Cycling Maine's Coast - September 2012

We arrived in Portland, Maine, early Saturday afternoon and met in the downtown Portland Wharf area for our "Meet and Greet" dinner at DiMillos Floating Restaurant with the rest of the participants on this Bike and the Like Tour.

We awoke the next morning to light rain and began cycling Portland's back cove with beautiful water views. Following country backroads we passed through Yarmouth and made a stop at the DeLorme Map Headquarters. Skirting the byways of the Harraseeket River, we entered Freeport (made famous by L.L. Bean) where some cyclists had lunch while others shopped the many L.L. Bean stores. Leaving Freeport, we pedaled through beautiful Wolfe's Neck State Park and followed the gorgeous rocky Maine coastline into Brunswick, home of Bowdoin College.




Monday, we rode out of Brunswick under cloudy skies on backroads, along the Androscoggin River and through the 'port of entry' city of Bath. Then, over the Sagahadoc Bridge and on to Wiscasset where lobster rolls were the big attraction at Red's Eats. We crossed the bridge to the Boothbay region and cycled up and down the many hills along backroads before finally reaching Boothbay Harbor and the Fisherman's Wharf Inn. We arrived in time to have a couple hours to explore the town before taking our scheduled Harbor Cruise.

Leaving the Boothbay region the following morning, we cycled more rolling hills along the River Road. We continued on beautiful wooded roads to our stop for lunch in Waldoboro at Moody's Diner. There were more rolling hills to follow as we cycled along Bayview Road into Camden, a city made famous by the film Peyton Place. Once again, a light rain started just as we arrived. It continued to rain through the night and was due to rain all day. Our tour hosts arranged for a bus to take us to Bar Harbor in lieu of cycling in the thunderstorms. Along the way, we stopped at the Fort Knox Historic Park and went up the observation tower overlooking the Penobscot River. After a short visit to the fort itself, we continued on the bus crossing the Penobscot Narrows Bridge and on to Bar Harbor where we spent the next 3 days.

Our first day in Bar Harbor started with a hearty breakfast before cycling through Acadia National Park and up Cadillac Mountain, the highest point in the Park. We took some time to enjoy the views and then coasted back down the mountain and rode the park roads to Jordan Pond House for lunch and one of their famous popovers. After lunch, we returned via some of the Carriage Roads which weave through the Park. Later in the evening, we joined friends for a sunset cruise on the 4-masted Margaret Todd Schooner.

Our second day in Bar Harbor, we elected to go sightseeing in lieu of cycling. We walked around town early morning and then caught a tour with Oli's Trolley which took us around the Park Loop Road, making several stops including Cadillac Mountain. Our last day, we took the free Island Explorer bus service to Sand Beach in Acadia National Park and walked the Ocean Path to Otter Cliffs. It was quite foggy starting out but still a beautiful walk. We returned to town for lunch and arrived back at our hotel just in time to help load our bikes on the truck for the return to Portland. Back in Portland, we collected our luggage and bikes, packed the car, said "good-bye" to all our new friends, and headed to our hotel for a good night's sleep before starting our drive home the next day.