Four Hundred Twenty Feet Above the Water (Day 8: Belfast to Bar Harbor)

Posted by Jeff, 2/22/15

Miles: 52

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What do you get when you combine the Washington Monument with, say, the Ravenel Bridge in Charleston?

The answer later in the blog post, but first, news and sports.

SEARSPORT -- In the morning, we walked down to the rocky beach. Eve waded, and I took a swim, in the cool Penobscot Bay waters.

The Penobscot River was the home of the Native American tribe of the same name for thousands of years before European settlement.

The first part of Day 8 involved a 35-mile stretch of US-1. There are no bike paths between Belfast and Ellsworth, and the US-1 shoulders are the only practical route. We left our grassy field among the RVs and started to wind around the bay. Our day's destination, Mount Desert Island, still seemed a way's off.

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Transportation Digression: Climbing Lanes

As I've said, cycling on US-1 is relatively tolerable. Although it's a categorically inferior experience to the serene off-road paths along the ECG, the substantial width (mostly 8') offsets the adjacent traffic's speed and volume. There are two major exceptions. First, US-1 still does have segments with no significant shoulders, where the pavement ends at the edge line. Second, the shoulders disappear on climbing lanes.

Climbing lanes serve an important purpose, as they let trucks and slower vehicles to stay to the right on long grades and faster vehicles pass them on the left. However, when they take the place of the shoulder, the result is an unpleasant stretch for cyclists. They are exposed in the travel lane, and the incline increases the speed differential.

Source: Google Streetview, around Stockton Springs (this is a southbound example, but similar situations exist northbound)

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At midday we reached the Penobscot Narrows Observatory Bridge.

The approach

The bridge

Built in 42 months for only $85 million. That might seem like a lot, but in the transportation world, that's both fast and cheap, considering the structure.

To enter the observatory, turn left on ME-174/Fort Knox Rd. just before the river, and after a short distance, the driveway will be on your right. The $7 admission (for a non-Maine resident) is worth it. You look out from a perch 420 feet above the river -- at the widening river mouth, the bridge cables and the traffic below, Fort Knox, Bucksport, and the verdant hills of coastal Maine.

There wasn't a long wait to go up in the tower, but when we returned to our bikes, it was mid-afternoon, and we still have 30 miles to ride.

Thanks to the long days and plentiful daylight...

...there was little pressure in getting to Mount Desert Island before dark. We even stopped for dinner in downtown Ellsworth at Cleonice Mediterranean Bistro.

Leaving downtown and heading south on High St. (US-1/SR-3), we met with a pocket of commercial sprawl. It is a four-lane stroad with fast cars. One of those cars blared its horn as it sped around us. In the heat of the moment, I reacted with a middle-fingered salute, something I instantly regretted. Remember, always take the high road (especially on High Street).

There is a narrow sidewalk to Washington St., but it's not a full sidepath, which would be nice, and there are no bike lanes. It's the main tourist traffic feeder to Acadia National Park. A touring cyclist we met the next night, who started in Montana, remarked that it was the worst stretch of his whole trip.

An alternative is to take Water St., then left on Foster St. Walking your bike on the sidewalk for a short bit and weaving through vast parking lots will get you past the wye where you split with US-1 to head south to Mount Desert Island.

Perhaps the longer detour via Bayside Rd. is also an option, but Streetview reveals no shoulders and 40 mph speed limits there.

Base map source: Google Maps

SR-3 has its own bike issues. The first stretch south of the wye (uphill) is in great need of a sidepath, for example. But a shoulder and even a bike lane eventually appear on the 9-mile segment to the island.

And then, crossing the Mount Desert Narrows bridge onto the island, there was just enough light, as seen from a mobile phone camera, to paint this.

It was a good day, and the next one would be a change of pace.

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Oh, and by the way, the Arthur Ravenel, Jr. Bridge in Charleston, SC, I mentioned at the beginning? That's also part of the East Coast Greenway. It gives you a glimpse of the great magnitude and reach of the project.