June 28, 2015
Portland, ME to Rochester, NH
What a miserable day. But a great day as well. Woke up early with lots of rain and reservations about how the day might unfold. Rochester was the goal, but the rain was coming down heavy and the wind was blowing — predicted to be 15 to 25 mph with gusts to 40 mph. It didn't look quite that bad, but it was still early, and who knew how it would develop? The gusts I saw were strong but at least out of the east.
But the rain seemed to be consistently at a slant, indicating a steady wind. Happy told me the hotel we were staying in had rooms available for tonight. It crossed my mind, but I thought better and started looking at intermediate waypoints in case I had to bail. What about Saco? Kennebunk? Did North Berwick have lodging? I wanted to get miles in today but also wanted to be prepared for a worse case scenario.
Also, today, Happy was leaving to go home. He was taking the 9:00 AM shuttle to the airport to pick up a car, then return to the hotel to get his bike and gear. Having carried our camping gear for the entire northern leg and never used it, I was prepared to dislodge it today and did so! Happy would take it back in the rental. So I also busied myself with setting aside my tent and sleeping bag and the two front panniers and racks. A new, slimmed-down me.
I'm not sure how much weight I shed, but I'm guessing somewhere between 10 and 12 lbs. The front panniers were pretty lightly loaded — a pillow, a Thermarest pad, a fiber towel, and my cables and adapters for my electronics, my battery sticks, and headlight system. I kept the latter three critical pieces but also threw in a long sleeve, zip-up jersey that I brought as insurance against cold weather but never wore. I was counting on the next four days as only getting better as I rode to Vermont!
So Happy departed at 9:00, and I putzed around getting things rearranged in my two rear panniers to take the gear transferred from the front panniers now discharged.
I also mocked up a fender for the rear wheel. Mocked up because it was hardly the real deal, but with my tent and sleeping bag gone, I knew I would have even worse exposure today to the rain and road dirt. Happy suggested I take the long flaps off the box I had acquired for my gear returning with him and wrap them in a plastic bag. Brilliant! So two cardboard flaps wrapped in the hotel laundry bag (good heavy plastic bags they are) secured on the now "empty" rear rack with my bungee cords.
And that was it! I shoved off at 9:30. From the window in my room, I thought it had stopped raining. Silly me. It was coming down as heavy as ever. But with no hesitation, I mounted my bike and rode off into it, thinking to myself, "I have done this before." Which is true. Except it was a bit warmer, and I was younger lol.
So much about cycling is psychological. Any adversity in cycling can be overcome with a good attitude and the right thinking. So I put my mind there. At the first red light, a pickup pulls up next to me, and the guy says, "Great day for biking," and I smiled and said, "I've seen better! The bad days make the good days good." The light turned green, and we went our separate ways, and I'm sure I heard a "Good luck!" And if I didn't, it didn't matter, as I knew it was there . . .
And that turn, to the bridge over the Fore River, led to, in retrospect, the most unpleasant part of the day's ride. Not horrible, just relative. I was returning south along the same route we had come north on several weeks before. I almost used the northbound sidewalk, recalling there wasn't much on the southbound side. But Google showed a bike route on that side, so I went for it. And it's there, but it's only a striped shoulder with bike lane markings. That's fine. Except on a very rainy day, where shoulders are designed to carry water on bridges to drainage points. Plus traffic spray. The baptism for the day's experience!
Across the bridge, I began in earnest the task of retracing my steps of June 6, 2015. At least for the first 39 or 40 miles anyway. There was some comfort in that but also some trepidation. About 12 miles of this would be on the Eastern Trail, an unpaved rail trail. What would that be like in a major rainfall? I soon discovered!
The upper half, between South Portland and Saco, was clearly not ready for it. It was rideable, but there were lots of "potholes" filled with water. I tried to ride around as many of them as possible but eventually just decided to ride through them. They were not deep, but I had to go slow to reduce spray. Of course, by now my shoes were pretty well drenched, so I'm not sure it mattered.
Then there were sections where it was more like a country road with two wheel tracks and a raised center. Some sections of the tracks were just continuously filled with flowing water. C'est la vie! The section south of Saco was in better condition. More uniform and draining well.
One thing great about the trail, however, was the protection from the wind and the tree canopy overhead and to either side lining the trail. This reduced the rain impact considerably.
But by mid-morning, the rain was coming and going in intensity. The storm was headed northeast, and I was headed southwest. We were parting ways. Just not fast enough!
But I also got "into" it, and the rain was not bothering me. I had warmed up and was making better time than I thought. When I reached Kennebunk, I was back on the local road network and had a tailwind blowing mostly out of the east. And I also recognized immediately how much better the roads were in southern Maine versus northern Maine, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia. I was sailing on these roads all the way to ME-9. This also was very pretty riding; somehow the rain made the greenery more vibrant. I recognized some of the route but didn't recall the vibrancy.
At ME-9 I diverted from our June 6th course (which came from Portsmouth) and turned west toward North Berwick. All of a sudden I had put 40 miles under my belt and felt really good. And it was only 1:30 PM. Time to eat!
So I stopped at Johnson's Seafood and Steak. Great haddock seafood chowder followed by a burger. And several cups of coffee. I also made a hotel reservation that would require another 17 miles but was near a steakhouse AND a diner. So dinner and breakfast were covered. Plus, I would get in about seven more miles over the 50 miles per day I expected to average.
Starting up after a one-hour break was tough. But once rolling, it rolled well. I was in Rochester by 4:00 PM, feeling good. Washed up and relaxed, I went to dinner around 7:30 and had a well-deserved steak! A 14-ounce Delmonico.
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And the mocked-up rear fender? Worked like a charm!
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My legs were another story, but the shower took care of that!
Today's ride: 57 miles (92 km)
Total: 3,326 miles (5,353 km)
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