The fog lifted!

Fog is a staple in Maine. Woke up to another foggy day; however, by noon it burned off, the sun came out and the temperature rose to the high 70s. The day began by lounging in bed and listening to the camper next door strumming his guitar; how kind of him to serenade his fellow campers.  The Venzaliner departed Seawall Campground today and first stop was Bass Harbor Head Lighthouse which began service in 1858 to warn seafarers of the Bass Harbor Bar at the eastern entrance to Bass Harbor and the southeaster entrance to Blue Hill Bay.  

After turning the high, rusty-red crag, called Bass Harbor Head, where a squat little lighthouse, in white cassock and black cap, sits demurely looking off to sea, we see before us... a large cluster of islands, covering the approaches to a deep indent of the sea, over which the mountains bend down as if to shut it out from all intrusion. These are the Cranberry Islands... and that shut-in water is Somes Sound. -- Samuel Adams Drake, The Pine Tree Coast, 1891

The road to the lighthouse is not made for Venzaliners (good thing parking is allowed on the side of the road in Acadia NP) so a roadside stop was in order…unhitch bike and off I went.  The lighthouse is still in operation (electronic since 1974) and since it was foggy on the water, the bells were ringing to notify seafarers of the coastline.  I’m not quite sure how that works--the bell rings, but how does one hear it over the waves and boat engine…hmm?

I picked up my first hitch-hiker; Gus, a young man looking for a ride. Spending his summer on the island, he was skate boarding the hills of Acadia today.  Catching rides to the top of the hills and riding his board to the bottom. I shared this with my son Ben and his response… “WHAAATTT, you picked up a hitchhiker?”  Well, I didn’t consider him a real hitchhiker (what is a real hitchhiker anyway?), I saw him earlier in the day getting out of a car with his skateboard and since he crossed my path again on the National Park Loop Road alone with his skateboard at the bottom of a hill, I assumed he was not a mass murderer but just a guy needing a lift. Maybe not the best deductive reasoning skills but a girl just has to go with her gut.

Love, love, love my bike…covered 10 of the 45 miles of carriage roads today imagining I was at the turn of the 20^th century and wishing I was in a horse and carriage as there are some hills in this neck of the woods! Thank you John D. Rockefeller Jr. and family for the carriage roads, and thanks to the road crews who quarried the granite too…amazing!

The day ended with a drive up Cadillac Mountain; amazing sights of the Cranberry Isles, and setting up camp at Blackwoods Campgrounds.