From the southwestern desert to the forests of New England. We spent the month of May in Maine at our families camp. We typically get there for a month or two each spring and fall with fall being my favorite. The camp consists of a main two story house with a large deck overlooking Drury pond which would be called a lake in Colorado. There is also a barn with a two car garage on the first floor and a large bedroom on the second.
The 36 acre property is located outside of Farmington in Maine’s western mountains, pure relaxing paradise. In addition to Farmington being home to a branch of the University of Maine it is also a postcard image of what a classic New England town should look like with a main street of commerce surrounded by colonial period homes.
I spent most of my days out riding my road and mt bikes exploring my favorite routs which I’ve perfected over the past 30+ years of cycling in the area. There is an extensive network of snowmobile trails throughout the state named the ITS (In-state Trail System) which are well maintained and make for great for mt biking. On the road cycling side of things I have numerous loops from the camp ranging from 20 to 100 miles on quiet back-country roads. There is one particular climb located only a few miles from the camp which I’ve used over the years to gauge my fitness level, Voter Hill road. The road climbs about 600 vertical feet in one short shot, I have no idea how vehicles can make it up or try to stop when going down when snow covered. On my rides I’ve experienced everything from riding straight up without zig-zaging indicating excellent fitness to almost dry heaving after pulling off to the side to rest, pathetic fitness. This year I was somewhat in-between the two. Evenings are focused around food with the grill often fired up for sunset, here are three of my favorites: Pineapple Sweet Ribs, Maui Style Wings and a 100% Pure Maine Dinner.
The weather in Maine during the month of May can vary from snow-rain mixture to bluebird sunny sky’s with temps in the mid 70’s, this year we lucked out and had almost non-stop great weather. Whenever we spends time in Maine I like to take 2 to 4 day mini- cycling trips away from the camp exploring different areas. Sometimes I set off from camp on my bike with a small backpack other times I load up the van and head out. This year I went to Acadia National Park and the White Mountains in New Hampshire with the van, couldn’t resist taking the new Mercedes Sprinter out. Here is a link to a short video on the trip.
Over the years we’ve spent a lot of time in the Mt. Desert Island-Acadia National Park area both on land and aboard Makana. Mt Desert Island is fairly large with Bar Harbor getting most of the attention I prefer the “quite side” of the island home to Southwest and Bass harbors. We’ve stored Makana on the hard for two winters in Southwest Harbor so I know the area well.
My trip to the White Mountains took me to the largest section of above timberline peaks west of the Rockies, the Presidential range. Home of Mt. Washington which tops out at over 6K feet and is the current holder of the world’s highest recorded wind speed of 234mph. There is a road to the top which I rode up in 1984, they no longer let cyclist go up with the exception being the annual race. Over the years I’ve heard about how great the cycling is on the Kancamagus highway located to the south of the Presidential range. I rode the highway from east to west, the rumors were spot on and I will definitely return to do a west to east.
I spent the last night on my mini-trip at Height of the Land which overlooks Mooselookmeguntic Lake in western Maine.
Next stop Alaska, see you there.