Acadia Maine

[C.P.]

We've planned a family vacation with another family to Acadia/Bar Harbor Maine.(early to mid August)
Does anyone have any good suggestions for great singletrack?
We are willing to drive as much as an hour to get to trail head if need be...
Also, if anyone knows of any good organized rides out of LBS, club rides (road even) or whatever that would be great!

C.P.

[johnbigbooty]

I don't know know of much in the way of singletrack up there, but I would like to suggest that you re-align your expectations. The carriage roads and car roads are spectacular. Acadia is one of the most beautiful, if not THE most beautiful, places to bike in New England. I was up there last summer with my wife and two kids (8 and 9 then) and we all had a blast. We didn't wheelie over any logs or drop off any slickrock. We just had fun riding.

[benb]

I went there for 2 days last summer. Since I didn't know anyone in the area I took my road bike. It's much easier to have a fun road ride in an area where you don't know where the singletrack is. The park roads are awesome, they are well paved and fast, with plenty of climbing, but no extreme grades. I did about a 60 mile ride the first day I was there, and climbed Caddilac Mountain twice. It's an extremely fun mountain to climb. It's just hard enough to be a good workout, but nothing like climbing any of the bigger climbs in NH. The views are awesome and the descent is fantastic since the roads are so smooth. The roads are in much better shape than the White Mountain National forest for example.

I got Montezuma's revenge that night, probably from overdoing it on my ride, so I went hiking the next day. The hiking trails seem to have plenty of stuff that would be a blast on a mountain bike, but unfortunatley they are marked hiking only. If I had space in the car for 2 bikes I definitely would have taken my mountain bike and done carriage roads the second day. I suspect the better views are on the paved roads though. You can rent MTBs in downtown Bar Harbor but they are pretty crappy ones, not nice ones like some other places, like in the White mountains for example.

You will have a blast and want to go back. I know I do. I actually went twice last year, but the first time was mid-may. I had been in Nova Scotia cycling, and I slept in Bar Harbor on the way home. I was going to ride the next morning but it was snowing!

Ben

Just returned from a trip to Acadia and Nova Scotia last week....Carriage roads are stellar and you will see parts of the park no one will ever see in a car....LAZY TOURONS
Not much quality single track that I know of.....The additude at the LBS was rather poor....Coming from another LBS employee that just plain SUCKS!!! They probably wont be willing to give you beta on the secret single track if any is available....
Mountain Bike Maine guidebook might be a good source for info local or relatively close to Acadia...Better than LBS....IMHO

Road riding as Ben said is SWEET!!!!
Cadilac Mountain is a great climb.........
Acadia just Rules!!!

[C.P.]

Thanks! Great Feedback! :) I am re-aligning my thoughts on Singletrack...for now (maybe a road trip to another part of Maine for singletrack is in the cards...) - we'll bring the mountain bikes, and also we'll bring our road bikes, (my wife is the road biker in our family - she'll be ecstatic to hear about great road riding.) Looks like another definite must bring will be the burley trailer for family rides on the carriage roads. We'll have quite the full trailer of vacation gear ;D
We rented a house on the water ( beach & dock) - and it comes with sea kayaks, I'm looking forward to that as well...

I'll look into that Maine Mtn Biking book as well...

Any more ideas would be greatly appreciated!