the Way of the Turtle

A TURTLE IN MAINE, Part 4 -
ACADIA! 11.3 Mile Ride Around Bubble Pond, Jordan Pond, & Eagle Lake
Saturday, September 20, 2008

Shortly after my drive to the summit of Cadillac Mountain I parked at the Bubble Pond trailhead... in the last available space. I have to admit it would have been really aggravating to get there and have no place to park! Broke out my ATB and gear and headed on down the carriage trail along the western shore of Bubble Pond.

The carriage road along Bubble Pond was slightly rougher than the ones I'd run on in the morning, but still pretty easy to ride... at least in terms of the trail surface. The grade was another matter... this ride is listed as "moderate" in the AMC Discover Acadia National Park guidebook and it involved a decent amount of climbling, though nothing too terribly steep. Maybe I would have thought it was easier if I hadn't run a half marathon in the morning! On the plus side, the climbs were balanced out by some long sweet downhills.

After leaving Bubble Pond, the carriage road wound its way toward Jordan Pond, passing under a nice escarpment in the process... I even saw a nice little trail-side waterfall. Eventually I crossed the Loop Road and rode past the Jordan Pond access areas, then had a rather disappointing stretch where there were enough woods between me and the water that I couldn't really see anything, despite the fact that the views of the pond were supposed to be a highlight of the ride. In the end, it turned out I just needed to be patient... further up the hill the trail opened up on both sides as it traversed an enormous rock slide along the eastern slope of Penobscot Mountain, with the steep ridge of the mountain to the left and a rocky drop down to the pond on the right. It's too bad I was there later in the afternoon, when the trail was in the shade of the mountain - the views were great as it was, and probably would be positively awesome in the morning sunlight.

After that the path headed back into the woods and I eventually found my way down to the Eagle Lake carriage road. Instead of taking the right turn uphill to loop around the southern end of the lake and make my way back to Bubble Pond, I decided to go left and do most of the loop around Eagle Lake in the reverse direction of how I'd run it that morning. In other words, more sweet downhill riding! All too quickly I came to the north end of the lake. Toyed briefly with the idea of doing a lollipop ride out to Witch Hole Pond, but decided it was getting too late in the day, plus I wasn't sure I wanted to add another 4-5 miles of riding. So instead I continued around Eagle Lake, with some glorious views across the Lake from the relatively open northern shore and best of all - sunshine!

Despite a little bit of climbing, all too quickly I found myself at the turnoff to Bubble Pond... I guess in some ways I was lucky, because I didn't have to climb the steep hill at the south end of the lake. A short distance later I crossed the Loop Road and found myself back at the car. After loading the bike on the rack and changing into warmer clothes, I took a short walk down to the shore of Bubble Pond before heading back out on the road for the southern end of the park.

Despite my legs being more than a bit tired, this was a fun ride - I wish I could stay longer and explore even more of the carriage roads! Maybe I can do a little riding tomorrow morning...

JMH