51 miles. Early morning fog, fairly big climb, heat and good tip from fellow cyclist

Thanks to Richard and Debbie, our hosts at the Pumpkin Patch BnB, for getting up before dawn to fix us a delicious and energy sustaining breakfast. We headed on the road around 6 and within the first mile we saw two adult beavers and a pup swimming in the river.

Gently rolling hills with an overall downhill trajectory took us to Bethel and eventually to the base of our major climb outside of Sharon. We peaked out at 1500 feet over 4.5 miles and when I caught up with Maja waiting at the top she was talking to a cyclist who had climbed up the other side on his ultralight road bike. We talked for a while and he warned us it would be “wicked hot” but that we had a nice a nice downhill in front of us. We parted and we headed down one side as he rode down the other. It was indeed a nice long downhill and after 20 minutes who should pull up behind us but our friend from the top caught up with us! That meant he had biked to the bottom of the climb at Sharon, turned around and sped back up the hill, crested and caught us on the downhill side. Amazing. In our defense he was riding a light road bike, was in great shape, was not carrying panniers and knew the road. But still…

Toward the end our maps advised us to turn left through Thetford to East Thetford where we were to meet Camilla. Just before that turn our buddy said that road was under construction and had two climbs on the way to our destination but if we stayed on the road we were on, we would get to East Thetford without construction or climbs but added about 4 miles to the journey. We trust road advice from cyclists over that of people who don’t ride so we thanked him as we took the flatter route.

We met up with Camilla right on time at Isabell’s Cafe in East Thetford and we sat for a bit talking and into the restaurant walked our cycling friend!

So now we have a much needed rest day as we prepare for the last legs of our trip. We got a new front tire for Maja’s bike (we each have 2 new tires since our departure) at Omer and Bob’s bike shop in Lebanon.

Maja and I had a meeting at Dartmouth (Maja’s alma mater) in the afternoon so we had some time after that to revisit the campus after which we returned to Camilla’s house for dinner and Olympics watching.

Tomorrow we have massages in the morning and a tour of the Zimmerman House in Manchester and meet up with two of Maja’s college friends and Saturday we head into New Hampshire and over the White Mountains – you guessed it, more climbs.