Day 2: Auburn ME, to River Road NH

Today I rode 128.1 miles with 8990 feet of climbing from Auburn, ME to River Road off route 118 in NH. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:19

Today I rode 128.16 miles with an elevation gain of 8,990 feet from Auburn, Maine to River Road, somewhere, New Hampshire. I don't have service anymore, so I don't know where I am. That's a lot. Um, yeah. I had quite the day and hope I can recount most of what happened. Uh the day was marked by lots of little lakes and lots of climbing. Um, heading out from home and going through western Maine, there are so many foothills. And my uh mapping app thankfully had taken me off most of the main roads, which I'm familiar with from driving throughout my life. So I was basically just going up and down every single ridge between my parents' home and the border. I'd go up 200 feet, I'd go down 200 feet, and I'd go up 200 feet. Oftentimes there were stop signs at the bottom because that's you know the valley where the main road is. Um so it was really fun to see and it was fun to do the descents, but um, you kind of felt like blocked from really uh riding them out, you know. Um I met a cyclist named Richard. Hey, Richard, I hope you're listening to this. We rode together for like 40 miles, maybe. Um, I met him in Casco, Maine, where he was doing a day ride, and he kind of showed me around. Our routes were surprisingly similar, and um, we had a great time chatting and exploring. It really helped the time go by quickly and was nice to get affirmation from someone about what I'm doing and how I'm trying to do it. Um, it's kind of funny. My mapping app taking me up and over all these ridges uh wanted me to go down a dead end and then straight down a hill where there was no road. So we uh eventually got to the end of that clearly marked dead end road and had to turn around. So thanks for being a good sport about that, Richard. It was really fun sharing the morning with you. Um he turned back east and I headed west and entered New Hampshire. Cell service got really spotty and my mapping app ended up failing. I think uh I didn't succeed in downloading it. It was just reading off my cell service. Um when that went away, uh, so did my map. So I uh enjoyed problem solving on my own and in New Hampshire started following more state routes, which is what's available because the mountains are so much bigger the closer you get to the whites and the Appalachian Mountains. Oh man, what else happened? There's gotta be more stuff that I can't remember. I ate some food, probably didn't eat enough food. There were lots of lakes in New Hampshire, that was really fun. Um towards the end of the day, I visited my good friend Maxine. Um her trail name is Short Sticks. We met on the CDT and hiked together for some time. Uh, Maxine, you're such an incredible person, and I'm so happy for you and Mike. I met Mike for the first time. They got married recently and were frantically uh packing up to go on a honeymoon hike on the John Muir trail, and they're just best friends, and that made me so happy to see. Um, so it was really fun getting a free smoothie. I kind of mistimed dinner tonight, so I've eaten two cookies and a smoothie and burned something like 6,000 calories plus today. Uh I did pretty good eating, but not that good. I drank a lot of soda, which I got pretty tired of. Um, it did get pretty hot during the middle of the day. Uh I left their house. I only stayed for maybe a half hour and um I found my way to camp. But before I got to camp, oh man, I was riding along a river and I was like, I'm gonna take a bath. And I went down there and there were these two uh maybe 55-age males with their dogs, super nice guys. Um, I went down and and you know, stripped and and bathed and got the dirt and grime off me. And when I came back up, one was there uh hoping to be my friend. And um I was not impressed. I really don't like being talked at, and that's what was happening. And I I was trying to read where he was at and maybe what unmet needs might have been present with him at that time. Um I tried to be cordial, but eventually I just kind of rode away from him after about 10 minutes, which is not my favorite thing to do. Uh, but you know, I hadn't said anything for about seven of those minutes, so I was ready to go. And then um I had not anticipated that there wouldn't be a gas station. Um, I didn't look and then lost self-service with my exuberance about seeing Maxine and Mike. Um, so I had no water, should have filled up with my friends and very little food. Um, but I ended up meeting Ed and his wife Isla, who were working on their tractor out in their lawn. And Ed, you were very kind in letting me fill up from your hoses. So yeah, now I'm tucked away uh beside another river, which maybe I would have preferred to have bathed that this evening, and have what I need, and I'm pretty tired, but had a great first day, so I'm feeling thankful. That was day two. Oh, also my cousin Alex wants me to do a shout out. So, Alex, this one's for you, man. Love you. Bye.