Hah! We completed riding through our first state! Maine - check!!
I started to run into IT Band issues towards the end of the day yesterday and they began getting worse today. After 30 miles, I called the sag wagon to bring me to hotel. I can't afford to have an injury get worse this early into our adventure! We re-grouped, had a day off to rest our legs and heal. I rented a car for 7 days so that our other injured rider (Jake severe muscle spasms) can trade off riding the next 300 miles or so of NorthEast hills (brutal). Anyhow, we've now completed 300 miles and spirits are good. Jake and I both traded our flats for some clips and cycling shoes today.
The start of the ride began with a very short tour of the town of Brunswick. It is the home to Bowdoin College, which is a very good liberal arts school. Our teammate, Bonnie Powell spent a few weeks staying at one of the houses at Bowdoin while she was training to become an Apogee tour guide (bike touring). So we stopped at the Quad and at the house she stayed at and snapped a few pics. I'll add pictures tomorrow, maybe??
This is where we had our lunch (below pic). The golf course is literally in the middle of nowhere... in a sparsely populated area of Maine. We were getting hungry at the time and low on water, so looking for a stop. After peaking yet another hill, we cam across this beautiful golf course called Fox Ridge. I never in a million years would have guessed a golf course would show up in this area. The video above is maybe 1/4 mile away from the golf course.
The manager was very proud of the #5 best golf course in Maine rating and showed me all the evidence he had in various newspaper articles. We ordered a hearty lunch, which included a cheeseburger, philly cheesesteak sandwich and a ceasar salad with chicken. The girl cooking our lunch splashed grease into her eye trying to flip the cheeseburger. And then proceeded to forget the philly steak sandwich (understandably). I felt super bad having to ask her to please cook the missed sandwich.
It was a long ride, just over 60 miles and as always, much elevation. I just can't say enough good things about the route - beautiful, peaceful, but yet brutal hills! We arrived at Thomas Point campground, which I believe was in between Bath and Brunswick. There was nobody at this very large campground besides us. It was nice, but a bit creepy.
Today was just amazing! The weather was perfect and the scenery so beautiful. Today the route took us away from Highway 1 for most of the ride, which was quite a relief. And the roads were for the most part very nice and smooth. In fact, we've been discussing a ranking system for judging the roads along the way. Until we decide on a more sophisticated rating, let's just go with this idea - Bar Harbor to Belfast had nice wide shoulders for riding, however they were pretty rough with large cracks and also the traffic was heavy. Belfast to Rockland took us into the countryside and the roads were super nice and smooth. The landscape is beautiful, and there seems to be people selling antiques at every turn. We only covered 40 miles today and are planning a more aggressive day tomorrow where we will camp outside of Brunswick.
Not many words today, only pictures. We had a tough, but super good first day. 58 miles and ~3300 ft elevation climb. Tired!! Had a very short, but heavy rain in Ellensburg. And headwinds the first 30 miles. But in all, it was a really pleasant day!
This morning we picked up our bikes, installed racks, bells, cages, cycling computers, handlebar bags, etc. Then we all went for a hike to Cadillac Mountain in Acadia National Park. It was really beautiful, but the hike was quite difficult (steep and technically challenging to navigate the rocks). We did see a variety of wildlife and very pretty trees. My favorite was a relatively small one with silky maroon leaves and white elegant and fragrant flowers. I don't recall seeing them before, but I'd love to have one in our yard at home, for sure! Tomorrow, Alex and Bonnie plan to drive back to the part and check out the visitor center and then we begin pedaling at about 9am!
