5-29-10 80 miles from Houlton, Maine to Baxter State Park, Maine

Before going into the first day on the road, let me go back to yesterday, which in my mind was a total cluster&%^$^#. We had a great start to the day out of Oneida SP only to drive into the massive traffic jam that lasted two hours. A wreck on I-90 caused traffic to be at a standstill for 20 miles. This set us back a bundle as far as our arrival time in Maine. Thanks God Bill was driving, because if that were me….I’d of had a total meltdown tapping the brake and throttle for 2 hours. Yup, commit me to an institute! So instead of us making our starting point for the ride that day, we ended up 2 hours back.

We camped at a place called Katadin Shadows campground, in a hollow in the shade where the mosquitoes were insanely vicious. Judy muscled out the gumption to prepare dinner with a gazillion misquitoes buzzing around her head. We ate by campfire and listened to the B-ball game where Boston hammered Orlando. We actually did a “camp and dash” because the campground office was closed when we entered last night, and was closed when we left. Not like we were trying to pimp them – I mean they didn’t even have envelopes to put money in, and the office opened at 9 in the morning. Not very smart business. So we checked at the office, and then just motored.

Made it to Houlton Maine the next day in about an hour and a half for the start. Our total mileage was 10030 miles from Hudson Ohio. Now this is the most inauspicious place to start a transcontinental bike ride. It’s right on the New Brunswick border, but a total non-place, a little wood mill out in nowhere’s land. The road just ended and there was no real border crossing area, just the end of the line in the USA. Beyond the mill was Canada. Beautiful sunny day for the start. And off we went, Bill and I riding with Judy doing the car as support. We started down Rt 2 west, right into a mild headwind, and I thought from the get-go that this is going to be my future for the next 5000 miles, westerlies out the ying-yang! Oh, well, did the east to west thing last year, this was my chance to experience the other side of the coin. We hit small rollers from the start and then rolled down to the jcn with 212. Then west on 212 for a 8-10 mile stretch. Next up was Rt 11 south to Patten, Maine – and this son of a *%^&$^^# was power climbing on steroids!! Massive climbs up and down with no flats. Just up and down. Nothing more. It reminded me of the Rt 44 in the Black Forest, but this thing was just off the charts – very similar to the terrain Barney and I did in Nova Scotia on the cape. God was it gnarly. I’m riding with no yak right now, so I was spared going into the little cookie, but believe me, there were a couple of climbs that had me right at the break point in the big pie plate in the back. Pitch it up 2-5% more and it would have been little cookie with no trailer!

I mean I was trying with all my might to take this first day on the mellow side, not going too hard and too fast, letting my legs adapt to the volume and intensity gradually. But even going mellow, this ride HURT! I want to thank Bill for picking the route today – and totally putting the mash on my legs. So the 17 miles to Patten were ferocious, out of the saddle climbing that was incredible. Patton’s where we turned onto Rt 159 west to Baxter State Park, a gradual climb for about 8 miles. By that time Bill had said (&(^*%&$% to riding and climbed in the van to switch off with Judy, so they met me about 5 miles from the entrance to Baxter Park. Judy jumped on the bike with me and marveled at the ……..yes the Bulldogs that were swarming around me. Yup, day one and those (*&*^*&%&$ bastards were in full force here in Maine. Only thing was that 10-20 were swarming around me – not the 100 that I experienced in Manitoba a year ago.

They were bouncing off of my helmet like pellets, but no bites. Judy – maybe just one or two at a time around her. So obviously I have something going on that attracts those things. Rt 159 eventually turns into gravel as it winds its way up to the park entrance. This was some fun riding up to the park. When we hit the gravel Judy was in the “no mas” mode, so at the gate she switched with Bill and once we got checked in, he and I rode the 11 miles to our campsite. This is a lime gravel road that’s about a lane and a half wide with a 20 mph speed limit. No big climbs as we worked our way to the camping area – until the final two miles we had to turn off of the main road and ride to the camping area. Then it was a long gradual climb to the top.

I finished the day with 80 miles of riding and some totally wasted legs from all the climbing. Bill nailed down 50 miles and Judy probably got about 20 miles. Got to our campsite and had to haggle with some anal park ranger who had to double check our information in that we had booked at the north gate. Dude was just too funny in being true to his job. I was fried, and crashed inside of Bills Lento shelter with a couple of beers while Judy prepared dinner.

Now we avoided a confrontation when the ranger informed Bill that he couldn’t pitch a tent outside of the shelter. Nope, not in the books. So Bill and I eventually manipulated the tent inside of the shelter and got him legal. That’s about when it started to rain, and we exited our campfire and sat inside of the three-sided shelter and shot the breezed drinking a few beers and wine as a steady rain materialized.

Baxter is a beautiful park and very remote from civilization. We’re camped next to an alpine lake with the flanks of the mts just to the north of us. We’ll ride another 32 miles tomorrow on a gravel road out of the park, and then…….gravel or asphalt……I don’t know, but I do know that I’ll be climbing like a fool again. Need to nail down a 100-miler tomorrow and each day thereafter to make good time.