Hill Slug Chronicles: Fozzie Does Acadia

View from Eagle Lake Carriage Road, Acadia National Park

10 October 2021

I took Fozzie, my new gravel bike, to Acadia National Park. Having done Park Loop Road and Cadillac Mountain 6 times already, my plan was to stick to the carriage roads this time.

1: Carriage Roads

Unfortunately, the eastern side of the Eagle Lake carriage road was still being repaired, so I decided to ride the newly-refurbished western side down towards Day Mountain. It wasn't a long route for a road ride, but 28 miles of hills on gravel is a different beast.

Fozzie crunched through the trails with ease on semi-knobby 40 mm tires.

I was trying not to stop for many pictures because I was recording the ride on my Fly12 for an eventual Rouvy upload, should I find the time and patience. But I did want to get some photos of Eagle Lake through the trees.

This being mid-September, there wasn't much in the way of fall color, although I could see a hint of it across the lake.

I'd brought two pairs of SPD shoes with me. One had been living in the car already as a spare pair, next to a spare pair of Look shoes and an old helmet. A ride leader can never be too prepared. The second pair was the one I'd been using for my winter mountain bike rides, and for Fozzie for the five rides I'd taken him on.

This was the first time we'd done any sustained climbing, and after eleven miles, I noticed that my toes were going numb. Weird. I'd done a towpath century on these shoes, and my toes were the only part of my body that didn't hurt that time. Must be the climbing. Was it my position? The bike had been set to my measurements, and it felt as comfortable as any of my others. I pushed on, trying to ignore it as I neared the Day Mountain ascent.

When I got to the top, I stopped the video camera, dismounted, and stood around, waiting for the feeling to come back to my toes.

Jack and I had noticed how few kids we'd seen on this trip now that the school year had begun. There were two at the top of Day Mountain, playing on the rocks. I got tired of waiting for them to get bored and did the rare thing of including people in my pictures.

My toes didn't feel any better during the descent. As I climbed again towards Jordan Pond, the bottom of my right foot began to hurt, and my knees were none too happy either. I stopped again at the pond.

Keeping my record of derp intact, I made a wrong turn, doubled back, made the correct turn, doubted myself, doubled back, and realized I'd been on the right path after all.

The last few miles of the ride were on Eagle Lake Road and Cromwell Harbor Road, a descent from start to finish. Being on pavement felt much better. I was regretting not having brought Miss Piggy. I already knew she could handle most of the gravel. I'd rather risk a fishtail than have numb and aching feet.

I ditched the idea of more carriage trails and opted for the road instead.

II: Park Loop Road

The next day, I turned the Fly12 on and entered Park Loop Road from Sieur de Monts. The road drops down then throws in a steep climb. I focused on my toes. Nothing yet. That was a good sign.

Having done this route six times before and stopped for pictures, I decided not to stop at all this time.

Only later, days after I returned to New Jersey, did I find out that a fellow Free Wheeler, who was biking with friends on Park Loop Road, spotted me there, somewhere, and called out my name. I didn't hear him, nor see him. I was too focused on the fact that, at mile eleven, my toes were going numb and my legs hurt. There was no way I'd make it up the mountain in this condition.

For the first time, when the entrance to the Cadillac Mountain summit appeared on my right, I did not turn. I did not stop as I made for Sieur de Monts and fought the Bar Harbor traffic back to the pier.

It took a full hour in the hotel room for me to regain the feeling in my toes. I emailed the Slugs, hoping one of them would set my feet right. Was it my shoes or my position?

Everyone agreed that my decades-old shoes had to go. Meanwhile, "Move your cleats back," Tom suggested. I looked at my cleats. One of the recessed hex wrench holes had a piece of canal towpath permanently wedged within. I went out to the car to retrieve the spare shoes, which, to my good fortune, already had the cleats in the more central position.

Fozzie did earn himself a moose keychain, though, for putting up with me.

I decided to give myself a day to recuperate then try for the mountain the hard way. As much as I thought I could, and wanted to, live with myself not climbing the mountain, I couldn't.

III: Cadillac Mountain

The hard way being from the hotel straight to Eagle Lake Road and the Park Loop Road entrance there, which is almost at the Cadillac summit road. It would be straight up for nearly seven miles, no rest, but, on the other hand, the entire trip would be fifteen miles. No excuses. Here we go.

I was worried that Fozzie wouldn't be geared low enough to match my plodding pace and cadence, but it turned out that I never went into the lowest gear. Fozzie is a one-by, and, while I knew when I bought him what the tooth numbers were, that was February, and, well, I've forgotten and I've never bothered to remember.

Whether I was faster or slower I don't know, but I could feel the knobs on the tires mushing into the road. I longed for Miss Piggy again.

I know Cadillac Summit road pretty well by now, having ridden it six times and trained on it three more on Rouvy over the winter. It starts off steep for the first few hundred yards past the entrance gate. It's during the second mile, though, where the climb gets slightly steeper again, and there seems to be no end in sight. I took that part well this time, not having the entire Park Loop Road in my legs for a change. The third mile is more psychological than physical, with the mountain on one side and infinity on the other. But Fozzie felt more stable than Piggy, and, with traffic restricted up the mountain now, I was able to scooch over towards the center of the road, away from the great beyond.

We got to the top with my toes only slightly tingly. Fozzie earned himself his summit prize from the little gift shop there.