Here Comes the Sun!

Oh right. I remember why we are doing this now. Because it's amazing to spend the day riding through beautiful country, feeling the wind on your face, listening to the birds in the trees, watching the lupines in full bloom as you roll on by. Not that the 2nd and 3rd days weren't fun. They were -- but it felt like you worked hard and dealt with the rain so that you could end up in a pretty place that evening, take a hot shower, eat a yummy meal, and have a good sleep. Those things are all great, but the sunny, perfect weather on our 4th day reminded me that the real reason we're doing this is because we like riding our bikes in beautiful places with beautiful weather. And, I think I realized this when suddenly, after not seeing many other cyclists, there were lots of them out yesterday. Oh right.

It was a great day. After leaving our very friendly hosts at the Black Lantern B&B in Brunswick, we started by going to the post office and mailing a 9 or 10 lb box back to Vermont. We were having a few issues with our knees, and decided the best thing to do was to cut weight. We hadn't used our stove at all, and we didn't think we'd need it even if we camped, so we mailed that and a couple of other things we hadn't used. The lady at the UPS store was so amazed that we were riding our bikes with all of our stuff. What a wonderful way to start the day! 

We headed out of town on the Androscoggin bike path, and made our way over to Bath -- a very cute city. We grabbed a snack and lunch for the road in a cute cafe that was definitely run by Mainers. They had the best sign in a bathroom I've ever seen, delicious homemade whipped cream, and really good scones.

Leaving Bath, we got to ride over the Kennebec River. One of my favorite parts about this trip has been crossing all of these rivers that I have heard about because of my work on rivers. The first dam removal in the entire country was the Edwards Dam on the Kennebec. This happened before I worked at American Rivers, but that organization was pivotal in bringing about the removal. We also crossed the Crooked River -- a much smaller river that was the focus of a project I helped with at Vermont Law School. We are now near Penobscot Bay. Efforts are currently underway to either remove or add fish ladders to 4 of the dams on the river to open up the river again to spawning fish. One cartoon shows "Professor Salmon" talking to all of his salmon students in a Maine accent, "now you fish will be able to get they-ah from hee-ah," while pointing to the headwaters of the Penobscot on a map. That seems to make a lot more sense than trucking fish around the dams, which is what they do on the Androscoggin River. Riding over these rivers has been a major highlight for me. 

We then rode onto Wiscasset, where we sat down by the water and ate our lunch. We went on through more W towns, including Waldoboro and West Rockport. On the way we passed a field of harry coos - the famous, cute, hairy cows from Scotland. There was even a baby harry coo. 

We decided we should try to make it to a B&B just past Camden, near Lincolnville Center. So, we called around 4:30 to make a reservation for that evening -- which is pretty much what we've done the whole time. Fortunately for us, it doesn't seem to be the busy season yet. Every place we've called has had vacancy. We then rode on through Rockport and Camden -- two very beautiful places where we decided we'd spend more time in on the way back through. We finished the day with a lovely ride up 52 from Camden. What an incredible road! Beautiful hills, water falls, a lake. A really nice way to finish the day, and indeed we were ready to finish when we did. It was another 70 mile day, bringing our total to just over 250 miles so far. Whoa. The great thing is that the B&B where we are staying also has a restaurant with a French chef. Our dinner last night was amazing. Dave ordered the best pork tenderloin either of us had ever tasted, the arugula salad was incredible -- Dave kept saying, "This is really good arugula!" I ordered the filet mignon, which was cooked perfectly and topped with caramelized onions and blue cheese. Yum. The best part was that after we finished, we just walked upstairs and went to bed. So nice. In a few minutes, we're heading down for our breakfast, which will probably be good. 

Today is our last day before we make it to see friends in Hancock, ME. We're looking forward to seeing friends, and to taking a few days off from riding. But, before that, we're looking forward to what should be another lovely day of riding.