Acadia National Park Wow Y'all

Saying goodbye to Kimberly was tough but saying hello to Acadia National Park definitely soothed the sting. The drive up was nice and I took my time. Bar Harbor is the eastern end of a major northern transcontinental bike route and I passed two large groups of riders that were at the end of their journey. The second group included some youngsters that had to be mid-teens at the oldest.

In the morning it rained and I caught up on the blog but it later cleared up so I rode the park loop road and rode up Cadillac mountain and oh my God folks, it was amazing. The roads were smooth and perfect and fabulous. The views were beautiful and it is easily the most beautiful ride I have ever done. First a few shots from my stroll through Bar Harbor.

 They get their Maine ingredients from Dripping Springs I guess.

 Hiding from a passing shower.

 Cadillac mountain isn't very high by western standards but I decided I would push a time trial up it. Recall I set a new personal best last week at 312 watts for 20 minutes. This time I went 324 watts for 20 minutes. The hard part was that I ran out of mountain at 17 minutes so I circled the parking area and the 329 watts I had at top melted down to 324 because I just couldn't keep the power consistent while dodging cars and pedestrians. The view from the top was excellent and the cheers and congratulations from the people at the top were pretty cool. One lady led a group of people over to ask rather sheepishly if I was Lance Armstrong. They were convinced I was because I look just like him don't you know. I should have just given them their autographs and made their day. Another guy later asked me how long it took to reach the top from the main road. When I told him 17 minutes, he jumped in surprise and asked,"you mean you pedaled as hard the whole way up as you did when we passed you?" uh, yeah. Yeah it was turning into a pretty good day. The 324 is above my all time goal for 20 minutes and I'll be riding that high for awhile.

 No moose sightings but this deer was moving right along.

 Big water!

 What were they thinking when they made this sign?

Everywhere I looked was beauty but as is common I let the gopro capture the bulk of it so there aren't a million still shots for the blog but that's probably just as well.