Morning rolled around to show a blue sky with puffy white clouds. Time for another good breakfast - eggs, french toast slivers, tasty kiwis & strawberries, yum! While we were all chatting and sharing stories of yesterday's wanderings, the weather wizard was busy. By the end of breakfast the sky was wearing a solid layer of gray once again.
The forecast called for a 30% chance of rain today, 70% tomorrow. Today sounded like there would be a possibility of some dry roads. Tomorrow? Well, who knows that tomorrow will bring? Today, it was time to ride.
Denise really, really, really wanted to ride the Schoodic Peninsula. She toyed with the idea of taking the boat to Winter Harbor, riding the peninula, and then riding back to Bar Harbor. That's a bit of mileage, and with the forecast for water falling from the sky Denise thought better of it.
OK, decision made. We'll use our bright blue car to get us to a starting point for our ride. Denise decided to park in Winter Harbor and to ride the Schoodic loop twice.
Oh, you want to ride this loop too? You can find details on this route on the Explore Maine by bike Schoodic Peninsula tour page.
We parked at the IGA in Winter Harbor. Denise even went inside and asked if it would OK to leave the car there for a few hours. The man in charge of the store was surprised - but pleased - that she asked.
Time to ride... and time to wait a little bit. The road in and around Winter Harbor was under construction, and there were sections with only one lane open. Not a problem, we were out of there after only a couple of waits. And we were headed down the peninsula with an ocean view on our right. The water disappeared for a bit, to be replaced by trees on both sides of the road, with patches of tall and very green ferns waving in the wind. Oh yes, it was windy! When we pulled in to Winter Harbor we saw a flag pointing straight towards us. Ah, that meant a headwind down and a tailwind back. That's not too bad.
Oh look - it's the end of the peninsula. No surprise, it's a rocky coastline, lots of big chunks of rock that we could waltz across. Denise's Chaco sandals - good walking sandals - hopped into her pannier, so she could happily wander across the rocks. I did remind her to stay off of the rocks that wore a dark color because I thought they might be covered with slightly wet and slippery seaweed. She didn't want to fall with her camera, so she listened.
We spent quite a while there, communing with sea gulls, soaking in visions of purple (iris) emerging from the rock, picking our way across dry rocks, chatting with other photographers, even speaking with a 4-legged friend.
That 4-legged friend? He was a funny dog who absolutely was in charge of his family. Denise stopped to chat with him and his 'mom'. She asked if she could say hello to him, and asked what he was. He was a cross between a Corgi and a black lab. He had the look of a Corgi, but he was much taller (and bigger) than other Corgis who we've met. And Bailey - I guess you're not the only dog who is in charge of his people!
Just as we got back to the car after our second loop it started serious misting. Good timing!
Driving, driving, back to Bar Harbor... It was late afternoon, and Denise wasn't quite ready to sit still yet. It was a chilly riding day, a day for wearing lots of layers, she wanted a quick warm-up shower before we headed out again to try to catch some mist over the ocean. We headed to Thunder Hole, which still wasn't thundering - probably because the tide was pretty low. We walked just a little bit before it started raining. Hmm... that was a sign that we should head back.
Rain steadier, heavier... I thought we should to head back to our home away from home, but Denise saw some light patches in the sky and she decided she wanted to drive up Cadillac Mountain to see if there was any visible beauty. I tried to convince her it wasn't worth the drive through clouds - but you know what? She was right! The top of the mountain was still in the clouds, but there was a section just below the top where there were some amazing cloud paintings decorating a landscape of pink rocks and green trees. Wow. Sometimes taking a chance is a good thing.
