Our 10th Anniversary Trip....a New England Tour

[JohnBryer]

Julia & I headed out on a 2 week, 3,000 mile trip back on September 1, in celebration of our 10th anniversary which was on 9/14. It seemed as if every plan that we had made needed to be changed due to one reason or another.

 

The trip started off with Hurricane Ernesto blocking our way to upstate NY forcing us to change routes and head to the west of the storm. We rode from Charlotte to Erie, PA, then finished our Labor day weekend at Julia's parents place in New Hartford, NY which is near Utica. The original plan was to be at the family retreat/camp at White Lake, NY inside the Adirondack State Park. It was cold and rainy the whole time in upstate NY so we didn't spend 1 night at the camp. It was still nice seeing family.

 

From New Hartford, we left a day early and went north of the rain and toured through the Adirondack Park where we spent a night at Lake Placid. The Adirondacks are beautiful and deep, deep wilderness, but the riding was fairly uneventful. I guess living in NC, I'm quite a bit spoiled now. Here are some pictures of our trip up to Lake Placid.

 

This is Blue Mountain Lake

 

Mirror Lake in Lake Placid

 

The Mirror Lake Inn

 

Here I am in front of the building where Team USA won the Olypic Gold in Ice Hockey in 1980.

 

We left Lake Placid with our destination of Jackson, NH which is very near Mt. Washington, NH.

 

This is Ausable Chasm near the Vermont and New York border.

 

Here we are on the ferry from Essex, NY to Vermont.

 

Here's a very cool covered bridge that was about a 1/4 mile from where we stayed.

 

We stayed 2 nights at The Wentworth in Jackson. Very nice place. I'd love to have a front porch like this at my house some day!

 

My birthday was during the trip. Julia got me fly fishing lessons. We've both been wanting to give it a try after seeing everyone fly fishing in Yellowstone last year.

 

Here's a really cool white birch grove near the entrance to the Mt. Washington auto road.

 

Here are some pictures of the trip up Mt. Washington.

 

We had a fairly uneventful ride through Maine to our destination for the next 6 days....Bar Harbor, Maine and Acadia National Park.

 

We stayed at the Bar Harbor Grand hotel. What a great place! Very nice accomodations. I highly recommend this hotel.

 

Main street in Bar Harbor

 

The Margaret Todd, a 150 foot steel Schooner.

 

Jordon Pond in Acadia National Park

 

And the highlight of the trip. The popovers that came with lunch at Jordon Pond

 

While we were riding mountain bikes on the carriage trails inside Acadia, a few carriages came by. I could hardly believe the sound and force that the horses pulling these carriages made. It was quite impressive.

 

Here we are just after the carriage went by.

 

Here we are near Thunder Hole along the Loop Road inside Acadia.

 

From Acadia, we rode down the coast of Maine and spent a night with Julia's sister in Amesbury, MA. We then had a long day from Amesbury to Mt. Joy, PA in Amish country where we spent our 10th anniversary. We stayed in a great little B&B called The Olde Square Inn. We stayed in their "cottage" which was just awesome. Here's a link in case you find yourself in Central PA Amish country and need a great place to stay: http://www.oldesquareinn.com/

 

After 1 night at the inn and dinner with my niece that I haven't seen in 6 years, we headed south to Skyland resort in Shenandoah National Park for 2 nights.

 

We did a short hike to the Stony Man Cliffs. What a view!

 

Last Picture, we spotted this spider web on our walk to breakfast. How cool is this:

 

We rode the entire 105 miles of Skyline Drive and then 200 miles of the Blue Ridge Parkway to Fancy Gap before returning home. The 200 miles of the BRP were the best miles I've ever done on the parkway. Absolutely perfect weather, 65ish, and next to no traffic. We held a very steady 60 mph for most of the parkway and barely got held up by any car traffic.

 

This was our big trip of the year. Hope you enjoyed the ride report.

[Firefight911]

Congratulations on your 10th! Many wishes for your 50th!!

 

I would love to do a trip like this with my wife! I just know she would love it!

 

Great ride tale. Especially love the schooner and the picture with that beautiful fog layer settled in!!

[Francois_Dumas]

Wonderful journey and great photos too ! And you have the two best bikes in the world to match

 

But the MAIN QUESTION remains unanswered: Did you CATCH any !!!??

[JohnBryer]

Did you CATCH any !!!??

No

 

Didn't see any whales while out whale watching either.

[Francois_Dumas]

Bummer ! So you'll have to do it again !

[Felicia_NH]

Thank you for posting those beautiful pictures! Bar Harbor is one of my favorite destinations - always have taken the car there, next year it'll be on motorcycles for sure! Hope you got a chance to eat at McKay's - we found that to be one of our favorites each time we're there. Amesbury is a cute little sleepy town - has changed a lot since I grew up there.

 

You two definitely know how to celebrate an annivesary

 

-Felicia

[bmw_keith]

Great trip report and pics.

 

I've got a 4 years of marriage on you, but it looks like you've got years of your wife riding over me. Any advice? I've been trying to convince her for most of the last 14!

[SNC 1923]

What a magnificent trip. Beautifully photographed, too. Thanks for having us along. You've got a pair of nice rides, too. I'd like to add a GS to my line-up, outfitted exactly like yours.

[JohnBryer]

I've got a 4 years of marriage on you, but it looks like you've got years of your wife riding over me. Any advice? I've been trying to convince her for most of the last 14!

Julia took the MSF class and that got her hooked. She does her first track day next weekend at Carolina Motorsports Park.