Friday, May 8, 2009
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!
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Made it to The Kancamagus Highway!
We made it to the Kanc! The Kancamagus Highway that is, which runs up and over the mountains from Lincoln,New Hampshire to Conway, New Hampshire. There will be an early start tomorrow with sore legs from today and no time to warm up! We're staying at the Comfort Inn directly at the base of the highway which runs >36.5 miles and ascends up and over the Kancamagus Pass. Most people pronounce it Kank-a-mang-us but the actual pronunciation according to Wikipedia is Kank-a-maw-gus. We rode today from Lebanon, NH through Enfield, Canaan, Wentworth past Mount Cardigan and past Mount Moosilauke. We had an incredible climb, long and hard up the shoulder of "The Moose" and pre-cooked our legs for tomorrow. Fortunately we were met by our support vehicle partwaay through the day. Sort of teasing you there as we have been unsupported essentially since leaving Milford on Day 2 and been pulling everything we need in our BOB trailers. However, since this is a one-way ride up to Maine, we were met today by our SAG crew about noon ouside of Cheever/Wentworth area. Richards' wife Brianna(pronounced Bry-anna) drove my Toyota FJ Cruiser up from Pennsylvania with the bike rack on the back for Michael and I to drive home. We were very happy to see the SAG crew as we think SAG stands for Support And Gear. Wepromptly each shed our BOB trailers,loaded them in the back of the FJ and felt like real strongmen pedalling up the remaining hills w/o the added weight. Bry-anna brought along their 8yp son Jason who thought the FJ was a pretty cool truck for SAG, especiaaly since it has 4 DVD screens installed that he was able to watch DVD's and cartoons on! He wanted to know if I bought it at "some hippy place?" Wonder why? Also along was Richard and Bryanna's sister-in-law Alanna with her mountain bike and she joined us for the last 35-40 miles today, which included some very intense climbing that went on literally for miles. At dinner tonite Alanna was trying to decide whether to join us for the 1st or 2nd part of the day tomorrow. The 1st part is about 35 miles up and over thr Kanc while the 2nd part is about 45 miles from Conway down to Richard and Bry-anna house in Lebanon, Maine. No doubt the first part will be way cooler, much more difficult but very cool. Catch you up tomorrow night!
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Maine the Hard Way, Day 6
Started the day in Brattleboro, Vermont at the local Holiday Inn Express. The night manager last night was awesome and very accomodating. We booked a 2 queen suite with a pullout sofa and he took most of the other room furniture out to make room for the bikes and trailers. He also brought old sheets to put down and protect the carpet and also clean rags in case we wanted to clean our filthy bicycles( we did not!). I ate dinner last night at Wendys' with a single and the other 2 guys ate elsewhere. Up early at 5am and though the breakfast bar did not officially open until 630am, they left us in early at 6am so we could be on the road early. Most of todays'ride was of little real appeal, too much traffic, poor road surface and good bit of rain w/cool temps but it was still time on the bikes getting us closer to the Kancamangus Highway in New Hampshire. Richard is doing awesome with his sore knees! Lots of preventive maintenance such as HEET, ice, elevating it as able, spinning a low gear at high RPM's and every time you look or stop he's doing stretching exercises and is consequently doing very well! The Garminconnect link shows a map of our route and we ended up in Lebanon,New Hampshire Coming up Route 120 North from Claremont to Meriden was a rough bit of choppy road surface, but just like Day 1 we felt like we were riding directly into spring with all the plants in bloom, etc, etc. My Picassa web albums from today and Day 1 both should show good pictures of what it feels like to ride into Spring with all the plants in bloom! Rode the Road through a private,co-ed, boarding school late in the day near Meriden, NH in the seeming middle of nowhere and when I Googled it I discovered that tuition, room and board for this private Boarding school was nearly $45,000 per year! Ouch! Spending the night at The Fireside Inn and one of the guys in housekeeping seems convinced I'm Lance Armstrong and he even wanted his picture taken with me to tell his buddies he met Lance! Not likely that Lance would have taken 11 hours to ride 65 miles, even pulling a BOB trailer. We head for Lincoln,NH tomorrow and plan to ride the Kancamangus Thursday!I'll keep you posted!
Monday, May 4, 2009
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