45℉ at 5:00 with high of 74℉
Wednesday, October 19, 2016
It rained all night and didn’t clear up till mid-morning, but once it did, it was a perfectly beautiful day. We biked the “Around The Mountain” Carriage Road in the park. Between 1013 and 1940 John D. Rockefeller, Jr financed and directed construction of 57 miles of Carriage Roads for use of hikers, bikers, horse riders and horse-drawn carriages. 16 beautiful granite bridges cross streams and crevasses. Fine crushed gravel covers the roads that are wide and smooth. I walked some of these four years ago that I remember being grass. I can’t imagine more beautiful bike roads, where no cars are allowed. Having ridden horses most of my life, I can only dream of driving a carriage through these beautiful forests. The pictures speak for themselves.
We had lunch on a bench in Northeast Harbor, imagining life on one of these beautiful sailboats. Martha wanted to see the “Thunder Hole” on the eastern edge of the island where waves crash through a trough in the rocky coast. The views along the coast are spectacular and are part of the Park Loop Road. Thunder Hole wasn’t crashing on this spectacularly beautiful day, but we enjoyed the walk and scenery.
Martha wanted one more seafood dinner before leaving the area, but most of the restaurants are closed for the season. After researching and calling, we decided on “Coda”, which turned out to be very good. The treat was having Cindy Bubble join us. In 2012 Martha took a bike tour here and Cindy was one of the leaders. I was healing from shoulder surgery and couldn’t ride, but every day Cindy mapped out a plan for me, mostly hikes. She told me to go see the Gilley Museum and the Hinkley boatyard and take certain drives. She was great, so it was so nice to be able to reconnect with her and hear her stories. She had just returned from hiking in Baxter State Park for nine days. Soon she will go to Aspen, where she is a ski instructor. It was a pretty perfect day!