Our first full day of exploring took us onto Acadia’s historic carriage roads by e-bike. After a brief delay to swap out Brenda’s bike when it developed a problem, we settled into an easy pace beneath towering spruce and over the park’s iconic stone bridges. Traveling by bike made it easy to stop for photographs, enjoy the scenery, and appreciate details that are easy to miss from behind a windshield.

Lunch at Jordan Pond provided a welcome break, although the famous popover line was longer than we were willing to wait. Instead, we picked up wraps and a chocolate croissant before continuing our ride. A planned loop was cut short when one of the connecting carriage roads was closed to bicycles, forcing us to retrace part of our route.

On the ride back, I confidently led us in the wrong direction, not realizing my mistake until we reached Bubble Pond. After retracing our route, we finished the day with just over twenty miles on the bikes. We laughed about the detour all the way back to Bar Harbor.