Tuesday, 30 May 2006

Seawalls campground to Bar Harbour (Maine)

I was up bright and early today. I could see through the trees that it was a beautiful sunny day. I've been so lucky with the weather so far. I had a quick noddle and banana breakfast washed down with a brew. The camp office wasn't yet open so I set off on the bike to a couple of short local trails at Wonderland and Ship Harbor. I had the company of a small red squirrel along Ship Harbor; how come we ended up with the more aggressive American grey squirrel.

When I returned to the campground the office was open so I paid for last night's camping. ($14 - a real bargain for these parts) Breaking camp I headed of on the Hio road (no cars allowed) to join up with the SR 102 at Harbor Marsh. The skay was clear and sunny but there was just enough cool breeze to be pleasant. Heading north back to the heart of the island I stopped at Southwest Harbor and found a nice liitle cafe/restaurant called Westside Grill and stopped for elevenses of cheese quesadilla and "cozy' chamomile tea. Sitting outside in the sun overlooking the harbour was very pleasant.

From Southwest Harbor the route back to Bar harbor on the 102/198/233 roads was quite up and down - I think I would have been better off doing more hiking rather than a cycling tour. I arrived back in Bar Harbor at 2pm and found that the PC's in the library were all booked up; the first free slot was at 3pm so that gave me a perfect excuse to indulge in a Vanilla Latte and to sit and write some postcards. A trip to the Post Office was a lesson in inefficiency. I had to queue up to get an international envelope and customs form, and then queue up all over again once I'd filled things in, and then they couldn't give me change for a $20 dollar bill! It all took much longer than I expected but luckily I didn't lose too much of my internet time.

later I headed out to the Bar Harbor campground, but I actually ended up staying at the Robbins Motel opposite. The cheapest pitch at the campsite was $26 whereas a room at the motel was $28 - No competition for the sake of a pound.

I had planned to go out for a meal later but I spent so long servicing the bike, mending my cycling helmet and doing some handwashing, that I didn't bother. I didn't really fancy cycling along the SR 3 in the dark even though I'd passed a tempting steakhouse/brewery on the way.

Distance: 30.4 miles
Cycling time: 3:20
Total distance: 531.7 miles


In spite of my head protection the mosquitoes seem to have a knack of biting me on the forehead just where my cycling helmet rests!