The Final Day
Day 18
8:30 am, 8/17/2011

 

John and Bill spent two more days in the rain, on crappy roads, and seedy motels before calling it a day. If they had been planning to go to DC that would be one thing, but they just were planning on making it to the outskirts of Philly.

They did run into one interesting place of business on the way, though. W/ Bill's rain hat, he almost seems to fit there....

An account of the last day from John:

We got up around 5:45am & were out of the "crack house/whorehouse" hotel around 6:45am. We decided the night before to end the ride. The rain and low visibility of the previous two days was dangerous. And mentally we were done. We made arrangements with Debbie and Gaby to save us the next day.

Leaving the hotel, we headed for the Bloomingburg Diner for the usual oatmeal & eggs breakfast. Bill was a Trooper in the area 40 years ago and knew the restaurant well. Breakfast done, we headed out in a dark, heavy cloud covered rainy morning. About 7 or 8 miles outside of Bloomingburg we missed the turnoff for CR65. Bill spotted a business with the front door open, and went in for directions. Afer a few minutes he poked his head out and said "John you've got to get in here and see this". I walked into a huge Taxidermy shop specializing in North American and African game; Brown bear, Grizzly bear, Deer, Antelope Birds fish etc. Took pictures, got direction and we were off to Otisville. And yes it was still raining.

Arrived there around 11 am. Stopped for coffe @ a Gulf service station. As we left for Port Jervis the sun began to break thru the clouds. We had intermittent rain during this final part of the journey. Arrived in Port Jervis around 12:15. With Pete's help & some local directions we located the Comfort Inn, now the Days Inn( another dive). We had a large pizza and celebrated the end of the adventure.

Debbie arrived around 1:45 pm. Bill & Debbie then drove me three hours out of their way to Philadelphia during rush hour for which I will always be grateful. Dropped off @ Drexell U., Gaby arrived for the final phase of the rescue. Thank you Gaby!!!!!!! Thats my version Pete. I'm sure Bill could add some "color" to the text.

Bill & Pete, I want to thank you both for your comradery& friendship. We have a unique chemistry which makes these trips so enjoyable for me. I also want to thank the ladies in our lives; Rosanna, Debbie and Gaby, for supporting and understanding our need to do these crazy bike trips. AND being there (rescuing us) when we need them. Looking forward to the next time the Three Amigos ride again. John L.

And I want to add a big thank you to Rosana and Blue (and Neo), who drove all the way to Poughkeepsie (Poughkeepsie! (on a work night!)) to pick me up. Love you two!

The Day in Connecticut That Killed My Knees
Day 17
8:50 pm, 8/16/2011

Top five climbing days I've had anywhere:

1. 6867 Skyline Drive/Blue-ridge 2010
2. 5890 Skyline Drive/Blue-ridge 2010
3. 4874 Skyline Drive/Blue-ridge 2010
4. 4873 Pacific Coast 2008
5. 4855 Connecticut 2011

Note that the last three are all within a few feet of each other. The biggest climbing day on the Tetons-to-Tides ride was only 4200 feet. So I've only had two days w/ significantly more climbing than that day in Conn. Note, of course, that all of these climbs were on a fully-loaded touring bike. (tent/sleeping bag/etc.).

Update from Bill and John: Taking Cover in a Whorehouse
Day 16
6:27 pm, 8/15/2011

I just talked to both John and Bill. Three items of interest today: rain, rain, and more rain.

They are fine, but have evidently had quite a day. Leaving Hyde Park it has evidently rained torrentially all day. This made riding difficult, not only because the rain makes it difficult/uncomfortable for cycling and hard for the drivers to see them, but their road was getting a lot of gravel washed onto it from side roads by the rain.

Eventually they decided they couldn't make their intended destination of Otisville and went off-route four miles to the Fair Oaks Hotel. The place evidently stinks so bad they are putting their ground sheets (which usually protect tents from mud) over the bedspreads on their beds, and will be in sleeping bags on top of that. Bill's convinced that at least one guy down the hall has done hard time.

Still, they are cheerful and fine. Not sure where the tour goes from here, but they are fine.

Pete Bails :-(
Day 15: 55 miles, 2700 feet
5:31 pm, 8/14/2011

 

 

 

It kills me to do this, but both knees are unhappy, and I have also pulled one of the left quads. This has been going on for two days today, and biking essentially on one leg is only going to make it worse, so I'm pulling the plug.

It's a shame too, as today was actually a great riding day, despite the continual misting rain. There were two 300-foot hills, one of them quite sharp, but other wise it should have been an extremely fast day. We spent 8 miles on the Harlem Valley Rail Trail, which was a beautifully paved trail through the woods. SR57 had the kind of rollers bikers dream of: momentum from the last hill, plus solid pedaling gets you to the top of the next one at speed. Finally SR41 was pretty good as well. In between, we had a very good breakfast of 2 eggs over easy, onion'd home fries, 2 sausage links, and either oatmeal (John), a pancake (Bill), or sticky bun (Pete).

Lunch was wonderful savory vegetable soup at the Wild Hive Farm Restaurant, a place that advertises all local produce and meat, only grass-fed beef, etc. I had a burger of that very good ground beef, while John and Bill made do w/ cheesecake. The place was great fun, so earnest it was painful. They also had some very interesting-looking local beers, including something called "Mississippi Mud" that came in a bottle that looked like the old moonshine bottles.

Finally, our day (and my ride) ends at the quality inn, where Bill and John have taken over the the hotel's own laundry room w/ their bikes and trailers, and have spread their tents to dry them out.

Our days always started around 6am, as that's when Bill woke up (and woke everyone else up). However, see the pic above for Bill at 8:30pm.

Maine/New Hampshire/Massachusetts/Rhode Island/Connecticut/New York.

Sent from my iPad

We are experiencing a different sub-culture that I never knew existed.
Day 14: 18 miles, 1844 feet
8:25 pm, 8/13/2011

As I sit and rock to the base beat of the boombox a quarter of a mile further into the campground, I can't help but reflect on this completely different way of living, at least for the summer.

The rich and the upper middle class go to summer homes, or spend the summer traveling. Go to a private campground in the NorthEast in summer and you'll experience a completely different approach. Folks in these campgrounds rent their spaces by the week, or the season (May - October). They build elaborate spaces, some of which must wrap around multiple years. RVs are expanded into A-frames, decks are built and decorated, the space in front of the RVs is meticulously divided into grassy areas and pebbly walkways. Many times there's a theme, but it's often difficult to tell what it is.

Folks don't always stay at these places the entire time, this is often their "weekend home". They leave everything set up, go back and work on Monday, and return on Friday.

The parks cater to this by running extensive programs of games, leagues, and programs. The kids are evidently thought safe here, so they basically run around like feral packs. This includes young kids, and perhaps even more problematically, older kids. This latter group could probably do w/ a bit more supervision, or at least parental attention.

I should add that the booming that has been emanating from the one boombox all afternoon and evening comes from a site w/ a high-def TV outside. Also, this site was right next to the one we were originally assigned. Again, I voted for staying there in order to experience trailer trash in all their Budwiser glory, but the others nixed this idea. In retrospect, they are probably right.

In Other News...
8:12 pm

There's a very good chance that my daughter Blue will suit up for one of the Montgomery Blair High School volleyball teams this year. She survived the first cuts in fine shape, and this is for the largest high school in the state (which is also home to by far the best math/science magnet in the state).

Secondarily, there's a movement afoot to officially end the trip in Conshocken (sp?)/Philly, as 1) Bill has to end there anyway, 2) John would have time to relax a day or two before the grind, and 3) any of a myriad of reasons Pete has to get back early.

Huzzah!

Will he or won't he bail for the second straight year :-(
2:34 pm

 

Unfortunately, my knees are not incredibly happy, and Bill and John have been very supportive in trying to give me time to rest them. Today for instance, we scheduled 18 miles, just getting down the road a bit. We'll see how they fare on a longer ride to Hyde Park tomorrow.

The first six miles were in fact just what I needed, pretty flat, w/ a bit of downhill. The next six miles, however, were just laughable. Repeated climbs over 12 percent, not extremely long, but freakishly sharp. The first time a climb pegged at 14-15 percent I got off the bike and walked, for pretty much the first time ever. The nine and 10 percent climbs I just went up.

At the end of the day my left knee is slightly swollen, and neither is all that happy. Still, I got up the hills and we ended up at a very nice brunch place: the Infinity Restaurant, where we had goat cheese omelets and extremely tasty calamari.

Then it was on through the last four miles to "camp", which was pretty much all downhill. I use the term "camp", because this place is just city. It's ridiculous. Two pools, a river to swim in, rec halls, etc. The first place we were given to camp in was just awesome: no trees, surrounded by folk who were clearly hear for weeks, at least. For example, on one side of us was a group w/ five 4-man tents, five fire-rings pulled together into an uber-ring, and mariachi music going at two in the afternoon, though no one was visible. See the pic of the "hayride" for more info.

Now here I urged John and Bill to accept, nay embrace, this site as a Life Experience. Alas, Bill was soon back w/ a new "site", 568, which is basically the grass on the outside of the fence enclosing this festering hive of a campground. Sloped, too, and w/ no picnic table. However, there are wink-and-a-nod plans afoot to abscond w/ one.

Knees, and a really big hill.......
Day 13: 42 miles, 2328 feet
8:33 pm, 8/12/2011

 

 

 

 

My knees were complaining after yesterday's ride! Making matters worse was that today included the nastiest hill on the ride, about 1000 feet mostly at 7 percent, some a bit worse. It was a couple miles of nonstop climbing. We made it, Bill and John in fine shape, but my knees weren't happy in the slightest, so we'll be addressing that tomorrow.

A note on weather: we've had two straight days of no rain now, and not a lot of heat. Though John and I had to resort to portable fans a day or two early in the ride, it's been cool since. Cool is a bit of a misnomer talking about last night, as John's bike computer read 46 degrees when he emerged from his tent at 7am. It was cold! Especially for those of us dumb enough to leave our rain flies up to get some extra air.

The day started out on an absolutely gorgeous 20-mile ride through the rural countryside. You could practically taste the oxygen in the forested areas, and smell everything else in the farmland. The sky was clould-free and blue, the temperature about 69, and it just couldn't have been a more enjoyable ride. These are the rides that make you want to do this kind of nonsense, because you have an almost physical sense of being part of the landscape, not just a passive witness.

When we encountered the tobacco farm (in Conn.?), I naturally started talking to some of the workers, who seemed to be teenagers. They were pulling stuff out by hand, though I couldn't tell whether the stuff was immature tobacco plants or weeds. And look at that drying barn! Looks like something out of a bad science fiction movie, or at least a bunch of bats.

We had a lovely second breakfast at "The Pickle", talking w/ a BJ Kervorkian (no relation), who thought John had a lovely smile and was extremely happy to talk to some friendly people.

(Interjection: Bill from one tent to the next: "Hey John, I brought my biking shorts into the tent to breath, and now I can't!")

Out of the pickle, though, the climbing started, and it was just nasty. No kidding, I was unhappy. Near the top we crossed a dam, on one side of which was the little pseudo-castle shown above. In the distance we could see a pair of swans. Very, very cool.

Finally, reaching Pleasant Valley, we decided to stop for the night, but had a problem in that the state park was full. As we stood outside a convenience store discussing our pickle, a ranger from that store happened by, admired our bikes, and when apprised of my sore knees immediately said he'd take care of it, and he did.

This is our second night in a state park, and again it's just beautiful. I kind of feel at peace as soon as I roll through the front gate. Bill and I went swimming in a near-rapids stream (Bill climbing to the top of a rock in the stream, well, just because he had to). Of course, the downside is that there is no laundry here, hence Bill's comment to John. I have an extra pair of shorts.

We're doing this entire ride in about three weeks, which is a week shorter than the Adventure Cycling group (the organization that ran the ride we met on three years ago). Built into these rides are a rest day at least each week. We haven't done this yet, so tomorrow will be our rest day. We'll be moving only 18 miles down the road, then giving us a 50-mile day into Hyde Park, NY, where Bill needs to do his histrionic stuff. Sent from my iPad

Long, Hard Day
Day 12: 66 miles, 4855 feet
8:50 pm, 8/11/2011

 

 

We've had bad connectivity for a bit, so this will be a bit thin, and not enough pictures. Long story short on Thursday, the 11th: intrepid adventurers cross a bottomless chasm, w/ bikes, part of pete's bike drops off onto the road, and the adventurers have their longest day so far (66 miles), plus by far their hardest climbing day.

4855 feet climbing says a lot right there, i.e. almost 2000 feet more climbing than any other day so far. Worse, much of it was very steep hills. Once, on a relatively flat pitch between a 10 percent and a 15 percent, there was a street whose name was, and I kid you not, "Carion." The climbing today was so intense that Bill and I both have what feels like bruising in our quads. This was a medium day on the Blue Ridge Parkway climbing.

Note that the R2D2 was sitting out in front of a bait shop, and contained blessed chilled Gatorade. I found an Adirondack chair :-)

The chasm at Cedar River Bridge (sign, me crossing) was actually only about three feet deep, but nonetheless made us feel like we'd just braved the class 5 rapids. Lingford: take note.

Now about that bike part that dropped off....it was a pedal. A pedal that broke back in February, was shipped back to Crank Brothers, welded, returned, and put back on. And then I've just crested a little peak when suddenly, oops, the pedal falls off. I just kind of stood there looking at it until Bill pulled up, trying to figure out what the problem was, and then finally erupts into laughter when he spied the pedal. The pedal could actually be fitted back to the bike and pedaled, but it wouldn't stay on, so the next three miles were not fun. When I'd finally had enough I resorted to knocking on doors look for people w/ bikes and finally found Virgina (picture unfortunately didn't come out), who sold me the pedals off an old mountain bike. These have served admirably since.

Nonetheless, we survived to the finish line at campground we found via google maps on my phone. Once we learned that there was both grass and spring-fed pond in which we could swim, Bill hopped off his bike and ran around high-fiving everyone. We ended the day swimming in the pond shown in the picture. No day that ends swimming in a spring-fed pond is a bad one.

Struggles w/ Ruggles
Day 11: 50 miles, 2550 feet
5:21 pm, 8/10/2011

 

 

 

 

As predicted, the rain stopped just before dawn. We packed our wet tents and were on the road by 7:45 or so, having had coffee (I had instant Starbucks Via iced coffee, they had floggers :-(), oatmeal w/ raisins, and either grapefruit or peaches.

The big excitement from my point of view was that my legs really seem to be coming around. I lose all energy by 2 in the afternoon or so, but this morning I could tell that I'm getting some strength in my legs, and some of my wind back. Bout time...

Today we went through one tiny rural town after another. The people we encounter are almost uniformly friendly and curious about what we're doing. Bill, of course, can talk and make friends w/ anyone, so we usually have a very good time.

We're still getting people asking "what's your cause", as in the only reason someone would do this is to raise money for something worthy. "Nope, " we say, "just to get out of the office." Of course, little did we know that the world's financial would be melting down around us, exactly as in 2008.

Most of today was over tiny rolling roads lined by stone fences, as shown in the pictures. Some of the stonework is truly spectacular, though I didn't get any of that on film :-). As shown by the one house, there's an awful lot of money out here. We've gone past Exeter, something called The Bromwell Academy, etc.

Again because of the scarcity of campgrounds we had to stop at around 50 miles. There are actually four distinct campgrounds clustered in this area around Manchaug, MA, probably because of the lakes. The first that we came to was full, though the owner offered us a empty lot behind an abandoned RV for $40. While Bill was talking to the owner I had ascertained that the campground had a swimming beach and a covered pavilion overlooking the beautiful lake. So when I gave him the thumbs up, BIll booked the non-site, which turned out to be every bit as awful as you can imagine.

Luckily, we have Bill, who went back to the owner and talked him into letting us set up our tents next to the pavilion, turning a disaster into a beautiful spot.

The little girl is a budding entrepreneur (lemonade). The picture of Bill is after his first mouthful of Chocolate GU.

Now about Ruggles.... Ruggles is this nastily little country road that was marked incorrectly on the maps (the maps showed it to be 3 miles out, instead of the 1 it was). So, of course we missed it, climbing a 2-mile hill that we didn't need to do. When we came to a confusing fork I finally pulled out my iphone (which I haven't been using that much the last couple days because of the rain), and found that we had gone the two miles past.

Turning around we found the road and headed up what turned out to be about a 4-5 mile climb, headlined by a leg-killing 12 percent pitch twice. All in all we were happy to see the end of ruggles, especially since it meant the start of a four-mile downhill!

Massachusetts! And sometimes it's the little things....
Day 10: 48 miles, 2012 feet
6:46 pm, 8/09/2011

 

Like coming to the end of a relatively short day where you are nonetheless feeling hammered, and getting to an RV park that had pretty, flat sites, a nice pool, a laundry, and great showers.

Unfortunately it's now raining, but at least it waited until we'd set up camp and had dinner. Dinner, by the way was supermarket kilbasa, baked beans (w/ "Hint of Maple"), and chipotle mustard. Freak'n awesome.

Thsexiest pic is to show you why there aren't man pictures of me in the blog. Thanks, John!

Fun for the day:
Bill: I have two priorities for today, and the first is to go to that historic thing. That histrionic thing.
John: Uh.. you mean the Robert Frost home? Bill, that's already come and gone.
Bill: What? how'd that happen?
Pete: Well, two roads diverged in the woods, and I....

Stops, Starts, Rain, Shine, and Lots of Mosquitos
Day 9: 45 miles, 1867 feet
8:40 pm, 8/08/2011

 

Last night, in the comfort of our rooms at the Comfort Inn in Portsmouth, we had an emergency meeting about the fact that campgrounds are becoming scarce on the ground in New Hampshire, leading us to understand why the ACA group (leaving 8/20 and heading to Florida), would plan things like an 18 mile day followed by a 75 mile day, Needs must.

So we resolved to do this as well (rather than have an off day), but at the end of 18 miles we were at a dilapidated old RV park, and it was 1:30 (after an awesome bowl of white been soup at The Green Bean in Exeter, plus a chicken burrito for me), and we just didn't want to stop.

So back to the maps and I found another campground 20 miles further on, though this one was definitely an RV park. Couldn't be worse, so on we went, through confusing signage, instructions from the ACA that were misleading, and intermittent but absolutely pouring rain, to the Danville RV park which turned out to be charming. Nice wooded sites near the lake, which is swimmable (though brown because of tannin from the trees). We had raman noodles for the second time in three days, enhanced with onions, spinach, and shrimp.

The second shot is of John trying to prevent a "Lingford", our buddy from previous trips who had a few mishaps w/ bowls of food falling off the stove, but coped well by just spooning it back in the pot. ("You Americans are so finicky," I believe was the quote).

Another short day tomorrow (<45 miles), followed by a 75 miile challenge. Nearly 350 miles out!

Day 5: More Rain
Day 8: 45 miles, 1470 feet
5:39 pm, 8/07/2011

 

 

I thought my thighs were doing better today. Turned out we just didn't do as much climbing. However, all that we did was in the rain, so there is that.

We awoke w/ the rain today, and rain followed us most of the day. It is currently bright out, but "spitting", and it's expected to rain all night, so we're in a comfort inn (pic).

The Comfort Inn is a nice switch: clean stuff, dry stuff, stuff all charged up. We'll have our tents dry before we hit the road in the morning, so even if we have to set up in the rain tomorrow (a distinct possibility), we should still have a relatively dry night.

The problem w/ back-to-back nights in the rain is that the fly is soaked in the morning, w/ some water in the rest of the tent. The bob sacks are waterproof, so if you put the wet tent in the sack then everything gets wet. So you strap the tent on top and it gets more wet. Getting into a wet tent is no fun.

The beach is York Harbor, beautiful even in gray, and the little people, well, I don't know what to say about the little people. Just plain weird.

The bridge is closed to cars, but open to peds and bikes. Evidently there are concerns as to it's safety, but no one will miss a couple bikers :-)

Just a remark on tone. I may complain about this or that in my blog, but I'm having a blast, we all are. We all set out on the road this morning, rain pouring down, singing.

It just feels great to put everything on your bike, tighten them down, and start moving. The feel of effort, the sense that your muscles are tightening up (my calves are truly awesome), and the way you're treated when you roll into town is just great fun.

Bikers come out of the woodwork and speak wistfully of going on a tour "some day". They talk about their awesome training (our waitress this morning does 200 miles/week) and about scanning Craig's List for touring bargains.

Posers and wannabees. :-)

There's also the sense of accomplishment you get after biking 60 miles to an entirely new place. We tend to think about walking or biking as something we do indoors, or maybe for exercise. You don't actually bike to *travel*, if we want to travel we get in a car, or a plane.

On the other hand, we're hopping on our bikes in Maine and hopefully hopping off a thousand miles later in DC. To my mind, that's extremely cool.

Yes, a long day.
Day 7: 60 miles, 2400 feet
8:20 pm, 8/06/2011

 

Today was supposed to be a short day, like 48 miles. Alas, reality interfered. In this case, 18 miles we had gone over a big dip at a railroad track, and my seat had sunk a bit. In re-tightening, the bolt snapped. Luckily, the lube shop next door to our second breakfast (coffee, oatmeal, home fries, eggs, sausage, bacon, more coffee) was kind enough to pull out the part that snapped off inside the collar.

Aware of this problem, I had a couple spare bolts, but long story short, I now have a couple hose clamps on my seatstem (see pic).

So we started out this morning with many more LBs, including one that hit, and I kid you not, 15%. Bill was caught short and couldn't shift down, having to hop off the bike and walk the rest of the way.

Since he was walking I whooshed past at a difference of at least half a mile an hour ("I'm being wafted by the wind of your passage," he called).

Wafting also played a part in our day later. After a Smart Car beeped at Bill and John long and hard, an eagle swooped down on Bill, chasing him up the road for a spell. This bird might have had a wingspan of six feet. We're figuring that it either thought the trailer flag was enticing, or caught a whiff of him ("Mmmm....." thinks the bird. "Something long dead has just passed by.")

But back to that railroad track. After a long stretch of bad road, a bit of climbing, we get on a nice downhill on beautiful new blacktop, screaming down the hill to cross the tracks, which have gaping holes apparent only when we get close. "Yes, " says John, after we get over the trauma and coast to the top of the next. "The ACA maps clearly warn of this, in bold even." We just looked.

Just a word about our respective biking styles. On a flat we all have fun together, but on a climb we, uh, differentiate a bit. Bill ignores the hills until he arrives at the bottom, then grits his teeth in a manly marine way and powers up. John just glides up. Me, I often bid them fairwell until later. I want to make it all the way to my driveway, so I just settle into a rhythm that I can sustain and get to the top when I get to the top. I think I'm annoying them but hey, I get there.

So the day ended at a campground called "Yankeeland." Now, we weren't expecting much, and we didn't get it. After one look at the dirt amid the trailer trash we were offered. Bill was off. Soon he was careening around the park with the owner in a golf cart, and we had permission to use a lovely shaded and grassy common area.

And I'm tired.

Out of Camp Deliverence
Day 6: 56 miles, 3053 feet
4:32 pm, 8/05/2011

 

We made it out of the campground last night without smacking anyone, or losing our cool. Where we ended up (in a bunk house) was actually great luck, as it rained hard all night, just stopping in time for us to roll out of camp at 7:45.

Other than some instant Starbucks "Iced" coffee and a couple pop tarts, we didn't have breakfast, rolling down the road 10 miles before we found a little country store that served breakfast. See the second pic, you might not be able to tell, but the "stars" in the flag are actually peace signs.

Inside, we had a wonderful breadfast, starting with exceptional coffee, moving on to oatmeal w/ nuts, raisins, and blueberries (everything in Maine comes with blueberries), then moving on to Huevos Fernaldos, or whatever that sign says.

The two women tourers who stayed at the next cabin last night called the hills in Maine "little bitches", and that was definitely true today. At least one reached 12%. Short, but brutal. The highlight was coming off of a bridge to a pointy 10limb in Wiscasset, and then embarking on the Wiscasset-Lucas loop. We biked five miles following John, who had the map, only to find ourselves 20 minutes later back on the same "little bitch". In fairness, neither Bill nor I saw the turn we missed either, and it might not have been there.

The rest of the day was a series of ups and down in pretty countryside, encounters with locals (one old codger regaled us for 15 minutes with his opinions and descriptions of things he'd done on his farm. These things included putting up a 140-ft windmill, and climbing back up it to service it twice a year.

Also, of course, biking behind Bill and observing peoples' goofy grins at the sight of his jersey (see pic). The jersey was bought for Bill by his daughter; I'm explicitly not speculating on what message she was trying to send.

Getting to the campground (Bradbury Mountain State Park), we investigated several sites, including one back in the woods. We biked back and forth to the site through a path that bordered another site, where there was a five year-old boy. As we left (another was closer to the showers), three big guys on large bikes trailing identical Bob trailers, I heard the kids ask his dad, "Who ARE those guys?" :-)

Not happy w/ Maine any more...
Day 5: 55 miles, 3225 feet
5:28 pm, 8/04/2011

 

Okay, first the good: two straight 55+ mile days, averaging 3000 feet climbing, pulling a BOB trailer that has 44 lbs of cargo, plus the 13-lb trailer itself. I'm a man!

On the other hand, I'm a slow man on this terraine, by which I mean relatively small, pointy hills. Maybe 200-300 feet each, but frequently 10% . Not fun, not fun at all, especially in the rain, which was about half the day.

Hey, any of you know what rain feels like when it hits your face at 40mph? It hurts! At 3.7 mph, on the other hand, it is a soothing caress.

And the pig shit on the shoulders, definitely not cool.

Finally we arrive at our campground to find it's an utter zoo. One of the biggest campgrounds I've been in, bursting w/ unsupervised kids. Luckily, we were able to book the bunk house shown in the pics above. Two tourers from Iowa (going to Bar Harbor), were steered here as well. The big upside is that we're on the edge of this zoo, and won't have to deal w/ the teeming masses. Tomorrow a state park!

Flower Power Lives!
Day 4: 62 miles, 2859 feet
5:39 pm, 8/03/2011

 

We passed a remnant from the sixties, doing good in the great northeast. A women's center, soup kitchen, co-op, craft shop, all out in the middle of nowhere. Oh, and also a tie-dye business and a bike shop.

Once we got camp set up, a thundershower hit, forcing us to a nearby tent while heading out.

Surviving the First Day on the Road
5:19 pm

First day on the road! And I survived! Though I biked over 1300 miles this year in preparation for this ride, my training was interrupted by the bike accident that gave me a broken collarbone, a broken rib, and a concussion. As a result of this, and the fact that DC sufferred an extended heat wave in July, I never had a ride over 33 miles. Today was nearly 57, with 2500 feet of climbing pulling a 13-lb trailer carrying around 45 lbs, and we're now going to go bike a few more in search of dinner.

The first day on the road is always about gauging your fitness, especially relative to your traveling companions. John, who's only biked around 1100 miles this year, is in great shape and kick Bill and my butts up the hills. Bill is in pretty good shape as well, having put in nearly 3000 miles already, including some pulling a load. Me, well, I made the ride w/o many problems. Even better, I don't seem to have injured myself, even though I probably went at it too hard a few times. While in the back of the pack, it's easy to dial it down, to gear down low enough that going up the hill isn't going to make you go anaerobic or wear you out. However, when you get in the front, either accidentally (hey, I do have a bit of an advantage going downhill), or on purpose, it's hard not to get the adrenaline pumping and start pushing too hard, especially on the first few days. The key, of course, is to ride your own ride. It's okay if the three of us get separated for a few miles, but this is a thousand-mile ride, not a sprint.

Pictures are coming later, but we're in a beautiful wooded pine camp site, overlooking the Penobscott River, which is a salt river that flows under the beautiful bridge that I'll have a picture of soon. The Penobscott also feels wonderful after a long ride. A bit cold, but you can get over that. Bill claimed to have seen a couple otters while we were swimming. I wasn't convinced, but I agreed that his eyes are better than mine.

Pete loses a coin toss.
Day 3: 18 miles, 780 feet
8:58 pm, 8/02/2011

 

 

I should have stitched in another pic or two here, but the gist is this. The three of us are spending the night in a cabin because the campgrounds are all full. One small cabin, three big guys, 2 beds. Last night, John drew the short straw; tonight its me. That's Bill tucked under the blanket on the right, John to the left, and my place on the floor in the middle.

The other pictures are John at the Bar Harbor shoreline, a few of the many fishing boats at doc, and a four-masted schooner (six sails), on which we took a cruise.

The wind was mostly not there and we spent most of our time rocking up and down in the swells while the captain pointed out the occasional marine animal, but it was still beautiful. The islands in the mist, the boats, the occasional critter. We didn't see all that many animals, but there were a few different types, including cormorans, harbor porpoises, seals, bald eagles, and a couple other types of birds.

Today we just putzed around in Bar Harbor and environs, tomorrow we hit the road in earnest

We're ready to go...
Day 1
11:55 am, 7/31/2011

 

 

The plan is to pick up the minivan tomorrow at 7:30, toss things in at my house, pick up John Lucas in Ellicott City, Bill Fisher in Hartford, CT, and then straight on to Bar Harbor.