Biking the Carriage Trails
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.
That's great stuff. I've been getting out on the bike a lot over the last two months and definitely feel better for it.
I can't listen to music when I'm on the bike though – it feels almost as bad as being blindfolded, cutting a sense off like that!
As for hills, I think that's what the small chain ring is for on the front. I just like to keep going at whatever speed too – the nice thing is that when you keep doing it you get faster anyway. I also find having a visor on my helmet helps me ignore the hill by not looking directly at it – and just concentrating on the next small piece in front of me!
I'm really glad you've gotten back into biking. You were a huge inspiration to me to get into biking. I'm ready for an upgrade on the bike end to something with disc brakes.
I only use headphones on trails like the one in the picture. Otherwise I don't want to miss what's going on around me and other people on the trail.
The hills have slowly gotten better over time. I was in 1 (front) and 3 (rear) chain rings. Which allowed me to actually keep cadence. This is the first year I'm actually paying attention to cadence. When I get back onto flats I go to 2 / 4 usually and down hill I'm in 3 / 6-8. I crank along on those, my sister in law, husband and best friend can never keep up with me. Which is a nice feeling 🙂
Visor helps a ton, for the exact reason you mentioned!
Thanks for stopping by 🙂