Day 77 – Danville to Damariscotta

August 16, 2016August 16, 2016 / wescov / 2 Comments

57 miles. Another road closed and more hills.

Today was supposed to be a “light” day as we ease to the finish line in Maine. Note: Maine is not flat. There are so many little hills and ridges that are very steep so each mile is like a wind sprint followed by recovery downhill and immediately another wind sprint. When I ran track in high school and college, part of our training was sprinting 1/2 lap then speed walking 1/4, sprinting 1/2 lap and walking another 1/4, etc. almost to exhaustion. This is what yesterday and today have been. Whew! Our granny gears are getting a workout.

Since our hotel didn’t serve breakfast we left early and got to the Brunswick Diner after 20 miles or so for a “good food” (their wifi passwords) breakfast. After breakfast the fun began as we once again found our route completely blocked by construction on a bridge! We had to double back on the road we had just traveled and eventually got on to US1 in Bath at the bridge over the Kennebec River. The detour added about 4.5 miles to the day and also added a few expletives along the way. We were able to warn two other cyclists (two women with heavily laden bikes including violins) about the blockage so I hope we saved them a few miles.

Our route is again only a few yards on the other side of the construction zone but impossible to get through.

An anhinga drying his wings seemed to mock our road closure agony

Once through the death defying run up to and over the bridge on Rte. 1 we paused to get a photo of some new Navy vessels docked at the Bath Iron Works.

Wrapped and concealed Navy ships at the Bath Iron Works.

After the bridge we were able to rejoin our mapped out route to Wiscasset where we stopped for lunch, our first Maine lobster roll of the trip.

Not sure if this photo was meant to be of me eating in Wiscasset or of the gull over my shoulder waiting for leftovers.

Wiscasset harbor. Our first glimpse of the Atlantic.

Getting rolling again was difficult and the traffic on Route 1 was very heavy but we struggled up and down some more hills to the Down Easter Inn in Damariscotta.

Tomorrow will be more of the leg and lung burning to Searsport for our last stop before Bar Harbor!

Maine art

Day 76 – Fryeburg to Danville

August 15, 2016August 15, 2016 / wescov / Leave a comment

57 miles. Many, many hills.

Our eleventh state!

Donna at the Admiral Peary Inn loaded us up with a good breakfast for what we knew was going to be a tough day with lots of ups and downs. We are close to the coast in Maine but the roads are anything but flat as they cross ridge after ridge. None of the hills are Cascades or Rockies height or length but are steep and numerous.

More stone walls

We had read from other cross country cycling blogs that the condition of the roads in Maine was poor and the shoulders unpredictable in width. At the beginning today we were on a new road with a wide shoulder but as we have come to expect, soon the rough pavement and narrow shoulder returned.

We forged ahead and today saw many old cemeteries, some severe looking. We passed lakes, state forests and trails and, of course, more camp firewood for sale.

Simple and eternal rest

Stopping for lunch at a clearing, we took a breather and then pedaled the rest of the way to the Sleepy Time Motel outside of Auburn, Maine. (The owners originally are from Phoenix.)

Subway for lunch

Tomorrow promises more climbs, short, steep and intense. We are down to three more days on this journey!

View of the Maine mountains and a local IPA at dinner last night.

Post script

August 15, 2016August 15, 2016 / Maja Wessels / Leave a comment

I forgot to mention that the other thing that was so special about our ride over the past days was the opportunity to see three beavers at the start of one of our days. We had started early in the morning to beat the heat and were riding next to a crystal clear river. We saw one adult beaver swimming toward what seemed to be a small log in the river, but we then realized that it was a baby beaver that the adult picked up. And just further ahead was another adult beaver that dived under the water, but because the water was so clear, we could continue watching it. It was really amazing! And it reminded me of my very first longer bike ride that I took while in high school with a friend. We rode from Bangor to Dedham to spend the night with her grandmother. The ride was about 12 miles each way with one serious climb. Not bad for two girls who had never gone more than a couple of miles to school and back. On the route we stopped by a little pond and watched a beaver dragging some branches to its home. Later that day we saw a moose behind her grandmother’s very modest home. It was a real adventure for us.

The same day Charles and I saw the beavers, we saw another bald eagle. It’s so exciting to see these majestic birds soaring over us. I will never tire of it and hope we will see many more along the Maine coast.

We didn’t have any adventures today. Just a lot of climbing and a fair amount of heat. Sometimes the smaller hills can be harder than the mountains just because they’re so steep. I was in my granny gear several times today, which I hadn’t needed to use while climbing our monster mountain yesterday. And Charles and I actually dismounted and walked 25 yards or so when the incline was just too steep up one hill. Tomorrow will be another tough one. But we only have three to go.

Day 75 – Lincoln to Fryeburg, Maine

August 14, 2016August 14, 2016 / wescov / 1 Comment

45 miles. Our last big climb, crowded roads, heat and into our last state.

We stayed up a little too late last night watching the Olympics with Larry and we knew we could sleep in since the outdoors shop that baby sat our bikes didn’t open until 9. After a nice breakfast at Flapjacks in Lincoln we woke up our cycles and loaded up our panniers and headed out. The climb to Kancamagus Pass started almost immediately from the shop and it was 13 miles of uphill. Due to our superior conditioning (!!!!) the ride wasn’t as tough as we expected and we crested in a little over 1 1/2 hours.

We even had some decent views as the clouds and fog were lifting.

Sadly, the downhill wasn’t as thrilling as the effort to get to the top would warrant but at least it was mostly down for the balance of our ride into Conway, NH, and finally into Fryeburg.

We were able to stop at a few overlooks to take in the scenery but there was a lot of tourist traffic at the swimming holes and falls.

We stopped for a sandwich in Conway at the Sweet Maple Café and while the food was good, they advertise a 10% senior discount and I qualify. I forgot to ask for the discount when we ordered and paid and when I went back in to ask if the missing 10% could be refunded or applied to a cookie, I was refused and was shown the small sign by the register that advises that the discount must be asked for when ordering. Without my reading glasses (I am a senior, after all) I hadn’t read the sign. I asked the manager if she couldn’t make an exception and was coldly rebuffed. Her excuse was that she would have to void the original ticket and start over (so much for the customer always being right).

From the cafe it was a little over 8 miles to the Admiral Peary Inn in Fryeburg and we slogged through the humidity and end of the weekend traffic to pull in much later than we are used to making it to our daily destinations. Our host Donna has made us feel very welcome and pointed us in the direction of our room, the Oriental Room and now we have showered and are relaxing and soon headed to dinner at the 302 West Smokehouse and Tavern.

We have made it to our 11th and last state on this journey and have 4 more days of biking til we dunk our front tires in the Atlantic!!!!

The last couple of weeks

August 14, 2016August 14, 2016 / Maja Wessels / 3 Comments

These last couple of weeks or so, as we’ve been cycling through New England, have been some of the best of our trip for me, first and foremost and not surprisingly, because of the people we’ve met up with. In New York, my sister, her husband and two of their three daughters drove from Ithaca to Fair Haven, NY–over an hour’s drive–to meet us for dinner. It was great to see them all and be able to catch up, which we hope to do more of in September when we all get together in CA for a nephew’s wedding. Also, they had arranged for a dinner at a gorgeous water-front restaurant. It was definitely one of the best meals of our trip. We were doubly lucky since our motel was miles from a place to eat and I’m not sure if the town had any taxis to drive us to dinner had we not been dining with my sister. And the last thing we want to do after a hard day’s ride is bike to and from dinner. My brother-in-law had also decided that, since there seemed to be no breakfast place in town, he would organize a boxed breakfast. The sandwiches were incredibly yummy and so big that the leftovers became our lunch.

My sister, Anke, her husband Ric and two of their daughters Marin and Rory at the beautiful lake location where we had dinner.

A few days later, we rode to Buffalo where a college classmate had reached out to us when she read in the alumni magazine that we were biking cross-country to benefit the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation and invited us to spend a night in her home, just around the corner from the Darwin Martin House. Jennifer and I couldn’t quite put a finger on how we had known each other at Dartmouth, but after spending a day with her and her kids, I wished that we had spent more time together in college. But there’s always time to make up for that now and I hope we have more opportunities to get together in the future.

A few days later, we cycled into East Thetford, VT where we were met by one of our oldest and dearest friends, Camilla, with whom we just spent two nights and a rest day in Hanover, NH. We squeezed our bikes into her mini-van and she drove us to and from her place and our route. We had such a wonderful time with her–catching up, talking politics, watching the Olympics and eating and drinking to our hearts content including an incredible home made peach/blueberry pie and homemade chocolate malts. Camilla knows us way too well and had all our favorite foods and drinks. And she treated us to a wonderful massage. We have found that periodic massages really make all the difference! My shoulder has been SOOOO much better. While in Hanover we had drinks with an old college roommate, Deb. It was so much fun to talk about old times and great to realize that my difficulty in remembering exactly who I had roomed with at Dartmouth was not unique to me. Deb also gave us great tips on places to travel to, so our travel “to do” list as just grown by leaps and bounds. Earlier that day Camilla drove us to Manchester where we met up with another old college roommate, Judy, for lunch and a tour of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Zimmerman House. Again, it was great to see Judy and I just wish that we all lived much closer together so we could see each other more often.

We tried to convince Camilla to join us on our ride, but this was as close as we got her to come–dropping us off on our route after a wonderful stay with her.

We then stayed with another old housemate from my SAIS days just outside Lincoln, VT, the next night. Larry drove over 2 hours from Boston, had organized for the local bike shop to store our bikes overnight, and drove us to his vacation condo 30 minutes away where we had a wonderful dinner, watched the Olympics and spent the night. We hadn’t seen Larry in about 7 years so had a lot of catching up to do. We really appreciate that he drove almost 5 hours back and forth to spend a little time with us.

Getting together to with friends over the course of this trip has been a highlight and has made me realize how lucky we are to know such wonderful people. We will definitely make more of an effort to meet up with them more frequently.

A second highlight of the last 10 days or so has been riding through New England where I spent my junior high, high school and college years. It’s been wonderful for me to ride through this beautiful area of the US and to remember trips and activities of my youth: picking blueberries and apples, swimming in pristine lakes, visiting the Niagara Falls, and hiking through gorgeous landscapes. I definitely miss the water that is all around us here–just in case you haven’t noticed from the fact that so many of my photos are water centric. I am looking forward to riding into Acadia National Park where we spent huge chunks of our summers and weekends over the course of the years we lived in Maine.

Another aquatic photo from yesterday in New Hampshire.

We haven’t seen any moose yet, but seeing this sign reminded me of the time a moose peered into my classroom window in 5th grade. What a shocker that was!

And finally, watching the Olympics has been so inspiring. I’ve stayed up until midnight on many nights watching the swimmers and gymnasts win so many golds and have been in tears most nights as I listen to their stories. I am awed by how hard they have worked to get where they are and happy that all of their hard work has paid off. Another of my college roommates won a silver medal in rowing (single scull) so I am well aware of the sacrifices each one of these Olympians has made to get to where they are today, making winning look so easy. I admit that during the course of the day, when I may be struggling on a particularly difficult climb, I think of how hard these athletes have worked and that encouraged me to keep going. I’m sorry that the swimming is over now, but happy that I can get back to a normal sleep routine. 😉

Only four more days until we ride into Bar Harbor. Hard to believe. The weeks have flown by.

Day 74 – Thetford (Lyme) to Lincoln

August 13, 2016August 14, 2016 / wescov / 1 Comment

45 miles. Two climbs and some rain at the end.

Camilla dropped us off and off we rode into a cloudy day.

Old friends.

The great news for me is that by inflating my tires to the recommended psi, I was able to climb and bike much more easily, I could even keep up with Maja (more or less) on our two climbs!!!

Other than that it was a fairly uneventful ride through Piermont and Haverhill and the “fun” began with the climb around Mt. Moosilauke at North Haverhill. At our break it started to rain a light mist and at the peak of the second climb it started raining in earnest.

The lake at the top of our climbs today

The ride down was wet and we made it to Lincoln more than a little soaked. Our friend Larry had arranged for us to store our bikes overnight at Rodgers Ski and Sport. We waited for him at the local Dunkin’ Donuts and warmed ourselves with coffee, hot chocolate and, yes, donuts. Camilla had packed us delicious sandwiches that we wolfed down there as well.

Larry picked us up and drove us to his and Cheryl’s condo in Waterville Valley for the night and tomorrow we will return to Lincoln, pick up our bikes and head up the last major climb of our trip, Kancamagus.

A beautiful, dry set stone wall along the road.

Day 73 – Zimmerman House

August 13, 2016August 13, 2016 / wescov / Leave a comment

We started the day with excellent massages arranged by Camilla. After getting Maja a new front tire yesterday, I was thinking I may need new ones, too, so while Maja was getting her treatment I took my bike to Omer and Bob’s to have them take a look. Over the last few days I had the feeling that my tires were at the very least under inflated and seemed as though I was struggling up the hills and couldn’t even catch Maja on the downhills, usually, because of my weight advantage, where I can shine. The mechanic looked at the tires and said they were still in good shape and didn’t need replacing. I asked him to inflate them using the shop’s pump and gauge to check that the tires were inflated to the recommended 65 psi. I had been topping them up periodically with my travel pump and gauge to that pressure since Montana. I was very surprised when he checked and each tire was only up to 30 psi!!! No wonder I thought I was fighting against my tires. The new pump/gauge I bought in Minnesota is worthless. I hope proper inflation will help me on the hills.

After all this excitement we drove to Marchester for our scheduled tour of the Zimmerman house, the last Wright building we will visit on our cross country ride. Wright designed this Usonian house for his clients, Dr. Isadore and Lucille Zimmerman, in 1950. When built the house was often ridiculed by the neighbors since it didn’t fit the style of the other houses but the Zimmerman’s said it was the best money they ever spent. They left the house to the Currier Museum that undertook major renovations and now curates the house.

The house is similar to the other Usonian houses we have seen but is a later refinement of Wright’s design – L shape open plan, radiant heating, natural ventilation and blending of interior and exterior spaces. Visitors are not allowed to take pictures on the inside so follow up with this web site for photos of the house.

I’ll add to this entry in a few days with more details.

Day 72 -Rochester to E. Thetford

August 12, 2016August 12, 2016 / wescov / Leave a comment

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…

Still smiling after almost 4000 miles!

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.

Baker Hall at Dartmouth (the library)

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.

Day 71 – Ticonderoga to Rochester, VT

August 10, 2016August 10, 2016 / wescov / 3 Comments

47 miles. A grey day and a long slog up Brandon Gap in high humidity

We are out of NY and into our 9th state, Vermont. Starting early, we pedaled to the ferry landing and waited for the first eastbound trip.

The ferry arrives. That’s Vermont on the other shore

Once over into VT, it started to rain, as was predicted for the entire day, but stopped after about 15 minutes and didn’t rain the rest of the day.

Our host Richard at tonight’s BnB, the Pumpkin Patch, had told me by phone that the ACA route was under construction and he had learned from other cyclists to avoid the path through Middlebury and take #73. There would be climbs, he assured me, but once over the gap it would be downhill the rest of the way into Rochester. And what a climb it was.

We thought we had found a short cut to Richard’s route that would have made today a manageable 38 miles but, as these things sometimes go, our wonderful little short cut was blocked by a crew replacing a culvert on the road. We stared longingly at the other side of the hole being dug and our dream was to walk our bikes the 25 feet over the ditch to resume our ride. The foreman was adamant about his liability risk so refused our plaintive begging. The work-around added 9 miles or so to our day that was no longer the manageable ride we had planned.

We spent at least 20 minutes begging to be allowed to walk our bikes over to the promised land on the other side of the ditch. but to no avail. What you probably can’t see is the frustration on my face. The detour erased all of the advantage our short cut would have created.

The temps were cool but the humidity high so it wasn’t really comfortable cycling. Maja, of course, sped up the hill and I slogged along way behind forced to walk the bike at various times as the road grew steeper. Outside Brandon we passed a plaque commemorating the invention of the electric motor there by Thomas Davenport in 1834. I wasn’t aware that Yankee tinkerers were playing around with DC electricity then but I learned tonight that Volta invented a wet battery in the early 1800s.

But back to the ride.

The end of the long slog up and now for the 9 mile reward downhill

Once over the gap it was a 9 mile downhill run and after 6 of those miles I found Maja patiently waiting for me and after a brief sandwich we pedaled the rest of the way to the Pumpkin Patch.

An enjoyable dinner tonight at the School Street Bistro so now we are resting for tomorrow’s challenging hill climbs and our entry into New Hampshire. We will spend a rest day on Friday with our friend Camilla and visit the last of the Wright houses on this trip, the Zimmerman House in Manchester, NH. We are both looking forward to completion of our journey and will spend a few days in Maine decompressing before heading back to Phoenix… by air not by bike!

Vermont’s version of our hay bale motif

bikewright 2.0

Biking tour across America to benefit Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin West

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