean was visible enough for photos, but it got dark so quickly. We even went out along the Ocean Drive but it was just dark and foggy. The group had filled up on fudge and jelly bellies from earlier so we headed back into town and then back home.

I’m hoping Craig and I will get over there again before Christmas to see Marble House decorated for Christmas.

While on vacation we had planned to get some biking in. I’ve been pretty out of it this past year. Also it’s not advised for Craig while he has his neck issue.

We finally got a break in weather on Wednesday and we headed into the National Forest to the Lincoln Woods trail. We talked to these wonderful park rangers who gave us our options. They said the trail that leads up to the falls has “some” railroad ties left in place. Ok… not a problem, because it’s a rail trail, so guaranteed nothing more than a 3% grade and a few railroad ties is not a big deal.

Turns out it was lots of railroad ties. The trail turned out to be a lot of fun. The way out to the falls and trail terminus (for bicyclists) was 2.8 miles, it was also the 3% up. Imagine having to bike over roots and rocks, but throw in speed bumps every 3-4 feet, you’ve got the Lincoln Woods trail. About 3/4 way out I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to keep going. It was really kicking my butt and I was burning out. Craig stopped with me while I caught my breath and we decided to give it a little more.

One positive of the trail is on either side of the ties there is a small path to ride that is just dirt and roots. I was wondering how I was going to do on the way back but was glad to be able to rest when we got to the bridge.

The ride back turned out to be a lot of fun. It was 3% grade down. It pushed me to use my biking skills to pick a good line, avoid the nails that were still in some of the ties, ride out of the saddle to avoid destroying my butt and back. I also realized after a good mile that I would need to float my hands on my handlebars because my wrists were getting very sore. As usual my extra weight gave me quite a bit of momentum going down hill, I even hopped my bike up on to a bridge and kept going. I felt great after the ride, I loved the technicalities of the trail and was ready to go do it again the next day.

If your in that area, have a mountain bike, go do this trail. For those experienced and in shape riders this probably won’t be much of a challenge, but for the novice group it’s a good and safe technical challenge.

The sun was shining! I slept in pretty late today, and was a bit cranky when I got going. Everyone was up already and heading out the door and I was still trying to wipe sleep from my eyes. I opted to just stay back with Craig. We took our time getting up but got to enjoy the sun in the back yard.

We broke out our chairs and sat on the deck. I snapped quite a few photos of the house and the yard; very glad they mowed yesterday. We relaxed, read our books, listened to music and then a cool ocean breeze came in and we retreated in doors.

It got cool enough to start up the fireplace again, and we set up in the living room with the view of the yard.

Kerry, Marty and Kathy came back from their hike later on and said they saw dolphins jumping in the water but didn’t have a camera able to snap any pics. I wish I had been more awake in the morning to go.

We all set about cleaning up and getting ourselves ready to go the next day. We managed to eat many more good foods since we had bought abundantly.

Later in the day Craig and Kerry finally got to work on music. Craig had written several songs that had guitar pieces. They recorded for several hours. I’m looking forward to hearing the final results.

Thursday was the one day with a guaranteed window of sun. We decided to head down as a group to Acadia National Park and Bar Harbor. Our first stop was to Bar Harbor Bike Shop to rent Kerry a bike. My CR-V was fully loaded for the day, 2 kayaks and 3 bikes.

We headed over to Eagle Lake to ride the shore side and then up to Bubble Pond. There were signs and warnings of wash outs. For comparison, we’ve been coming here this same week of June for about 4-5 years now. Two years ago, the streams were so bone dry it looked like it hadn’t rained in many weeks. This year the gravel from the carriage trails was washed all through the woods. In one spot the water was rushing so loudly and going over the banks and through the trees. The trail for the most part was in good shape.

I was happy to be able to bike without stopping up the hill to the Bubbles. This had been a spot that I used to have to walk. Although when we crossed the road and started over a steep short incline for a bridge, my thighs were burning. We rode out to our usual spot and snapped some pics.

We rode back to the car, making a few more picture stops. I’d love to come back here someday and be able to just ride through 8-14 miles of trails in a day and consider that a good workout.

After our ride we headed up to the summit of Cadillac Mountain to eat our lunch. I got to see a sight I had never seen; fog rolling over the islands. We were above the clouds and looking down on the bay. I managed to get sunburned on my shoulders, but I don’t mind, it was so nice to see the sun for just a few minutes.

We tried to go to Hadlock Pond to bike and kayak but we weren’t sure if kayaks were allowed. The biking parking lot was full. So we headed back to Eagle Lake for kayaking and biking, but the waters were too choppy since the wind had picked up significantly. We headed up to Jordan Pond, the parking lots there were all full as well. I hadn’t seen Acadia this packed ever. Not sure if gas prices being lower got everyone out on the go again.

Kerry, Kathy and Marty took another bike ride along the Jordan Pond trails. Craig and I napped in the car.

The sun was really shining and we all commented on this is how summer should be. Not this rainy dreary constant gray we’ve been having.

We headed back to Bar Harbor to drop off Kerry’s bike rental and then grab a light dinner. We went to the Cottage Street Bakery and had delicious lobster raviolis. I made a stop at one store trying to get more gifts for people.

A quiet ride back to our place and we all slept very well.

Wednesday the weather finally let up. We all took advantage of the satellite dish getting some coverage and hopped on the internets to catch up on life.

Kerry, Craig and I explored the peninsula we’re staying on via bike. The mosquitos kept us moving briskly. If I went too slow on hills, they’d be right there ready to eat me. The temp had gone up a bit too and the air was very humid.

After freshening up we headed down to Ellsworth for some shopping. Cadillac Mountain sports again, to get new tires for my bike and some clothes for Kerry. We also stopped at Shirley’s Yarn and Things where I picked up some gifts for friends.

It was fun driving around just the three of us, we hadn’t done that since probably around 1997.