July 5, 2023 When we got up this morning, it was foggy. What’s new? The difference was that today was already 78 at 9:00 and the fog burned off once the sun came out. The predicted high for today is 86. We got the bikes loaded and were ready to leave at 10:00. Mary and John followed us to Hulls Cove Visitor Center in the park. There is a huge parking lot there and that’s where we would be unloading the bikes and starting our bike ride. The parking lot was not completely full, so we found parking spaces for both of us. In the parking lot, we saw one of these Off Grid Trailers that can go anywhere and do anything.
We were ready to hit the Witch Hole Pond Loop carriage road by 10:30.
This was a new road for us, so we were excited to get started. From the parking lot to the first intersection (1/2 mile) is very steep, but with our E-bikes it made it a lot easier.
The first small pond was part of the Breakneck Ponds group we came to.
Eagle Lake Bridge was being repaired, so it was a one-lane passage.
It was a clear day to get a great view of Eagle Lake.
From the lake, I got a view of this bridge from around the corner.
We got a great view of Duck Brook that flows into Eagle Lake. Here the brook was narrow. The road followed the stream for quite a ways.
From there, we took a new carriage road that is not part of any particular planned loop. It was the road to Aunt Betty Pond.
A lot of the roads we took today were mostly uphill climbs.
Today, we finally got a good view of Cadillac Mountain. We have reservations to drive up Cadillac Mountain on Friday.
Along the road, we found lots of ripe blueberries and stopped to pick and taste a few.
From there, we returned along the Eagle Lake Loop which we had traveled on before.
We hooked up with the other section of Witch Hole Pond Loop which we hadn’t ridden on yet.
We stopped at Duck Brook Bridge (1929). This was a beautiful 3-arch bridge that crosses Duck Brook. With 3 arches and four turret-style viewing platforms, Duck Brook Bridge is the tallest and most ornate carriage road bridge towering over New Mills Meadow Pond and Duck Brook beneath it.
As Duck Brook travels down the hillside to Frenchman Bay, it becomes a waterfall with many sets of rapids along the way.
The road followed the river most of the way. As we rode around the rest of Witch Hole Pond Loop, I got a great view of the mountains around us.
The last 3/4 of a mile of our ride today was all downhill. We finished our 12.5 mile ride around 1:00, loaded up the bikes, and headed back to the campground. It was such a beautiful day for a ride! The best one yet!
When we got back to the campground, we unloaded the bikes because rain was coming and we covered them up. Auggie and I sat outside for awhile. We heard thunder and then the rain came. We moved inside and it rained harder. The storm blew through quickly and the rain stopped. Around 4:00, the sun came out and the skies cleared. After the rain, it cooled off a bit. We enjoyed a cocktail before dinner and watched more campers arrive. We had dinner and another storm blew through. Auggie and I waited for it to pass before going on our walk. I hate those soggy evening walks! Tomorrow my brother flies in to Bangor to spend a week with us in the motorhome. We will have 4 more days here and then he will travel with us to our next destination for 3 days. We will have some fun times!