Sunday 7/19

My 4:15AM alarm was barely audible over the downpour of rain on our cabin. It’s one thing to be out bicycling and get caught in the rain, and a whole different deal to start your ride in a torrential downpour.   A quick rendezvous with my biking partner, and we decided to wait for a weather window.

Maine coastline views

In the meantime, we are awake. We are ready to get started, doing “something”. So we put on our foul weather gear – and began fast walking the starting miles of our bike route for a sneak preview – in hopes that the rain gods would notice and shut off the faucet.

8 walking miles later, something unexpected happened.   The rain gods took pity on us, the rains ceased, and we discovered alternate roadways that offered us a chance to get the bulk of our ride complete – void of vehicle traffic.

We discovered 40 miles of roads – not asphalt, but dirt and gravel the width of a very narrow car.   Not ideal for road bike tires, but perfect for our touring bikes with fat 38 mil puncture resistant tires. We would put these tires to the test today.

Sure, our tires slipped some, yes we had to work harder to stay upright, and ok our chains began to grind with chipped gravel dust, and there were no shortage of hills.  But, there were no cars.   In our world this is a kin to striking gold. Bike mechanic and SAG support Paddy even joined us for the first 15 miles.

Paddy get’s his bike happy on!

The scenery along the Maine coast continues to grab our attention. We discovered that during the early hours of our bicycling, we can’t help but to stop and take pictures – as if we could recreate this experience from a photograph. During the final hours of our ride, the “hangry’s” take over, and the views have to be a real showstopper for us to cease pedaling. A “hangry” is that moment where your hunger has risen to a new level, and since you keep exercising without proper refueling – whatever ‘nice’ personality you thought you once had – is gone. Food becomes the ride’s most important preoccupation.   We are still learning the art of constant feeding with constant exercising – and I can assure you I could easily get used to non-stop eating and non-stop pedaling.  Just sayn.

By 3:30PM we had completed our ride for the day, a few miles short of our plan – but in the comfort of NO cars. We will make up the mileage shortfall another day….

We ended the day in Rockland, Maine – a seaport town, where lobster, crab and fishing boats dot the shoreline. We had no problem inhaling a treat from the locals — fresh catch – which included the most decadent halibut and scallops.

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Taking a break – for yet another photo op!

Do you see what I mean? These coastal views are spectacular!

Rockland Maine