Acadia NP by tandem?
 

My wife and I are looking at our travel plans for the summer. A previously planned vacation to Acadia just happens to fall subsequent to the Eastern Tandem Rally dates, so we're going to try and combine the two. How is the tandem riding around Bar Harbor and Acadia? If we ride the park, will we be limited to the perimeter road, or are the carriage paths navigable on 28c Gatorskins? How is the climb up Cadillac Mountain?

Thanks for any help!

Morgan and Carrie

I don't own a tandem, but I lived about an hour away from Acadia for 50 years. Leaving the area just a couple of years ago to move to FL. Still spend the summers near Bar Harbor. My wife and I have ridden the carriage paths and roads for the past 42 or so years. So here is a little advise from a Native Mainer. What months are you planning your trip? If any time during the summer months (mid June to mid Sept), personally I wouldn't ride the any of the park roads especially Ocean Drive or to the top of Cadillac. The roads while just repaved a few years ago are quite narrow without any shoulders. Ocean Drive is one way for quite a distance though. But there is parking on the extra lane. During the summer season the place is crawling with anti-bike drivers IMHO. Now the carriage paths are quite a bit different. But still crowded. It would be possible to use some of the more hard packed dirt trails near the visitor's center up to Witch Hole and down to Eagle Lake. Please be aware the a lot of the better runs are shared with horse traffic and their droppings. Just be sure to give them the right of way and announce your presence. Mostly the ones you will see are either rentals from Wildwood Stables or local owners that know the trails. However, poop is poop and riding though it isn't fun. There are a few places that are quite steep but worth the ride. I still have a few scars on my knees from my last fall and that was on a super Mtn bike due to loose rock/gravel and dodging horse waste. You would be quite brave using 28s as I wouldn't use anything but a Mtn bike on the regular paths. You might be better off renting a couple of MTN bikes in Bar Harbor itself. It's a beautiful area and the biking is great you just need to be aware that their is a LOT of vehicle traffic that is NOT real bike friendly. When in town don't forget to stop in at two cats for breakfast or lunch. Enjoy your trip. You can pm me if you want to know any more.

We rode our Cannonndale Road tandem on the carriage trails in August a few years back without issues. We ordered some Conti cyclocross tires that were marked as 42c. Unfortunately after they arrived (and too late to make a change) I saw that they were really 35c tires, marked as such molded into the casing, with 42c printed on the sidewall in yellow ink -- I think the 42c is the dimension including the knobbies. That said, they worked fine. We swapped out our regular 28c Gatorskins and installed the cyclocross tires before riding, so I can't tell you how the Gatorskins would have worked out, but from the look of it I was glad we were on bigger tires.

We didn't attempt to ride on the paved car roads at all, we started on the carriage trails from the visitor's center parking lot. I didn't think the carriage trails were crowded, we thought they were great. The regular roads didn't look particularly bike friendly, but we didn't give it close consideration because we were pulling a kid trailer behind the tandem, so we would have needed a LOT of room before thinking about riding there.

I think the tires we got were steel bead, which was cheaper and no problem since we had a car to carry them in. But plenty of cyclocross tires are available in folding models, so you could carry them and swap them if you wanted. To go bigger than that, I measured our frame, and I think it would have taken at least a 48c tire, but I couldn't find any of those that I could get quickly enough -- we had less than a week for prep. With more time, you could probably come up with bigger options. The stoker didn't complain about the ride of the 35c's though.

One thing we weren't used to as road riders was the dust from the carriage trails on the drivetrain. Folks with MTB experience will probably be more used to this and have a chain lube solution already in hand for those conditions.

We did LOVE riding on the carriage roads and want to go back and do it again. We just haven't found the right opening in the schedule yet.

Rode it one year on our tandem on a tandem event. .
Couldn't see a thing!
It was so damn foggy that we followed the blinking tail light of the tandem in front of us!
Had to leave the next day, but did drive up Cadillac Mt. Beautiful and a 3-masted schooner sailing by.

We biked up at Acadia several times, including by tandem. In fact, our first tandem was a rental Santana that I bought at season's end in 1994 after we had rented it from Acadia Bikes!

Anyway, if you are a light team, 28mm might be ok. I'd try to go with 32 or 35mm, though, to be safe. The carriage roads are not paved, but generally are in pretty good condition, although you might find a "soft" section here and there. They are definitely worth a day or two (or three) of riding, though. Very pretty and well laid out. The park loop road is also nice to ride if you don't mind some ups and downs (well, to be fair, the carriage roads are not flat, either). The Loop Road is one way for the most part, and has a good shoulder. It can be very busy in summer, though, especially around the more popular sights, where the shoulder can be taken up by parked cars. Try to ride it early to beat the traffic.

The main park roads are pretty tight, and again can be high-traffic. Nice in the early morning or later in the day once folks go home.

In short, Acadia is well worth a visit, and doing so by bike is one of the best ways to see it. Be sure to pack along a lock so you can secure the bike when stopping to look at the various sights, as often you will have to walk down a path or otherwise be out of sight of your bike to see what you want to see. (Example: stopping for lunch at Jordan Pond.)

On Mount Desert Island itself there are a lot of really pretty and almost traffic-free small side roads, especially on the western side of the island. You could spend many days riding around the island without seeing many cars, as long as you stay off the main highway (Rt. 3) between Ellsworth and Bar Harbor.

On Strava, there are plenty of examples of tandems in Acadia NP.

For example:

Ride MDI Mixer - Tandem

Distance.....32.0 miles
Elevation.....2,105ft
Moving Time.... 2:37:36