May 6, 2021
Day 1: Bar Harbor to Bucksport
Welcome to Maine!
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Note; the above map is interactive; you can click on it and zoom and pan to see the geography as you wish.
After driving in the rain all day yesterday, Doc and I were pretty happy to wake up to no rain today. Unfortunately, Doc was feeling a bit under the weather and thinks he may be coming down with a cold. It's miserable enough to have to deal with a cold while traveling, but it's even worse when you have to pedal a heavy bike all day while sick. Welcome to Maine.
After enjoying the motel breakfast, Doc hung at the motel to rest and prep for today's ride while I took care of the rental vehicle. I fueled it up, then made a stop at the post office to mail home the GPS unit I used to navigate out here and a cable lock Doc no longer needed. I gave away the ropes we used to secure the bikes in the back of the truck, then drove 11 miles to the Bar Harbor/Trenton/Hancock County airport to turn in the rental vehicle. The 11-mile taxi ride back cost $40 with tip, which seemed a bit much to me, but it was the only game in town. By the time I changed clothes and packed, it was almost 11:00am before we rolled away from the hotel. So sue us for a late start, we were fatigued from the hectic travel pace getting here and it is what it is.
A short ride found us on Main Street and then at the dock, which is the official start of the Northern Tier route. Here we are as photographed by a friendly stranger:
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We rolled away from the dock and began to climb as we worked our way adjacent to Acadia National Park. It was cold and windy, but we warmed due to the effort of propelling the loaded bikes. We estimate Doc's bike to weigh in at about 60-70 pounds, and my bike tilts the scale at 104 pounds loaded. So each of us is wrangling our own weight plus about an additional 50% up the hills.
Acadia National Park is quite beautiful, and we regretted that we could only briefly enter it.
We rode adjacent to the shore much of the day, and there were many picturesque views.
There was heavy traffic on Route 3, but we had a shoulder until we reached Ellsworth. The shoulder disappeared for a few miles in Ellsworth and the traffic was aggressive, making for rather unpleasant riding. We turned onto Highway 1 and entered the downtown area and found a nice diner for lunch and a bit of rest. Doc had a beer and 2 advil for lunch, plus a little something to eat, and we both left feeling rested and refreshed. Leaving Ellsworth we were surprised by a long climb with steep grades at times - we burned off most of our lunch just getting up that climb! After that, the grades were gentle on Route 1 and we rode a constant roller-coaster up and down as we worked our way south along the coast. There was a wide shoulder and the traffic wasn't bad - we are a couple of weeks ahead of the tourist season and that's a good thing. It was tempting (not) to stop at the "Big Chicken Barn Books & Antiques" but we needed to move on so that attraction will have to be enjoyed another day.
Highway 1 is also U.S. Bicycle Route System 1 for portions of our travel:
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We only rode 42 miles today, but it seemed like a lot as we adjust to the loaded bikes. Due to our late start, we arrived at the hotel at 5pm. Quickly changing and showering, we walked about a half mile to a nice dinner in celebration of completing the first day. I had a nice local brown ale, and Doc enjoyed 2 more beers - I think he is trying to get rid of his cold via alcohol. So now, we have ridden about 1% of the distance of the Northern Tier route - we only have 99% to go! Tomorrow is another day (I bet you knew that) and we hope to get away earlier than we did today, so good night all - be glad that you are warm and dry, I know we are...
Today's ride: 42 miles (68 km)
Total: 42 miles (68 km)
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