Carriage Roads (and Lobsters) Part Deux

Today dawned foggy and somewhat chilly, with a threat of rain predicted, so we decided to go bicycling again.  We really enjoyed the carriage roads on Mount Desert Island, and had only done half of them the other day, so today we decided to do the other half!

As usual, we caught the Island Explorer shuttle bus just across the road from our campground.  We've begun to see some familiar faces on the bus ride.  Today there was a fellow who gets on at Southwest Harbor and rides the bus into Bar Harbor to work; we had seen him last Friday.  Similarly, a teenage girl got on in Southwest Harbor and was joined by some of her friends - clearly year-round residents on vacation from high school, off to some adventure.

But today we happened to sit across from a couple who are also full-time RV'ers.  Their names are Stan and Karen, and they come from northern Ontario.  They've been full-timing for 10 years and Stan had lots of pointers for us - things one only learns by experience.  We enjoyed talking with them as we headed in toward Bar Harbor.

Again, we got off the bus at Eagle Lake, but this time pedaled North toward the Acadia National Park Visitor Center.  One section was a very steep downhill - which, unfortunately, we knew we'd have to pedal back up as we headed back down from the Visitor Center.  On the way back, however, we circled around behind ponds we had passed on the way up, and found one of the many very striking stone bridges.  This one was very accessible, and we climbed down to the stream under it, poked around the stream, and then climbed back up over it before continuing our bike ride.

Many of the ponds north of Eagle Lake are beaver-made.  We must have passed eight different ponds.  Interestingly, while there were several "mature" ponds (that is, they had become full-fledged, healthy bodies of water with beaver dams and lodges, and little evidence of the trees that had once stood in the meadows and wetlands that were now inundated with water), we also saw several "ponds-in-the-making," ranging from meadows that had started to flood, killing all of the trees (with the dead trees still standing), to infant ponds with all the dead trees fallen but visible.

Interestingly, one pond had a beaver lodge that had a cap of wildflowers.  We couldn't determine whether the beavers still live in it, but the lodge certainly was decorated.

About halfway through our ride, we were once again alongside Eagle Lake.  We found a nice, sunny, flat spot with rocks along the shore that were large enough to sit on.  Here's Kathy enjoying our lunchtime rest:

After lunch, we continued South from Eagle Lake and began climbing a mountain.  It was a very long, steady, demanding climb, but the views were amply rewarding.  As we neared the top, we looked back and saw Eagle Lake - where we had so recently had lunch - in the distance looking small:

The uphill seemed to go on forever, but finally we started down on the leg toward Aunt Betty Pond.  As we neared the pond, we passed a marshy meadow that was striking for its greens and the clarity of its water.

We had another very long uphill to get from the watershed containing Aunt Betty Pond, back to the watershed of Eagle Lake, but then were rewarded with an equally long downhill, back to Eagle Lake, where we picked up the Biker Express bus into Bar Harbor.

At Village Green, we gave ourselves the same reward we have each other active day:  we shared a scoop of delicious ice cream while we waited for the shuttle bus back to our campground.

As we got back to our RV, Kathy ran next door to see our neighbor Joe, who (as described in an earlier blog entry) crews on a lobster boat and had promised to get us five big lobsters.  He had fulfilled his promise and Kathy gladly paid his "boat price" for them.

As those five lobsters sat in our kitchen, wiggling and oblivious to their impending fate, we decided we needed names for them.  The first three lobsters we got from Joe we dubbed the "Three Stooges."  These we dubbed the "Fab Five" in honor of the American women's Olympic gymnastic team.  All five lobsters made perfect scores vaulting into the lobster pot.  As a result, Kathy and David, as well as our (currently, just for dinner) best friends Baxter and Luckie the cats, enjoyed a scrumptious lobster dinner.

Joe dropped by just as we had boiled the Fab Five, and we asked Joe to pose with Kathy and the shellfish to memorialize the event.  Here they are:

So, having stuffed ourselves, we topped off the evening watching Gabby Douglas winning Gold in Olympic gymnastics, and cheering for Martha McCabe, of the Canada Olympic swimming team, who is the sister of Katie's college roommate Caroline, achieving a brilliant fifth in the women's 200 meter breaststroke!  Go, Martha!