Northern Tier Day #3 Brunswick, ME to Conway, NH

Northern Tier Day #3

May 22, 2019

Brunswick, ME to Conway, NH 93 Miles

Ride Time 9:45

Tour Total 241 Miles

details at: https://cyclemeter.com/058ffe3224dd3702/Cycle-20190522-0747-51116

I slept great last night at Alicia and Henry’s large rec room above their garage. I slept on a sofa bed with two blankets, a comforter, and my sleeping bag. It gets really cold here at night, and I needed to recharge from the frigid day out in the wind. I stayed up until midnight editing and publishing yesterday’s post. For some reason all my photos were appearing upside down on the Crazy Guy site (I publish there and on Blogger). Then it occurred to me to flip the photos upside down before I uploaded them. Problem solved. Extra work. Oh, and I’m remembering all the little tricks to thwart the bugs on Blogger as well. This blog is being published from my iPhone with my right thumb.

This morning I had breakfast with Henry. I cooked myself some farm fresh eggs mixed with beans and tortillas. We talked about touring. He put my bike up on his stand to see if he could help solve my small crank ring issue, to no avail.

I left Alicia and Henry’s wearing only two layers on top, my leg warmers, and my balaclava. I had a nice ride into and around Brunswick. The air along the Androscoggin River was cold and I thought about adding my rain jacket as a shell.

My CatEye urban wireless bike computer went on the fritz. I use it for speed and mileage. The mileage redundancy with my iPhone apps is important. For some reason the speedometer quit. I had a bad feeling about this device before the tour, but am I supposed to buy new electronic equipment for every tour? I used it for 67 days last year. Why can’t they just make a good product? I fooled around with it and it’s working again for the time being. I get my total trip mileage from this device.

I had my first Gatorade break at the Durham Get and Go. The fields here have been plowed but not yet planted. I had to stop every once in a while to reply to emails regarding my DOT commission in New York. It’s kind of cool having an office on handle bars.

My second stop was at the Irving Lil’ Mart in New Glouster for a chocolate chip cookie and another Gatorade. It was here that I realized my mileage mistake. I had told Alicia (and myself) that the day’s ride would be 70 miles. I’m aiming for an average of 71 a day. It was looking more like an 85 mile day, the second in a row. I didn’t train for this tour, and I haven’t done this sort of distance since last summer, not to mention the 5,800 cumulative feet of climbing today. Happy Birthday!

So yeah, today is my birthday and I can’t think of a better way to spend it, doing something that I love, and living life to its fullest. I posted a photo of myself at three that my mom shared on Facebook. I’ve been into cycling for a long time.

At Shaker village I could see the mountains in the distance. There is definitely still snow up there. The coast is now long gone. It was beautiful, but also cold and wet. l’m expecting a similar climate when I get to the Pacific.

The morning started with a ride through pastures, with horses, cattle and fields getting ready to plant. Then at some point my surroundings turned to forest. A wild turkey hen, crossed the road in front of me. There was a lot of up and down. My small chain ring issue was becoming aggravating. It only took three days for my handlebar tape to get all screwed up.

I took a wrong turn and went a mile off route. Usually I check with the ACA digital maps at an intersection, but this time I was confident- and wrong (and it involved a hill). My iPhone was running low on power, so I stopped to plug it into my power pack. I didn’t realize that my cyclemeter GPS tracking app had turned off. Now I have a gap in my gps data. As I ease my way back into touring, I feel like many small stupid mistakes were made today.

With the warm sun I finally removed my balaclava. I put on some sun screen and SPD lip balm. The bugs were beginning to become a nuisance. I stopped at Webb’s Mills Eats for lunch, where I had a pulled pork BBQ sandwich. I’m back to being a carnivore while on tour.

I removed my leg warmers and sweater. It was in the mid 60’s and sunny, perfect cycling weather. This area has many large lakes that are used for recreation. I passed several marinas. The air coming over the lakes was chilly.

At a certain point I got cold and had to put back on my legwarmers and sweater. I spaced out and missed the turn off to Kansas Rd, which would have been a quiet ride along a lake. I was on heavily trafficked Route 302, and by the time I realized my mistake it was too late, so I took it all the way to Bridgton.

The route became hillier and the mountains became closer. I figured out a workaround to access my small front chain ring. With the rear cassette in high gear I shift from the large front chain ring straight down to the small ring. From there I shift to lower gears on the rear cassette. There was no way I was getting to Conway in time to see a mechanic. Tomorrow I'll be climbing the Kank.

Hanging mailboxes and stone walls were everywhere. The stones are big, and it must have required enormous labor to move them with animal power back in the day. I rode through forests with pine and birch trees and it smelled like pine. I passed the large Hancock saw mill in full operation. There was a huge help wanted sign boasting that it was one of the best places to work in Maine.

Fryeburg was the last town in Maine before the New Hampshire border. I rode past the horse racing track before going into town. My route took me on a nice little circuit through Fryeburg and I saw several people out planting flowers. I was routed onto the Mountain Division bike trail that was short and sweet. It followed an abandoned railroad track that should be converted to a rail trail.

I crossed the New Hampshire state line, my second state of the tour. I stopped and took photos. It was getting late and I was exhausted. It was another 8 miles to Conway. The day was going to be more than 85 miles.

Three miles out of Conway I felt a jarring bump, and it seemed like my frame had been impacted. Something was wrong, and it was bad. I pulled over and noticed my rear tire was flat. I knew the routine. I removed my panniers and flipped my bike upside down. There was a huge nail head protruding from my tire. It was an inch and a quarter long. I couldn’t believe it. It had gone through the tire, both sides of the inner tube and into my rim. That explains the bump I felt. Ugh. I was so close to my destination. I was tired, and surrounded by a cloud of mosquitoes. I first tried to repair the tube. It had a dozen patches and might have been original to the bike. It wouldn’t inflate when I tried to pump it, which meant that I had to replace the inner tube. Spare tubes were buried in the sticker box. They were a little skinnier than what my tire calls for. I had a hell of a time trying to get it up inside the tire with the tire seated firmly into the rim. At one point a motorists stopped to ask if I needed help. I finally got it. Boom! My hands were black. I quickly put everything back on the bike and sped to Conway.

I arrived at the White Mountains Hostel, which is a little more ghetto than what I had anticipated. I put my gear in my room and sped to Cafe Noche for birthday Mexican food and beer. It was a long day!

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