Frequently Asked Questions and Answers
Is your cottage located on a busy street?
We are
on a side road - it is not a busy street. The street address is 14 Jordan
Pond Road, Seal Harbor, ME - the Location tab will
show you a view of the area. Our cottage is the one in the center of the image
with the brown roof. Route
3, in the bottom right corner is the main road through Seal Harbor.
If you zoom out a couple of times, you'll see how close we are to the ocean/beach
- about a ten minute walk.
How close are the neighboring houses?
The houses are not very close by. On one side of the house there is an open lot and the other side has a house about 75 feet away. The back of the house abuts Acadia National Park and is a wooded area.
Does your cottage have a private backyard?
There is a front yard, side yard and a backyard: the front yard is about 30 ft by 30 ft, the side yard is 50 ft by 100 ft and the backyard is 50 ft by 50 ft. The backyard is very private.
Is there a storage area for our bicycles?
We suggest you store your bicycles in our basement, as it is easy to shuttle the bikes in and out. The bicycles will be indoors protected from the weather too.
What can we expect for weather?
Remember that you will be near the ocean, and in Maine, so the weather can be warm at times, cool at times, and change quickly. We always bring warm fleeces and rain gear (mostly for the wind protection).
How close is your cottage to the ocean?
Seal Harbor Beach (a public sandy beach) is a half-mile from our cottage and is less than a ten minute walk away.
How far is Bar Harbor from your cottage?
Bar Harbor Center is 7 miles from our cottage and is about a 15 minute drive.
Are there dog friendly activities?
Dogs
are allowed (on-leash) on most trails in Acadia National Park. The Jordan Pond
House allows you to dine with your dog on their lawn. There
is a "dog park" within a 5 minute drive from the cottage (about 50 acres of land
the Rockefeller's allow the public to use with dogs), known as Little Long Pond.
We plan on riding our bicycles on the carriage roads. Can you tell us more about the carriage roads?
The carriage roads
are a network of over 50 miles of compacted gravel roads built by John D. Rockefeller, Jr. No
motorized vehicles are allowed, so biking on these roads is a great
way to get out and see the park. We use mountain bikes with road tires (smoother and thinner than dirt-bike [knobby] tires) and have great results. I
would not recommend the road bikes with very thin tires (the kind of
bike you would do a 75 miles/day trip with).
There
are two points to pick-up the carriage roads from our cottage: (1) head north on Jordan Pond Road (away from beach), about 1/4 mile there is a bridge that goes over a carriage path, follow the path on the left down to the carriage path. If you head east, this will take you up Day Mountain with beautiful views of ocean and islands. If
you head west, you will be on private land - which the public can access
by foot only (no bicycles).
(2) head north on Jordan Pond Road (away from beach), about 1/2 mile, take a right and a quick left onto Park Loop Rd, continue for another 1/2 mile. At the Jordan Pond Gate House you can access many of the carriage paths.
And
of course you can drive to one of the many entrances with your bikes
and then pick up a carriage road. Be sure to have a carriage road trail map with you (there are a couple in the basket at our cottage or free at the park offices), the paths can be confusing at intersections. The
carriage paths are a unique feature of Acadia National Park and are
very well maintained through a private donations (Friends of Acadia)
and matching national park funds.