Made It To Maine! By Bicycle!

We awoke Thursday at 4am to the sound of rain outside our hotel window. Not good! We were due to start up The Kancamagus Highway after breakfast and a cold rain was not in the plans! It was in the 40's and raining pretty steadily and Michael and I proceeded to discuss options for the day. The original plan was to climb up and over the Kanc, come down into Conway, grab some coffee and head south on Maine Route 16 to wind up in Lebanon, Maine the home of Richard,Brianna,Algen and Alanna. It was looking to be a 95 mile day according to Garmin GPS and that was not sounding to appealling in cold rain to any of us! All along I'd been telling everybody we were "Riding to Maine", no specific destination other than the state of Maine since I had not known where Richard lived. I felt that if I made it to Maine that would complete my goal and it wasn't necessary to ride the additional 50 miles down to Lebanon. A quick session w/both map and GPS revealed that we could still do the Kancamagus Highway, start to finish and push on another 10 miles eastbound and be in Maine for under 50 miles. This was stating to look promising and everybody seemed happy. Plus it would put me in Fryeburg, Maine; the home of my veterinary classmate Scott Johnson! How cool would that be to ride up to his front door, having pedalled all the way there from our home in Pennsylvania? We circled the wagons at breakfast, planned out a 45-50 mile ride in the cold rain and most of the group quickly adjourned to the hot tub after breakfast to preheat their buns, so to speak! After a good warm soak in the hottub, a sit by the fire in the lobby and more debate about appropriate attire in the cold rain, we were all promptly ready to leave by 10am! Our latest start so far but everybody felt confident in the plan, their abilities and their gear. Plus we had Brianna and Jason following along in our Toyota FJ Support Vehicle just in case! Some of the group went for full rain gear, while others of us felt that one way or another, you weren't coming out of this day warm and dry, so why try!! The normal mountain vistas and viewpoints were obscured by rain, fog and clouds so we didn't linger long at the overlooks and it still took well over 3 hours to climb to the pass at a distance of 12 miles and total elevation nearly 3,000 foot. Everyone made it to the top though and we started to call Richard "The Phoenix" having risen from his knee problem and we just called Alanna "The Animal" cause she just kept coming back for more! The descent down the other side promised really cold and really wet, especially since there was still snow on the ground at the top of the pass! We started down and I quickly realized the folly of wearing eye protection as my clear glasses were misted over in the first 100 yards with a good 20 mile descent. I really felt bad( just kidding!) for Michael who insists on riding in cotton clothing and no gloves!?! Can you spell hypothermia? Sure enough on the 35-40mph descent Michael got soaked, cold and then a flat tire!!! Can you spell BONK!!! I stopped to help Michael change his tire but he insisted "it will be warmer to walk!" which he did for almost an hour before the support vehicle came along. Michael has ridden to Maine many times previously so was not hung up on riding the whole way there like others of us were. I rode ahead and got passed by a group of 4 cyclists on the descent riding a paceline at nearly 22-24mph and though I caught a wheel for a very short time, I WAS WRECKED and got promptly dropped. where did they come from anyhow? Just kept my head down, finished the Kanc, hit 302 East in Conway and saw very little of the trip into Maine. Was so tired I called my buddy a mile down the road and told him I was turning around and heading for home, too tired to got another mile!