Day 3: Yay! The sun!

October 8, 2019

A shorter day, and I was able to see some cool stuff!

While the rain in the forecast is thinning; my mood improves and I’m grinning; I start my quest; headed southwest; and before 7:00 my wheels are spinning.

It rained and rained and rained all night until about 5:00 in the morning. Then it stopped. And it was forecast not to rain today. So all I had to deal with is the wet roads, which would dry during the day.

So, I had breakfast at the hotel and departed before 7:00 and hit the Androscroggin river trail by 7:05. Totally awesome to get on a trail that early in the morning. Temperatures were in the low 50’s and very pleasant.

Once the trail ended, it dumped me into Brunswick and I rode passed the Harriet Beacher Stowe house (she wrote “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”) on the way to Bowdoin college. The college has some notoriety if you’re a civil war buff. Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain was its President for years.

Androscoggin river trail. I passed by this spot a little over 7 years ago, traveling north

Harriet Beacher Stowe House. Just after I shot this, I had a nice chat with a bicycle policeman - first he wanted to know if I needed any mechanical assistance, then we chatted about touring

From there it was 18 miles into Freeport, ME. You might know this as the mother ship of LL Bean. And their store is open 24x7. The saying used to be “we never lock our doors” meaning they never closed. So of course I stopped in. There was EVERYTHING outdoor in the shop - matter of fact it’s more like a complex. Traveling by bike, I didn’t purchase anything since I don’t want to add any more weight onto my load.

LL Bean store, Freeport, ME. It was nearly empty at 9:0pam on a Tuesday morning.

Six miles out of Freeport, im passing through Yarmouth and I pass by Garmin’s HQ. I remember there’s a huge globe (in fact, it’s the worlds largest rotating globe) in their lobby (about 4 stories worth). So I stop in. This is one of those roadside attractions that if you weren’t looking for it you’d probably miss it. I knew it was here because of searching roadside attractions. Thankfully, it was open at 9:45 today as I passed through.

Worlds largest rotating globe. Thanks to roadsideamerica.com, I knew this existed.

I have to give a shout-out to roadsideamerica.com. It’s a great website showing off-the-beaten-path attractions across the country. I use the maps to see where these exist and then if something is interesting enough, I’ll plan my route to pass by one of these “attractions.” I hate to see these great age of road trip attractions going away.

10:00am. Somewhere on some trail in Yarmouth

11:00 am and I roll across bridges into Portland. I wanted to spend more time in Portland because it’s got a good vibe. However, my desire to get into camp tonight belied my desire to hang out. I did want some Chipotle’s but there was nothing nearby - it was across town and I would have to backtrack. So I kept going around the peninsula and then crossing Portland harbor to get to the greenway on the other side. Much of this was following the east coast greenway.

Bridges into Portland have great bicycle infrastructure. This is part of the east coast greenway

Narrow gauge railroad passes by on the path around the harbor

There were a lot of restaurant choices in the harbor area. I would have liked to partake but I felt the call of the campsite

I made it onto the Eastern Trail, a repurposed Railroad right of way. I ran down the length through swamps and into Old Orchard Beach and instead of staying at a campground I found a motel for $55/night. After all, it WAS off season. So I’m now staying in my own little cottage. I hiked off to the grocery store and bought myself some tortellini, carrots, pepperoni, and cheese. Oh, yeah, and a box of wine. Life is good today.

Eastern Trail forms part of the east coast Greenway. Here, it passes through a marsh before heading into the woods for about 6 miles as it heads into Old Orchard Beach

I have the day’s ride logged in two sections. I paused it at LL Bean and I couldn’t get the navigation back without saving it and restarting.

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Today's ride: 53 miles (85 km)
Total: 182 miles (293 km)

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