Tuesday 21 September 2010

The Cadillac Escapade: An Excellent Ride

No, we’re not talking about the SUV favoured by the hip-hop crowd and notorious for being involved in drive-by shootings. We’re saying that today we climbed 1,532 ft up to the top of Cadillac mountain, the highest spot on the North Eastern Seaboard, offering 360˚ views of the surrounding area. It was stunning. And, without the bags on the back, Trusty & Steed were light as a feather, making the ascent a true “ride in the park”. The descent wasn’t bad either…

Despite the fact that we were supposed to have a “rest day” today, we decided that our surroundings were too outstandingly beautiful to either sit indoors chilling out, or even wandering around the cute town and drinking lattes etc. So, after a relaxed morning, we hit the Bar Harbor Bike Shop to pick up a map of the bike paths – Hi to Steve and Jessie – and then pedalled off into the distance…

Having reached the top of the mountain, we did the touristy thing and wandered around the loop at the top with all the other visitors, snapping away on the camera. As we were starting to head down the mountain, we bumped into Mike and Krista, who had hiked all the way up the mountain and were looking to catch a ride down... oh, we should also mention that Mike was “very funny”! We had a chat about Northern California, where they are from, and especially Gualala, CA, where they are building a vacation property, and which was one of our favourite places on the California coast.

The way down was lots of fun… it would have been more fun for Anthony had he not caught up with the cars in front and even overtaken a couple of them, but it was still a blast. Then we finished the ride by following a few of the well-groomed carriage roads in the area, away from the traffic and through some lovely wooded areas with lakes and streams etc. Bliss.

Tonight, we went back to Café This Way again, which didn’t disappoint. We’ve decided to take a further rest day here tomorrow, and then instead of backtracking by bike on the same (and only) route, we’re going to get a rental car and whizz back along the coast, freeing up some extra days to explore some new areas on our way back down the coast towards NYC.

Finally, we have two HUGE Thank You’s. Kurt, Ross and Roger Leedy, thank you so much for your amazing donation. We hope you enjoyed your trip around New England on the Harleys. Susan and Jim, thank you guys for your generosity; it’s so kind of you. We’ve been thinking of you a lot and hoping all is going well over in Fort Bragg, CA.

Us x

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