Day 34 - North Woodstock, NH to Fryeburg, Maine 6-24-2011

The alarm went off at 4:30 this morning (it sure seems strange that we are now retired and getting up earlier than we had to when we worked).  We packed up and walked the bike next door to the convenience store and bought a egg, sausage, and muffin and chatted with several of the employees.  We knew that we had a long climb of 14 1/2 miles ahead of us to Kancamagus Pass and then about a 20 mile downhill.  Immediately upon leaving North Woodstock we started to slowly climb.  The weather didn't look to promising as it was very overcast and quite foggy up in the mountain top.  Actually for biking it was really quite comfortable as we didn't get overheated on the climb up.  Due to the fog we were not able to see all the scenic views but it sure beats having the hot sun beat down on us.  We arrived at the Kancamagus Pass at 8:20AM just as it really started to rain.  We put on our rain jacket and headed down the otherside - it was cold!  We went about 1 mile and stopped on the side of the road and put on our rain pants.  We went 2 more miles and stopped at a scenic overview which had a canopy shelter and then put on another layer of clothes and socks and then continued on in the pouring rain.  It was a long slow ride down as the visability wasn't that good plus our glasses were all fogged up and rain splattered.  We never thought we would see the day when we would look forward to a downhill being over.  As we got further down the mountain it warmed up a little bit and was a little more comfortable biking.  Ten miles after Kancamagus Pass we turned on to Dugway Road and immeditely came upon another neat covered bridge that was over the Swift River.  What a beautiful area and we have really enjoyed bicycling along the rivers during this trip.  We bicycled along three different rivers on our journey today and we would get beautiful glimpses of the river as we bicycled along.

We stopped for a late breakfast/early lunch at Conway, NH and hoped that it would quit raining.  Unfortunately it didn't let up after we were done eating but we figured we only had 7 more miles to ride to our hotel in Fryeburg, Maine.  On June 24th, at 12:20PM the Johnson's pedaled into Maine.  WOW - we still have 222 miles to bike to Bar Harbor, Maine but it sure is exciting to know that we are in the last state.  There are 15 states that we needed to bike through to do the entire Adventure Cycling Northern Tier
trail and we are now in the 15th and final state. 

We arrived at Quinn's Jockey Cap Motel in Fryeburg, Maine about 12:45 and of course, we were wet, cold, and anxious to get cleaned up.  When we first arrived there they said that check in wasn't until 3:00 but they were nice enough to let us get in early. 

It is still raining and foggy so we hope that it will just rain and get it out of its system and be nicer tomorrow.  Our plans are to bike about 56 miles tomorrow to Danville, Maine and we made reservations to stay at the Sleepy Time Motel. 

We were told at the convenience store that we need to watch out for bear and moose!  We did see moose tracks in the swamp areas but never got to see one and thank god, no bear!

You know your getting out in the sticks when you see a sign like this.

All we heard was birds singing and the river running alongside the road.  Very little traffic this morning!

We are climbing!

I have so enjoyed bicycling along the rivers!

Pictures just don't do these rivers justice!

Peace and calmness!

Seeing a mountain like that in front of you is a little intimidating!  There is actually two of them -one is in the fog so you can  just barely make it out.

Kancamagus Pass - the fog and the rain are moving in very quickly!

Kathi on the bike pretending to be the "Captain"!

Covered bridge on Dugway Road near Conway, NH

Swift River

Another view of Swift River from the Covered Bridge