Biking in Acadia

Acadia has extensive bike trails on the so called carriage road in the center of the park. The trails are mostly covered by crushed small rocks, and they are hilly but not really very steep - good for recreational use. In addition, a good portion of the trails is shaded which makes biking more enjoyable on a hot summer day.

Jordan pond 

We went to biking on the 4th day of our stay at Acadia. It was a cloudy day as forecast. The cloud was low, and the sky was grey - one could not see the beauty of Acadia at all. We rent bikes at Bar Harbor Bicycles.  Following the suggestions of a clerk at the bicycle store, we did not use the park shuttle to get into to the park, we biked to the trail head directly instead. It was less than a mile away from the store.

on a downhill slope

It was an relatively easy trail for Justin, Nicholas could more or less stay with his older brother with some efforts. It was, however, strenuous for Lily and I, especially those long ascending slopes. I was the slowest biker in our family. The boys had to wait for us, especially me, at the top of every long ascending slope. With the hard work to overcome each long ascending slope , we were rewarded by easy high speed ride on a long downhill slope.  

taking break at a small trail side water fall

The bike trails hugged  quite a few glacier lakes, such as Eagle Lake, Jordan pond. We could check lily flowers, beavers dam more closely during our breaks on the trails.

Lily pond

beaver's dam

About half way through our planed biking ride, we reached Jordan pond,  we dined at Jordan House - the best restaurant in national park service system, for lunch. The timing was almost perfect, we waited for only 5 minutes or so before being seated at our table in the usually very crowded restaurant.  The service was excellent, the food was great, and all of us loved the famed popover bread.  

our rented bikes outside Jordan house

As we embarked on our return trip, the cloud turned into mist. It was a perfect weather for strenuous biking.  We completed the total of 20 mile hilly bike trails in about 6 hours including breaks. We returned to hotel early,  ~ 4:30pm. After showering, Lily and I watched two episodes of "Get out alive with Bear Grylls" on computer, the boys played games.

It was a great biking day from start to end!