Acadia

Friday
Woke up from out cottage right off the edge of Acadia hot to trot. First stop was the hulls cove visitor center for a prized run on the carriage trails. Mis-judged distances and ended up looping eagle lake for a 13 mile run. Whoops. From there, to bar harbor for a little grocery shopping and coffee. It's definitely high season. People are everywhere. After checking in at our campsite, we went for a quick dip in echo lake. Awesome beach. The left side of the beach is a super hit abrupt cliff maybe 300 feet straight up. We saw people up there and wanted up. So we slapped on the shoes and off we went. Ended up climbing up to the beach mountain fire tower. A fantastic hike and not super far at a little under 2 miles. Lots of scrambling over the huge slabs of grantite that make up the whole park.

We took a slightly different route down that was also sweet. In places, there were ladders you had to climb down sharp rock faces. I did alright with the heights and had a great time. Dinner was the best of the best- hobo dinners. Did Hawaiian: Canadian bacon, pineapples, potatoes, onions, and jalapeños.

Saturday
Out for another run at the Jordan pond today. Kate rolled her longest one in a while at 8.5 and I did a light workout. Drove over to sand beach on the ocean following the run for a (very) quick dip. It's still freezing. 50 degrees I'm told. Ended up taking a super long Tim to get back to the campsite due to an accident and the only other way around was quite out of the way. Luckily we have no where to be. The campground isn't amazing, but with this many visitors, it's got to be tough to cram then all in. It's funny, of the 20 or so that are within earshot, the vast majority are super quiet....but there's always one a-hole. I suppose that's true in many aspects of life.

Sunday
Long run today. Parked at another stretch of carriage paths and set out with hopes on 16. Kate wasn't going super far today, but we fixed her flat up and she hopped on the bike after her run. Generally a great run. At one point though, I climbed for nearly 3 miles straight. Very gassed at the top. 43 miles in 3 days right now. Just rolling.

Another dip in echo lake- mainly to avoid the crappy count showers at the general store down the road from the campground I guess. It's hot today 80 or so I'd guess, but we haven't had any phone or internet since getting here. It's laundry time now though and they also have wifi. Score. Hoping for a grand lobster meal tonight.

Montreal redux

Tuesday

Well, day two of the trip wasn't the grandest of events, with overpaying on a room and having to cook in there too. Morning run in north bay wasn't much either. They have a path along the lake, but it doesn't go super far and I wasn't creative so I ended up doing a large portion of the run on some nameless road heading out of town.

It was cool to see Ottawa, if only Fromm the freeway. Not many suburbs, they must have strict codes about where you can build. For a town of over 1 million, we were in and out of the city in less than half an hour. 

We rolled into Montreal right around rush hour, which then took us a bit longer to get to Pierre Paul's house. Those dang bridges are quite long and there aren't many of them. 

This time, we entered the city from the west side of the island. It really out into perspective how big the thing is. Quite a ways before you were actually in the city.

The new house they have is great. Somewhat close to his parents, in a quiet neighborhood across the mighty at Lawrence from downtown. They have a good sized yard and we was all remodeled with modern appliance, lighting, and cabinets. We hung out for a little while to let traffic settle down, then set off for the metro and a night on the town.

Dinner at the deli across the street from Schwarzt's. Amazing smoked meat. Just as good as I remembered it. We bar hopped from there. A couple breweries, a French Canadian dive bar, the distillery, a specialty cocktail place with a amazing selection. We were desperately trying to pay for most of it after being able to crash at his house, but he just wouldn't have it and would often be figuring it out in French long before we cued in what was happening. We ended the night at a poutine place and split a large platter. That stuff is also unreal. 

Wednesday

Pierre Paul had to take off early the next morning, although I was up to see him off, then slept a little longer. It was a hot one- 90+ so I skipped the long workout and went for a 10 miler. Wasn't able to get to the islands on the river this time- turns out there was a ship coming through the locks. It's crazy because it's a huge bike route into the city, but it's a lift bridge so they just shut it down. One of the cyclists told me 20 min at least. Guess it was time to explore a new route. No where near pleasant in the heat, humidity, and a little hungover, but I got the job done. Saw the big ore boat coming in too on my run after finding another path along the river. Thunder Bay based. The guys still had quite the journey in front of them! Went for some bagels afterward in the neighborhood and came back with 12 for 8$- which I'm also told the u.s. Dollar is killing it against the Canadian dollar right now so it was a heck of a deal. These bagels are also the real deal. Kate and I. Will be happily coasting on these the next few days.

We didn't exactly get an early start out the door, I think we barely beat 1 pm, but we set off, again for the metro, where I parked the car and we hopped on bound for the island.

Public transit is well trod here. The metro area isn't a ton bigger than msp,  3.8 million I think, but it's much denser and I think there is more of a culture for it. I guess the metro is a remnant of the world fair (or Olympics?) so it's a bit old, but a very efficient system. We mainly meandered the streets most of the day. Old town, downtown, and Mgill. With the crazy heat and humidity though, it was tough and we took lots of breaks. Eventually, we popped back on the subway and went up to the jean talon market. Bought a lot of fruit there, which I surprisingly told the truth on at the border (don't worry, we got to keep all of it) along with some whipped maple. We ended up randomly picking an Indian place for dinner. Solid, but not out of this world. Neither of us were starving in the excessive heat though. 

Back home, i did a little shakeout in the setting sun and we went over to an ice cream place in the neighborhood. Turns out, they didn't take visa or MasterCard for credit (still unclear exactly which kind of credit they DID take), and we were basically out of Canadian dollars. This out us in a bit of a crunch because they had already served up the ice cream. Lucky as heck, the girl working was headed to Vegas the next day, so she took our U.S. Cash. I guess sometimes it just works out.

Thursday

I was up a bit early today for an attempt at the long workout I skipped yesterday. Absolutely bombed it. Got across the canal this time, and the warmed felt alright, but splits were way off and I ended up cutting it short on top of it. Found out after the fact that it was still 80 with a 70 degree dew point. I suppose that would make sense why 6:00 pace felt like death.

We hit the road bound for Maine via Sherbrooke. It was cool to see mor of the Quebec countryside. We stopped in a small town- east angus for lunch. Definitely had a bit of a Europe vibe going on. The route through Maine was gorgeous too. Lots of lakes and rivers flowing through coniferous forests backdropped against mountains. Crossed the a.t as well. I had originally hoped to stop and take a peak, but it was raining and not super inviting.

We didn't have much of a game plan upon arriving, so we stopped in downtown Bangor for a burger and got a hotel room right on the edge of Acadia. The burgers were great. Grass fed, Maine raised ground beef and lots of local beers. Very excited to be done driving for a bit now and explore Acadia again.

On the road again!

I don't know what it is about exit signs, bathroom stops at gas stations, or cooking with a camp stove in a hotel room, but I'm excited to be back at it again.

We took a leisurely start to the trip, not pushing off until 11 from mpls. I've traveled 94 east a number of times now, but we were breaking ground fairly quickly when we ducked out at eau Claire bound for the u.p. And beyond. A quick lunch stop in Wausau, wi- looked like a nice town and we soon found ourselves winding some county road, (some random letter, of course) bound for the north side of Green Bay. Even saw a sign for bonduel, wi!

The drive through the u.p was awesome. Lots of good views of Lake Michigan. And seemingly endless woods. The campground I had researched turned out to be igreat too. 6. Miles down a gravel road, right on the lake. We had a late supper, but got up (late again), went for a run, and had a good swim in the lake. A little bit of grass at waters edge, then endless sand. Absolutely beautiful.

Sault st Marie was cool to pass through, but we didn't dwell. A good thing too, as the border wait was a solid half hour and the trans Canadian highway isn't nearly as swift as our interstates. Much more rolling bumps and small towns to pass through. We had lunch at Bruce's mine, a town on the North shore of Huron. Another great lunch stop. Found a place right on the lake. Only a glimpse at superior, but I'll count it for 3 of the 5 Great Lakes thus far!

Afternoon was relatively uneventful. Sudbury wasn't a lot to see. Lake nissaping was cool, although no camping or cottages/motels on the north shore at least. We drove clear into north bay and settled on a days in downtown. Probably over paid at 110 Canadian a night, but what can ya do.

Hoping to hit Montreal by mid afternoon tomorrow. Pierre Paul will be around in the afternoon which is awesome, although a little crappy he won't be there the following day. Should be a good time though.

Yup, no campgrounds will do this. Photo by Kate...