Around Park Loop RoadBreakfast conversations danced across the tables as we all enjoyed our morning meal of fresh fruit and blueberry pancakes. Two of the other guests here at Holland Inn are also cyclists and plan to sandwich some riding in with hiking - so of course a good part of our floating words this morning had to do with riding and with touring too.
Watching ocean waves crashing
And clouds flying past
My first loop of the park today was on my bike. I followed Park Loop Road once, and then wandered off on some other roads for a while. I knew once around wouldn't be enough for today, but I wanted to do parts of the road on two feet rather than two wheels, so my second circuit was assisted by my car. First things first though... My first stop was at Sand Beach, unhampered by the weather this time unlike my rainy stop when I was here in June. I was fascinated by the sparkle of the water as the waves prepared to hit both the beach and the rocks along the sides of the beach. I watched, took some pictures, and then moved on. Thunder Hole was thundering today, and it was throwing water all over the viewing area too. I didn't stand too close, not wanting to subject my camera to the whims of the somewhat wild ocean. And as I was standing there, I was thinking about how lucky I was to travel over the water yesterday when the surface of the water was relatively calm and not today when it was more than a bit crazy.
It was a slow ride today because I just had to keep stopping. I could blame it on my camera, but it was really my desire to absorb the beauty of the rocky coastline decorated with moving, crashing, waves that made me stop. Sometimes it was enough to watch the ocean at the same time that I was keeping an eye on the road, sometimes it wasn't... The early morning sunshine, blue skies, and relative warmth (with temperatures in the low 60s) changed as the day progressed. As I turned away from the ocean, starting the inland part of the loop, the sky got progressively grayer, and it felt cooler too. I don't think that the temperature was dropping. Part of the coolness may have been my imagination (due to the diminishing bright sun), and part of it was probably from the wind. It was windy early in the day, and it just seemed to get windier as the day wore on. The sky continued to get more gray, with not a hint of blue in sight. I reached the end of the loop and turned back toward Bar Harbor. As I rolled closer to town, blue started to emerge from the gray and the sun made an appearance once again.
After I switched modes of transportation, I headed back to Thunder Hole. I wanted to walk along the coast and watch the waves, and that seemed like a good place to start. Walking, stopping and sitting for a while, carefully picking my way across the rocks strewn along the coast, staying on the dry rocks and not trespassing over the part of the rocks that appeared to be owned by the seaweed. Wait - what's that in the water? It looks like there are dark spots scattered across the waves. No, not spots, those are birds! They looked like some kind of duck to me. I asked another woman who was watching if she knew what they were, and her guess was eider - which is a type of duck. That's just one more thing that I'll need to remember to look up after I get home. The birds looked like they were riding the waves, surfing, and fishing too. They would occasionally dive deep, and sometimes they would flap their wings and then settle down once more, most of them staying in the water and not flying off. I wish I could have been closer to them, but I was standing on some high rocks without any obvious (safe) way to get closer to the parading birds. Did I take pictures? Of course I did, but I'm afraid that I was far enough away that they will just look like dark spots on the water.
The gray had returned again, with swirling clouds moving quickly across the sky, allowing some blue patches to shine through. I headed up Cadillac Mountain hoping for an interesting sky display, and I got just that. There were spots where a patch of blue was visible, where dropping clouds allowed a brief view of a lake. There were spots that were totally cloud- and fog-covered and there were spots where I was standing above the clouds. And then there was the wind. It was blowing so hard at the top of the mountain that I could barely stand up. One woman who was carrying a bit more weight than I do looked at me, told me that she was having a hard time standing still, and wondering how I was still standing there. I was very glad that I was only trying to keep me upright and that I wasn't trying to keep a bicycle standing. Actually, I don't think that I would have been able to ride in that wind. I have no idea what the wind speed was; it felt unbelievably strong. It was part of today's experience, and I'm happy to have experienced the beauty of the wind and the clouds from the top of the mountain. Cadillac Mountain topped another good riding and wandering day for me.
Hey - Rover here... You haven't heard from me in a couple of days, but I'm still traveling with Denise. I really wanted her to take my picture on top of Cadillac Mountain, but when we felt how strong the wind was blowing, well, I thought I would be blown away. What an amazing feeling! And I'm so glad we looped the park twice today.One more local seafood dinner, but tonight's had a delightful twist. I ate at Seasons, and while I did have lobster it wasn't the meal that you imagine when you think of a Maine lobster. I ordered a dish called Maine Lobster Taquito, which was described as a griddle-crisped flour tortilla filled with lobster, brie, and carmelized onions, topped with a corn and tomato salsa. It came with a side-dish of mashed sweet potatoes. All I can say is wow!
And now, it's time to send a request to the weather wizard for dry pavement in the morning. I'm hoping to ride around Park Loop Road once more before turning for home. There is rain predicted for tonight and tomorrow morning, but I can hope, can't I?
