Cycling & kayaking in Acadia

[bobmak]

I have the first week of September off and was thinking of packing up all my toys and going to Bar Harbor / Acadia for the week. It has been a long time since I actually visited the park, maybe 20 years. So I am asking the VFFT community to share with me some favorite hikes, cycling routes, etc. I know some stuff got metioned in previous threads, I'll do a search for that this weekend. Two things I am most interested in:

• Can anyone reccomend a kayak guide service in the area? I want to bring my boat and do a couple of long paddles, but I am not familiar with the coast and do not like paddling in unknown open water alone
• Cycling routes: Can any reccomend a book or description of some road cycling routes in the area, maybe in the 40-70 mile range? I could grab a map and wing it, but planning using others experiences is better
• Finally, if it wasn't mentioned in the other post already, favorite day hike. I visited the Cutler Coast last year, any other trail selections would be appreciated

If anyone else is going to be in the area anytime that week, PM me, maybe we can hook up. Thanks for the info!

 

[king tut]

Check out my Acadia trip reports from last week for the hikes, i have my favorites listed there. For biking, i also described the park loop road and cadillac climb, that was 27 miles total. I would also recommend biking around schoodic peninsula, which is not on the island but headed east on rte 1 from ellsworth and then south. If you have a few days and want a longer bike ride, plan a trip around the deer isle/stonington area. very beautiful. Last suggestion... take the bass harbor ferry out to swan's island and bike the island. I did that last year and it was very nice. You can do around 20-30 miles if you do all the roads on the island. They also have a gorgeous sand beach on the island.

Just one other note, if you have a mt bike, i would bring that instead of a road bike. The carriage roads are excellent for biking, free of car traffic, and great views. The paved roads on the island are usually crowded w/ car traffic, don't have the widest shoulders, and generally not in the greatest shape. They also have good rental rates at southwest harbor bike shop, i believe it is about $50 for 3 days mt bike rental.

 

[DougPaul]

Haven't been there for quite a while myself. One of these days...

A bunch of info at the NPS website: http://www.nps.gov/acad/index.htm

Doug

 

[Jay H]

If you're talking about biking in Maine, NOT in Acadia itself, the Maine DOT publishes a bicycle feasibility map that lists shoulder widths and traffic densities. It's probably a couple years out of date (I have it at home and don't recall the year of publication) but it is free and covers the whole state of Maine. I used it last year to get off the ACA Atlantic Coast route when I crossed maine from Kittery to Orient, ME a few years ago.

Obviously, there are better resources if you mean a road loop in Acadia NP but if you're looking at cycling outside the park, the map is a pretty good FREE resource. Heck, it's a pretty good thing to have even if you aren't cycling outside of Acadia.

As far as Kayaking goes, I've never kayaked in Acadia, except out of Stonington towards Isle Au Haut which not in Acadia proper though it's still part of the park system.

I just read an article in ACK (Atlantic Coastal Kayaker) about a trip off off west side of Somes sound towards the Cranberry Islands. However, I don't know about guide services as I've never used a guide. I'm sure others have more info here.

If you're not fixed to the Acadia area, Stonington is an awesome place to paddle. Old Quarry is a nice place and you can launch right from the campsite. It's about 5 miles to Isle Au Haut but there are a ton of islands to explore and islands that you can camp on to if you're a MITA member of which I'm not.


Jay

 

[bobmak]

Thanks for the tip Jay, I'll try to dig that map up. I would be interested mostly in cycling in the general area, preferably near the coast. I am a roadie; I have a light weight 16 spd road bike and a full blown 24 spd touring bike with some wide (34C) touring tires. I was thinking about bringing the touring bike up with me; it's a lot heavier than my road bike but has a very low granny (48/36/24 front tied to a 13/34 cassette) and I am hoping the wide tires will work on the carriage roads; I'd love to check them out. I guess the other option would be to bring my road bike (52/42 tied to a 12/26) and rent a mountain bike for the carriage roads.

Regarding kayaking, I have paddled quite a bit in the Cape Ann area and am fairly confident. The waters around Acadia are new to me; if I stick to sheltered areas (coves, shoreline, etc.) I am sure I'd be fine. If I chose to go out to more open waters I'd rather have a partner or do a day trip with a guide service. I'll probably just bring my boat and wing it.

I am not fixed to the park and would be willing to explore surrounding areas. I'll consider all tips and suggestions!

 

[Jay H]

Hey Bobmak. I've only hiked on part of the carriage roads, but I think a mountain bike would be overkill, your touring bike with the 34c tires would be fine I think. Having said that, I do a lot of road riding in my mountain bike (a steel hardtail) because I bike to work on it and that is a mixture of roads and trails. I basically run a 44/34/24, which is a slightly modified standard MTB triple, but I put a higher middle ring because the 32 standard teeth I found it better in my commute as I can do any hill on my commute in the middle ring and use the big ring for the flats. I never have to use the granny except in cases when I'm carrying groceries or stuff and need to get up the short and steep hill that I live on.

I think the 48 tooth big ring on the tourer would be a good compromise for decent speeds on paved roads but would be close to most middle rings on road bikes or the big ring on a MTB. Plus, I don't know if you have a rack on your road bike, but I'm sure you probably have one on the touring bike. It's nice to be able to shop and carry stuff! Of course, the 24 tooth will get you up most anything with your cassette in the back... I would go with the tourer, weight is not that big a deal, unless you're climbing Mt Washington.

With regards to riding on the coast, to be honest with you, when my friend and I crossed into Maine on Route 1 and went from Wells to Kennebunk on Route 1, it was not that great. I felt a lot better to be off the coast during main tourist season as I was always worried about getting creamed by some non attentive driver there cause there was loads of cars and loads of pedestrians and just traffic. I felt a lot more comfortable when we headed inland from Kennebunk to head towards Sebago Lake where we stayed at a campground there. If you were to do some riding after labor day, perhaps it will be less traffic and more enjoyable.

We road through Wells area right on the coast and although it was pretty, I was mostly focused on not getting creamed. In fact, when my friend and I were in Sebago, I remember reading about another bike tourer from CA who was killed by a dump truck along Route 1 not far from where we passed.

 

[tonycc]

I just returned from my first trip to Acadia. Lots of places to bike, and lots of bikes in those places. The public roads are a bit narrow for my tastes, but the park loop road would be excellent in the one way section. The family did a carriage road loop ride around Jordan Pond, Echo Lake and Bubble Pond. The carriage trails were smooth crushed limestone with gradual grades. The only advantage of the mountain bike was feeling more comfortable flying around the corners on the downhills.

One word of advice, if you are going to be using the carriage roads (or hiking trails for that matter) in the more popular areas get there early. Lots of people by noon through early afternoon.

We didn't get to go kayaking, but it looks like a great place. For the most part the water surrounding Mount Desert Island is fairly well protected, albeit cold. We had a seal swimming around the kayakers in front of our tent site. There are a lot of Kayak outfitters with store fronts in downtown Bar Harbor. We would have taken them up on some of their guided trips (the 2 hour sunset and the 3 hour moonlight looked awesome) but we ran out of time.

Too many trails to hike/scramble, peaks to bag, rocks to climb, shellfish to eat, etc. for a only week. I can't wait to go back.

Tony

 

[jfb]

I've biked the park loop road and the climb up Cadillac, didn't even know about the carriage roads back then but recommend them all. To answer the other question, the hike up the Precipice trail is very exciting. There's a section where you climb up steel ladder rungs driven into the rock cliff and then traverse along a very exposed ledge.

 

[GeorgeFitch]

bobmak,

There is so much good kayaking around MDI. If I had to pick a favorite destination, it would be Baker Island to the south east. The view of MDI from there is unbelievable.

This involves a little open water, but each crossing is a relatively short hop, you are never way off shore.

You can put in at South West Harbor. Cross to Great Cranberry. Go thru "The Gut" between Great and Little Cranberry. Now you can head for Baker. We always see Grey Seals near "The Gut". They are much larger than Harbor Seals.

You can land on Baker just on the east side of a bar that connects it with Little Cranberry. There are some nice old farm houses here, surrounded by wild roses. A short hike takes you to a light house smack in the center of the island. A trail leads to the very southern tip of the island where there are huge flat ledges where people used to hold dances. We walked the shoreline from there counter clockwise back to our kayaks and saw two massive bald eagles up very close.

I would strongly recommend carrying a fog horn with you along with a deck compass (and of course all other normal safety gear like PFD, paddle float, and pump). On one day we had to cross from Great Gott Island to Bass Harbor Lighthouse in very dense fog. It can be a bit spooky hearing lobster boats approaching. A few good blasts with the horn will let them know you are out there.

Have a ball!

 

[cooperhill]

I just came back from hiking and biking in Acadia. You won't need a MTB for the carriage roads - I was fine on my road bike with skinny tires. The road was very packed down and as long as you controlled your speed on the downhill - it was no problem what so ever. That said, a touring or road bike would be fine choices.

As others recommended, start early to avoid crowds.

The park loop road along the coast was nice as it was two lanes and you could ride safely in the right lane. I took the park loop road along the coast down to the Blackwoods campground and connected with Route 3 and took that back up to Bar Harbor - that was about 25 miles. You could connect it with some carriage road riding - on another day I did a loop from the eagle lake parking area -around eagle lake, bubble pond and jordan pond - a total of about 16 miles.

My favorite hike was the Penobscot / Sargent loop.

The beehive / Gorham mountain loop was nice as well. Very cool climb up the Beehive.

Beech mt. was a good short hike - although I didn't do it for a sunrise hike, I suspect it would be a good one for sunrise or sunset (only .7 miles up).

 

[dentonfabrics]

Acadia bike/hike

I've never 'yakked in Acadia but here's an awesome bike/hike I did a couple of years ago;

- get on the Park Loop Road and park at the Bubble Pond parking lot. Grab your bike, cross the road and take the path to point 7. Take a left at 7, a left at 8, and another left at 10. (For the uninitiated, all of the intersections of the carriage paths are numbered, making them easy to navigate).

- Stay on the path for a while and then Jordan Pond will appear on your left. Magnificent view! Keep taking that trail the length of the pond, continueing straight (south) past intersections 14 and 15.

- Soon the carriage path will bear left, past intersection 16 and the Jordan Pond House. Just beyond this point, you'll pick up Park Loop Rd again. Go left on Park Loop, heading north as you start to complete your loop.

- Ride past Jordan Pond again, and soon you'll get to The Bubbles parking lot. Lock your bike up to the post there and hike up to South Bubble Mtn for lunch and some great views. Hike back down to your bike, hop on it, and enjoy the two mile 100% downhill ride on Park Loop back to your car.

Great fun half-day trip. Make sure you snag the Carriage Road Users Map at the Rangers Station. You'll be able to tell by looking at the map that there are variations you can add to make the bike ride longer.

You'll love Acadia man!


bob