Acadia National Park

Long before our trip began, Ashleigh worried about having campgrounds each nite along the way. Although I proffered Wal Marts, she was skeptical. To this end, she wanted a reserved spot for the nite before our ferry ride from Bar Harbor to Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. Using the internet, she found campgrounds near Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park and reserved one. Soon thereafter she realized the unnecessity of the ludicrously high expense ($50 for one nite!), and tried to cancel, but they wouldn't refund the money. So, the morning of that last nite in Maine we drove from Wal Mart to our expensive campground, called Narrows Too, checked in, unhooked the trailer, and took our bikes into Acadia National Park.

Our plan was to have a pleasant bikeride around the park for the day, and that is exactly what we did. Armed with trail maps from the visitor center, we set out across the peninsula which, along with some private land, comprises the park. Acadia has a number of winding, intersecting "carriage roads" for pedestrians and bikes, but not for horses, so presumably not for carriages. I don't know for sure, but perhaps historically the roads were used by carriages. We set out from the visitor center and peddled south down the peninsula toward Seal Harbor. About halfway there, we were confronted by signs that said no bikes were allowed on private land, and bikers would be prosecuted as trespassers! Huh? We were confused, but apparently part of the peninsula along the ocean is privately owned, yet the carriage roads continue onto that land. The signs didn't explain, but my inference is that bikes are an additional liability risk that the private land owners did not want to assume.

We were stymied: we did not want to turn around, and there was no other way to Seal Harbor (or just about anywhere). We came to the only possible course of action, which was to get off and walk our bikes to the seashore, which was a little more than a mile away. The signs technically prohibited bikes, not biking, so we were still in violation, but we couldn't imagine being beefed for walking bikes on a walking trail.

The beach at Seal Harbor was nice; we dipped our feet in the cool ocean water. Children laughed and played in the water. We relaxed on the grass and caught a bus into the town of Bar Harbor. There, we got salad and sandwich for lunch, and then some remarkably delicious ice cream. Then we took the bus back to the visitor center where we had begun our day and drove back to Narrows Too. We took a little swim in the pool there, showered for good measure, and slept that nite with dreams of ferries.