thee istsfor manity reader

rain rain rain

It’s been raining, virtually nonstop, since I started pedaling south on the East Coast Greenway three days ago. I experienced nearly 90 minutes of sunshine on Saturday when I arrived at the Sun Shed farm. I was awarded with a bald eagle drifting overhead as an augury of sorts for more rain—because it rained all day yesterday on my ride down to Ellsworth, ME.

But before I left Rebecca and Varien were kind enough to give me a tour of the farm. Here’s some of the menagerie:

Baby rabbits in their “zoomy stage”

A few of the the two different types of porkers on the farm (bred for different purposes)

An alpaca, sheep, and goats galore

Tiny piglets, no larger than the length of my feet

They’re predominantly a breeding farm for pets and service farm animals. Great tour, great stay. Thanks to Rebecca and Varien!

But I had to get on with the pedal pushing, despite desperately wishing to stay warm and dry.

The Narraguagus River inlet on a prototypically rainy and foggy late-Spring May day.

My first stop was the Milbridge House Restaurant for the first real (non-energy bar) meal since lunch the prior day. And this sheet of a cheese omelet, sated my hunger…

… and I had a leftover breakfast sandwich for later, to boot.

The hour I spent inside the Restaurant was the driest I’d spend all day.

Even though I’d stop at Traceys Seafood Diner later in Sullivan, ME, I was so deeply chilled and wet that I had to keep repeating the adage on the wall to myself.

After all, I chose this adventure so I have to take the crappy weather with the good weather to come—though it won’t be for another six days as this weather system of rainy 40 to 50 degree days is stalled over the region.

But there’s plenty to see through the fog and rain. Like long cove at low tide before the diggers go out to harvest clams.

Or the peaks of Acadia National Park in the distance across Frenchman’s Bay…

… just kidding, the peaks—Mt. Cadillac, Champlain and Dorr Mountains are completely socked in by those distant clouds. But it’s, nonetheless, a beautiful scene in this light, too.

No funky farmhouse in Ellsworth tonight just a cheaper hotel. But it will provide what I sorely need: warmth, dryness, laundry and a hot shower.

My surgically repaired right knee is cranky again. But that’s become par for the course on big elevation or big mile days. Today was elevation, as the miles were modest.

Bike Day 29:
Start: Cherryfield, ME
End: Ellsworth, ME
Miles: 38.40

The knee will be back to (somewhat) regular size tomorrow morning. And tomorrow morning I’ll head to Bar Harbor, ME, to await the tour group. We’ll all meet each other for the first time on Wednesday. The “down” weather days at least will be tempered by good company. There’s how “Life Is Good.”

Here’s the cure… plenty o’ ice!

What I’m Reading:

Much of what we see now is fake, and the reality we face is full of horrors. More and more of the world is slipping beyond my comprehension.

— Jia Tolentino / “My Brain Finally Broke” / The New Yorker

Let the Clouds Come

If yesterday was BRACING, today was RAW. At least early on, and for most of the day.

Raw as in 40 degrees, fog, rain, and the sun breaking through for an hour and a half at midday.

As you can see above the Inn at Schoppee Farm was socked in by fog and drizzle early this morning. There is actually a healthy, roaring river—the Machias River—behind the buildings.

A wet dog of a day.

At least the riding was peaceful and isolated again—other than a few times when I was routed onto US 1 (which has a lane-wide shoulder through most of this area in Maine), most of the route plotted through backcountry, hilly roads.

Had to stop here, after a climb with an 11.8% grade summit! Oy, the climbing—but it was cool and quiet.

Seemed like I was riding through the moorlands for most of the morning.

And then it got RAW at Columbia Falls. Heavier rain started with a cold wind assist—but right across the street…

… a government building awning did the trick. Took a 15 minute dry-ish break under the Columbia Falls Post Office awning.

Half hour later, in Columbia, a food truck on the side of US1, after another brutal climb, provided a lunch spot.

Grilled cheese and cole slaw—the preferred lunch of cold, wet bicyclists… or so I heard (or just made it up).

The sun did break out as I approached my destination in Cherryfield, ME—but I hit a road closure and a minor setback to my goal.

After a 2-mile roundabout, just in time for the blue sky highlight, I made it to Sun Shed Farm. I’m staying inside this sun shed. Why a sun shed?

Because it fits a queen size bed under a half-ceiling of windows. And the bike fits in too.

And it comes equipped with a guard kitty as a standard amenity… heh!

There are lambs, goats, ponies, a mule, cows, chickens … and piglets! On the farm, not in the shed with me.

Did I mention the guard kitty…

All done just in time for the rain to start again. While I, unfortunately, won’t be stargazing tonight with the heavy rain, I’ll be warm and dry inside the sun shed.

Bike Day 28:

Start: Machias, ME
End: Cherryfield, ME
Miles: 30.35

In case you’re wondering why the low mileage… I have 6 days to fill before I meet my tour group in Bar Harbor (which is not cheap), so I’m taking it slower and staying at more economical and interesting places until then. No crazy mileage days now—as the tour of the East Coast Greenway Trail to Washington, DC, will provide plenty of those.

What I’m Reading:

But cover up the stars, the stars
are the absence of clouds.
Let the clouds come, clouds
are vague.

— Patricia Hampl / “Tired Of”

the blah blah blahs

I had “first-day-back fever.”

Fitful sleep—and raring to go and pedal south and finish this end-to-end cross-country ride.

Bracing! Temperatures in the high 30’s to start with an intermittent light rain for the first 2-hours of the ride.

And lots of elevation gain and loss. This isn’t the flat south. This is serious rolling hill country on the edge of the American-Canadian border.

Lots of up and downs, up and downs, up and downs. But blissfully isolated and lightly trafficked roads. Going through national preserve and state lands. Mostly Moosehorn National Wildlife Refuge early in the day.

Errant picture snapped (below) during a quick rain jacket stop. A cold rain in 40 degree weather while doing 8 to 31 miles per hour is… BRACING… to say the least. You can catch a lot of speed doing steep downhills—and a bone-deep chill too!

I was riding in the middle of the lane for an hour as there was such light traffic in northern Maine. Felt truly alone on the edge of Round Lake… except I was standing across the street from Calais Gun and Rod Club building—luckily no one was about with shotguns or fishing tackle.

But some serious gusts started blowing out of the Northwest. The low 40’s temperatures felt like 35 degrees with the wind chill.

Always encouraging to see I’m on the right track… but I’m always put off by signs sprayed with shotgun blasts… fun on a Friday night?

This section started the roller coaster effect in earnest—there were 14 sustained climbs over the 47.5 miles I covered today.

Short break by Clifford Stream, about 32-miles in, just before a climb. It was so cold and windy here I could only tolerate a 5-minute butt break, but I was staring straight up at the steepest pitch of the day.

Spotted the distinctive Sturdivant Public Library Building in East Machias just before the rain made a reappearance.

The day’s destination is about 1.5 miles away here, and it felt like it couldn’t come quick enough. I loved being back out on the trail, but I had very mixed feelings about being cold and wet for 5 hours.

That’s bike trekking…

The riding was a continual roller coaster wave cycle: the riding was up, the riding was down. The weather was up, the weather was down. And I’m worn down after the first day back.

But it’s a good-healthy tired!

Staying at an 1800’s farm house converted into an inn on the banks of the Machias River. Finally warming up!

Biking on the ECG / Day 27:
Start: Calais, Maine
End: Machias, Maine
Miles: 47.58

What I’m Reading:

And the only sound is the rustle of metaphors
crying out and the surprise is that nothing
we say or do not say or say again can hold
here in the crush of one thing into the other…

— Jenny Xie / “Le Temps Mort”

Bike Tour Will Recommence… Tomorrow

I am in Ellsworth, ME. Later today I’ll take the bus up to Calais, ME—which is on the Canadian border. 

Tomorrow I’ll start to pedal south—from the northern terminal point—on the East Coast Greenway Trail towards Bar Harbor, ME.

Next week, in Bar Harbor, I’ll meet 13 other riders, and 2 tour leaders, and we’ll start our inexorable bike trek south to Washington, DC. It will take us 32 days to cover the 1,256 miles—3 off days are scheduled into the ride. We’ll arrive in DC on June 7th.

After the others have dispersed to their respective homes, I will continue southbound  approximately 688 miles, over the course of 2 weeks, until I arrive at Georgetown, SC—thereby completing the entire 2,900+ miles of the East Coast Greenway Trail.

This is what the ECG is if you are unfamiliar with it:

https://greenway.org/about/the-east-coast-greenway

When I’m finished in mid-June, I will have biked 985 miles northbound and 1,944 southbound in March, May and June 2025.

My knees ache just thinking about it!

Thanks for reading and dropping by to see what’s happening in my neighborhood. 

What I’m Reading:

I’m catching up with who I want to be.
I’m saying day after day, I live

the harder it will be to kill me.

— Gabriel Ramirez / “Learn Your Song”