Janice at the Cadillac Mountain summit
6 July 2026
The forecast for May 29 was favorable for a bike ride up Cadillac Mountain. It started off silver-gray over Frenchman Bay.
The temperature at sea level was in the low 50s. I put on glove liners under my half-finger gloves, leggings, a vest, and arm warmers, and headed out for climb number thirteen.
I chose a different route into the park this time. Usually I enter at Sieur de Monts. This time, I turned onto Schooner Head Road and went to the Schooner Head Overlook. I had the GoPro mounted and running, but all the photos are from my phone.
The Park Loop Road ticket booth is close to where Schooner Head Road intersects. There was a short line, but the traffic wasn't too bad along the popular spots of Sand Beach and Thunder Hole.
I turned into the Fabbri Picnic Area at Otter Cove.
As I was taking pictures, a fleet of Corvettes arrived. They were members of the Corvette Club of Coastal Maine, on their annual Bar Harbor trip. I saw them last year too. "What's the oldest car here?" I asked. None looked to be old at all. "This one," someone said, and pointed to a red car that looked just like all the others in the lot. "It's from 2000." So 26 years is old now? Yeah, I guess it is.
I stopped again at the causeway over Otter Creek.
Then it was away from the water, through the forest, under the Day Mountain carriage road bridge, past Wildwood Stables, past the Jordan Pond House, past Bubble Rock, and up to the Eagle Lake overlook.
Looking back:
Looking ahead:
There were no cars at all at the Cadillac Mountain summit road entrance. There had been very few cars on the loop road, and the summit lot was nearly empty. I wondered if the recent cold weather had scared people away. I'd dressed just right. The sun was out at the summit, but it was colder.
I went into the summit store to snoop around. There's coffee now. Was that there before? I found a slightly unattractive summit keychain for Janice and fastened it to the only spot left on the saddle bag.
On the way down, I always stop at the Blue Hill Overlook. The sign doesn't say that anymore; it's labeled as a summit parking lot. There's a path being built to link this lot to the top.
I'd planned to stay on Park Loop Road all the way to Sieur de Monts, but that didn't happen. The road was being resurfaced, and I ended up descending for a couple of miles on milled blacktop. I wondered how the GoPro was going to handle that. Then I reached the road crew and the detour sign. There was no Hill Slugging past this one. The detour was onto a road with New Jersey style pavement. All hope was lost for a Rouvy-quality video now. I followed the detour to Route 3 at the northern end of Bar Harbor and aimed for the pier, where I wanted to end the video with a shot of the Margaret Todd.
I let the camera roll past that, into the hotel parking lot, where a former housekeeper, now the head of maintenance, was walking. We see her almost every time we visit. She knows my car. I stopped the camera and chatted with her for a few minutes.
My traditional post-Cadillac lunch (always a late lunch) is a sour beer and a giant soft pretzel at Bar Harbor Beer Works. Jack understands and expects this. We usually sit upstairs, outdoors, on the roof. Cool as a Moose is across the street. We always go in. We never buy a thing.
Dinner was at Cafe LeBrun, which I do not like, but Jack does, and he suffers so I can play on the island. I owe him this much. The bill always comes tucked into an old book. The owner cruises the Big Chicken Barn for this. We finished in time to walk to the pier. There wasn't a sunset. No matter. It's always pretty.
The moon was hazy.
Despite the chilly weather, we were getting ice cream every night. The first night was Jordan Pond (fine). The second night was Mount Desert Ice Cream ("lemon poppy jam" for the win). Tonight was Ben and Bill's (the biggest selection, and waffle cones dipped in chocolate jimmies).
I found another little Ziggy on the balcony.
