Yesterday was the most beautiful riding day. Hardly any traffic, not too hot, beautiful roads, good pavement. Lots of lovely views of rivers and mountains. And lots of friendly people! We stopped in Haverhill to adjust my shoe cleats and a woman soon came over and asked where we were going. She's planning to open her house as a bed and breakfast for cyclists. She should because she was so nice. Carina was her name and she told us that Haverhill is the only town in the US with a double commons - like two town greens next to each other. Then she filled our water bottles with ice water, gave us a safety pin to get the gravel out of my shoe bolt, and offered to let us use the bathroom. Amazing! Later that day, an older man (late 70s at least!) pulled up behind us and got out to talk with us. He rode his bike across the country and up to Canada (PEI, New Brunswick etc.) in 1982. We were talking about the pass we were all at the top of and he said last year he wondered if he could still ride up it. He said he rode up, got to the top and turned around and went back home. But he did it! Impressive. Very impressive.
After 60 miles, we decide to stay in Lincoln, NH. It was supposed to start raining and we didn't think we'd make it another 35 miles to the next accommodations. It was probably a good idea because after eating burgers for dinner, I was ready for bed at 7. This morning, we slept until almost 7. I guess we were tired!
The rain did come and this morning we weren't sure how much we would ride today. The first thing we had in front of us was the Kancamagus pass - a significant climb up and over the White Mountains. It didn't seem like fun to do it in the rain. But after breakfast, it looked like we would have an opening so we packed up and went for it. Totally fine on the way up - a light mist was the most moisture we had. Until we got to the top. Then it was raining and cold. We stopped at the overlook (not because we could see anything) but because we stood under the gazebo to put dry warm clothes on for the ride down and do some jumping jacks to warm up. Then we got on our bikes and got as wet as I've ever been on a bike. Water running down my socks and into my shoes. Water splashing onto my face from all directions and running down my neck and inside my rain jacket. Yep. We were soaked. But, as we went down, I thought to myself, biking conditions probably can't get much worse than this and I'm still having a good time. That cheered me a bit as did getting to a place where we needed to pedal so we could warm up a bit. We made it to Conway, NH, ate lunch in a Mexican restaurant (which always seems out of place in New England), and made a reservation to stay at the Old Saco River Inn near Fryeburg, ME. We rode about 16 more miles and then found ourselves in heaven. Actually the only way I knew it wasn't really heaven was that there were Mosquitos. But if they hadn't been here, I would have sworn that it was heaven. You must stay here if you're ever in western Maine. It is so beautiful, Pete and Sandi, the owners, are unbelievably nice (they let us order a pizza and picked it up for us for dinner and our clothes are in the washer as we speak!). I think I could spend a week inside here and be happy. It's wonderful. Maybe it will downpour tomorrow and we'll just have to stay another day ...
This post is probably too long already so I'll wrap it up. The good news is we've gone 111 miles, we're warm, full, happy, and our butts are only a little bit sore. I'll post some pictures of our adventures so far - we took decidedly less pictures when it was raining today but there are still plenty. Cheers for now! C and D
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