Vacation Type Things

We tweaked the experiment — the train experiment. In all honesty, spending half the day on trains just to bike 4-5 hours is fairly exhausting. It takes just as much time — or more — to commute to the bike ride terminal points than it does to ride the route.

Then it occured to us — let’s take a weekend in Portland, ME — use Portland as a base and bike in to Portland from points south and north and cover the same mileage while doing vacation type things.

And so we did. I drove us to Wells, then Pattie drove to Portland and spent the day at the Portland Museum of Art — while I spent a few hours biking from Wells to Portland, ME.

This is an estuary near the Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge northwest of Wells, ME.

Kennebunkport, ME was also on yesterday’s route.

  Farms in the Kennebunkport, ME area.

Later in Saco I traversed about 10 miles of the 62 mile long the Eastern Trail. Saco, ME.

Here the trail — a “Rail Trail Hall of Fame” inductee — parallels I-295 near the Old Orchard Beach turn off. Saco, ME.

At an Eastern Trail kiosk near Old Orchard Beach, ME.

The Great Scarborough Marsh on the Eastern Trail. Scarborough, ME.

36 miles later the right knee is a little cranky and needs treatment. Portland, ME.

Pattie at the historic Old Waterfront in Portland, ME.

Day 36:
Start: Wells, ME
Finish: Portland, ME
Miles: 36.5

Today is the last day of experimentation / day rides. I’ll be biking from Brunswick, ME (the end of the Amtrak Downeaster line, and where I’ll head north from with my loaded bike on Monday) and riding back to Portland, ME.

The knee appreciates the lower mileages.

What I’m Reading:

Ah, dear father, graybeard, lonely old courage-teacher, what
America did you have when Charon quit poling his ferry and you
got out on a smoking bank and stood watching the boat disappear
on the black waters of Lethe?

— Allen Ginsberg / “A Supermarket in California”