From: pamela@keps.kodak.com (Pamela Blalock)
Subject: RIDE STORY: Cadillac Challenge
Organization: Kodak Electronic Printing Systems
Date: Mon, 5 Oct 1992 20:02:44 GMT

The Maine Freewheelers "Cadillac Challenge"

No, this was not a ride in big fancy cars, but rather a century that
ended with a climb to the highest point on the east "coast". Cadillac
Mountain on Mt. Desert Island (MDI) in Maine has an elevation of 1510
feet.

I can't seem to give myself a break and do an easy ride, so for my
October century, I chose one with 6000 feet of climbing as registered
by my Avocet 50 and not more than 50 feet of level road once we left
the parking lot. The route basically covered Mt. Desert Island, going
all around the perimeter, followed by a smaller loop on the Acadia
Park Loop Road, a little climb up the mountain, with incredible views
of Eagle Lake, Sommes Sound and the Atlantic Ocean, followed by a hair
raising white knuckle descent with views of the brake lights of the
cars or tour buses making their way back down.

The Maine Freewheelers had an MDI weekend, with mountain biking on the
carraige trails in the park on Saturday, camping overnight and a
choice of 25, 50, 75 or a 100 mile ride on Sunday. Acadia National
Park has over 50 miles of carraige trails running throughout the park.
The trails are hard packed gravel and most can be covered with wider
tires on a road bike. Several are graded to offer the only flat routes
on the island. There are many bike rental shops on the island, and
these trails are quite popular with tourists on rented mountain bikes.

Saturday's weather was unusaully warm with high temperatures around
70F in the sun, and even I, with my southern-lack-of-insulation wore
just shorts and a jersey. We encountered a few bikes along the way,
but nothing like the traffic jams of the summer months. In keeping
with our goal of trying to sleep in occassionally on weekends, after a
summer of rising at 2 and 3 AM to do rides, we headed out toward the
island around noon on Saturday. The "ride" started at 11AM. Steve
dusted off his mountain bike and I put my knobbies back on mine, as we
prepared for our first mountain bike adventure of the season. (I know
this isn't real mountain biking!) In Maine, hunting is not allowed on
Sundays, but it's a free-for-all other days of the week, so savvy
hikers and bikers stay out of the woods on Saturdays, except in
Acadia, where there is no hunting allowed at anytime. Maybe next 
Sunday, we'll do some more challenging single-track riding. 

The leaves have started to change, and the colors of fall, along with
the spectacular ocean views made this a wonderful ride.  Many of the
trails are loops and have signs at intersections that say "Around
Mountain" or "Around Lake" in both directions. So it's a good idea to
pick up a map at the visitor center, or to really know the trails
well. Steve knows the area fairly well, but we still rode around in
circles a couple of times before getting on the trail we meant to. We
eventually found our way to Jordan Pond House where we met up with the
group for afternoon tea and popovers, a Jordan Pond House tradition.
It was there that we saw our friends Tony and Ann, on a rented tandem
pulling their trailer with their two kids. They were enjoying the
ride, but Tony felt like he was steering a semi. The next few miles of
trail are being prepared for restoration and are quite bumpy. I
thought the kids would like the bumpy downhill ride, but apparantly
they weren't having fun anymore. Eventually the trail smoothed back
out and the cries from the trailer subsided.

Overnight, it turned quite chilly and by morning, it was hard to leave
the fireside to go start a 100 mile ride. After wearing only shorts
and jersey on Saturday afternoon, I bundled up in a thermax sweater,
tights, rain jacket, gloves and headband to prepare for the 30F temps
that greated us at 7:30. Others seemed to have a harder time leaving
warm quarters and slowly found their way to the visitor center after
8:00 AM. There were a few native Maineacs standing around in shorts;
one even started the ride in shorts, but most others agreed that it
was rather cool.  Steve and I left the tandem at home for this
one, but another tandem joined the ride. We watched at these two guys
pulled this bike out of the trunk of a car, replaced the two seats and
then realized that they really had a tandem in the trunk of a car!
This was to be their second ride together, after yesterday's 10 mile
trial ride.  This is quite a route to test a tandem on, but they
seemed eager. They were trying to decide whether to buy the bike. It
was a Burley Duet, but only the frame was original, with upgraded
wheels and drivetrain.  The owner apparently ran a bike shop and had
put top-of-the-line parts onto the bike. 

12-14 riders rolled out at 8:40 with the sun warming us a little and
the first climb out of the parking lot warming us quite a bit more.
Apparently the sync chain on the tandem was a little too loose as it
fell off on the first hill. They quickly replaced the chain, and then
realized it was important to line up the cranks and tried again!  We
talked a little for the first few miles, but I'm no match for two
strong guys on a tandem, even if they are neophytes. The only reason I
saw them for as long as I did was that they kept missing turns and
having to backtrack. They did not catch on that a stoker can be a
great navigator!

Anyway, we began with a little loop around the north side of the
island that gave us 1500 feet of climbing in the first 20 miles.  Then
we hit these little rollers that almost caused me to pitch my
altimeter into the ocean. It's still new, so I still watch it more
than I should.  I know that it doesn't record changes of less than
thirty feet, but I watched as it repeatedly went from 20 to 60 to 20
to 60 without ever adding any cumulative gain. And these weren't
gentle rollers, but short steep out of the saddle climbs.  Finally, I
changed the mode and began enjoying the scenery again. I rode with
Steve and Tony in sight for a while, but finally convinced them to go
on, since having them in sight would make me ride harder than I really
wanted to. A century in Maine, in October tends to draw only the
die-hards, so there wasn't really anyone else riding a moderate pace,
leaving me to ride alone most of the day. Although I did finish ahead
of half of the riders, since most of them stopped for a longer lunch.
We passed lots of lobster pounds along the way, and I was sorley
tempted to have a lobster lunch, but I worried I wouldn't have enough
daylight, since sunset was due at 5:50. And besides I can't have a
lobster without a beer or two.

After the initial small loop, we headed over to the southwest side of
the island and followed the coast line up and down and up and down to
Bass Harbor, around the point to Southeast Harbor, back up around the
sound and down to Northeast Harbor, where we found water and bathrooms
at the docks. I took this opportunity to shed some extra clothing as I
removed my sweater and jacket. I found the two new tandemists at the
docks making some minor adjustments and we rode along and talked for a
while. I made a few suggestions about standing, but they seemed
apprehensive and apparently never tried. They told me I had missed
them falling over sideways when they missed a shift into the granny,
but they loved the bike, and would be buying it - although they'd
install their own seats before their next ride!  I wish I had been
able to stay with them longer, since the wind picked up on the ride
into Bar Harbor.

I made my way through town and back up toward the Park Loop Road,
where the elevation changes were enough the start registering on the
Avocet 50 again.  Most of the loop road is two lanes of traffic moving
one-way, with stopping allowed in the right lane. This makes for great
cycling, since cars have plenty of room to pass, and are expecting
stopped or slow moving vehicles in the right lane anyway. There is a
$5 fee to go on the road for cars, and the sign says $2 for bikes, but
usually we are waved on through. There was a brief period in July of
this year when bikes were being charged, but we were waved through on
Sunday.

I made my way toward the Jordan Pond House, my second planned break of
the day. No popovers this time, but I would take advantage of the
other facilities and get ready to climb Cadillac. There is actually
about 400 feet of elevation gain in the four miles from Jordan Pond
House to the entrance to Cadillac, but the 1000 feet in 3.5 miles to
the Cadillac summit is what everyone talks about. This road winds it's
way to the top around a few hairpins and offers absolutely spectacular
views of the island, the ocean, the sound, and other smaller islands.
Sunday was probably the clearest day I have ridden up and the views
were even more breathtaking than I remembered. Traffic wasn't too bad,
and everyone who drove by waved with encouragement. A van load full of
mountain bikes passed me near the top, followed by a van load full of
riders, who planned to enjoy the ride down without the benefit of
struggling up the mountain. One of the rental shops in town offers
this trip. I actually find that I don't get to see very much going
down other than the road in front of me, and the brake lights of the
cars I catch as I go down. On the other hand, I have plenty of time to
look around on the way up.

I reached the parking lot, rode around the circle and added a light
jacket before beginning the descent. Timing here is very important,
because if you don't time it right, you may end up following a car all
the way down. Due to the curviness of the road, I don't really get
over 35, but the cars go even slower and sometimes stop to look
around. I had expected to see the tandem or at least a few other
riders coming down as I was climbing, but didn't encounter a soul. I
did see a rider at the base trying to mentally get ready for the climb
as I got back to the loop road.  (It's really not too bad, 6.3% for
the most part, but at mile 90, it can be daunting) I rode the
remaining 3 miles back to the visitor center, where I found Steve and
Tony recovering from their ride. The tandem had decided not to attempt
Cadillac, and had arrived about 45 minutes before me, and 5 minutes
before Steve and Tony. 4 other riders had come in earlier, but half
the riders were still out on the course. Maybe they were having
lobster dinners. Speaking of which, my 4 powerbars had served me well
on the ride, but I was ready for some real food, so we headed back
into town for a nice lobster dinner and a glass of locally brewed Bar
Harbor Ale, a fitting reward.

Well, the October ride is in the bank, just two more to go. Maybe I
can do flat ones in November and December. Nah, I'll need the hills
to keep warm then!



-- 
Pamela Blalock                                     pamela@keps.kodak.com
Kodak Electronic Printing Systems, Inc             10 down, 2 to go!
164 Lexington Road, Billerica, MA 01821-3984       BMB mixed tandem finisher!