Day 8: Damariscotta

Day 8: Damariscotta

June 20, 2016

Miles: 61

Average Speed 9.7 mph

Ascending in Feet 3989
   
Portland to Damariscotta

We wanted to get an early start this morning because we had 55 miles to ride to Damariscotta, but we didn't.  Last night, I secured a B&B for lodging because Damariscotta only offered B&B lodging and no motels or hotels.  It did have a campground close, but after some thought I figured - why sleep on the ground when you can sleep in a bed.  This makes sense - right?  I thought it did!

Let me first highlight the day for you, we had beautiful weather; we rode through the cutiest towns; we stopped for lunch at a deli in Bath that was gluten free friendly; we took a wrong turn and adding 6 miles to our ride; we climbed almost 4000 feet; we checked into the B&B after 7:00p.  Here are the details.

Leaving Portland this morning was easy. Portland has a bike trail that hugs the coast.  It was right on the water, so close that you could have jumped in.  The bike trail out of the city was a nice way to travel. You didn't have to fight traffic. Very few people occupied this bike trail; this morning included this young, and rather eccentric looking, roller blader.

A beautiful view taken from the Portland bike trail.

Still on the bike trail in Portland.  It was about 10:15am and about 2 miles from the Hampton Inn. We essentially got a late and very slow start this morning leaving the Hampton. Before we knew it, it was after 10:00am - crazy how that happens!

Today we did not have a Garmin route programmed.  We thought - lets just go for it.  It was only about 18 miles to Freeport, which was our first stop, but more significantly, the town that intersected with the AMA East Coast Bicycle Map. We bought this map from the same company that we bought last year's maps.  As you may remember - these maps are amazing.  We really wanted to get back using these maps because they are easy to read and we never, never seem to get lost using them. 

And can you believe it.  To our surprise, we past by Garmin corporate office.  In hindsight, we probably should have programmed a Garmin route for today, but we didn't.  Note though, at this point in the ride, we had not gotten lost.  

We stopped at a Starbucks in Freeport for a coffee. We used the gift certificate Nannie gave me for Christmas to make our purchases.  Thanks Nannie!

Right after we left Freeport, the first cute town we visited, we faced the unfathomable.  Rolling hills, one after the next.  We knew it would be a tough day riding, but we never expected to climb almost 4000 feet with most of these hills between 12% and 16% grade.  This is just one of many steep hills that followed.

It was about the 30 mile mark here.  We found ourselves on another bike trail.  The trail was beautiful as it hugged the Merrymeeting Bay.  It was a peaceful place to rest and the sun shined perfectly.

We stopped to eat lunch in Bath, another cute town.  It also had the best deli.  The woman who owned it was a gluten free eater, so she of course had a lot of gluten free options on the menu.  I had bok choy soup and a roasted turkey breast sandwich with spicy mustard.  Steve had the Florence Wrap, which was hummas, feta chesse, and a variety of greens.  We had rode about 39 miles at this point, so lunch really hit the spot.

As we left Bath, we had to cross this bridge.  In fact, we crossed at least 7 bridges today.  There are lots of rivers, bays, and ponds in this area.  All so beautiful and clean.

It was between 45 and 50 miles of riding at this point; we started seeing open fields and farm land - really plush and green.  It was during this stretch that we added 6 miles to our ride.  Route 1 is the official East Coast Greenway.  The route basically recommended for bicyclists. Route 1 is sometimes a really nice road to ride on, and at other times, not so nice.  Meaning lots of loud cars and traffic.  We were actually on Old Stage Road, a stretch where we were paralleling Route 1. It was a less travelled road, so a good road for cyclist.  Some where between Bath and Damariscotta we put on an extra 6 miles. The AMA maps are so reliable, usually.  We just didn't know what happened, until we stopped to look at the map and we saw that off of Old Stage Road we were supposed to have taken a left onto Old Bath Road.  This is what was written in the map 'take left on an unsigned Old Bath Road'.  Well!  Do I have to say any more.

At this point we were at 50 miles and we determined that we had another 11 miles to go.  It was getting late, but it was still light out so we just had to grind and do the miles.  I stopped to call Minnie, the innkeeper at the B&B to tell her we would be checking in late.  Of course Minnie thanked us for calling to let her know.  We then ran into two older gentleman about 1 mile down the road; we asked them if we were on the right track and if Route 1 was up ahead.  After about a 5 minute chat with one gentleman who acually gave us detailed directions to Darariscotta, the other said 'let me tell you something, I really want you to think about this now (pause), did you know that there is something called an automobile'.  He was trying to be funny, and he was.  His delivery was just perfect!  Made us laugh!

We finally reached Damariscotta at about 6:30p.  We picked up dinner before we headed to the B&B.  We knew that we would not leave the B&B once checked in, so we bought take out in the town.  Damariscotta is such a cute little town.  It resembles a fisherman town in a way.  For dinner, I ordered a gluten free pizza that I had to fold up like quesadillas because I really couldn't ride my bike with a big pizza box strapped to it, and Steve ordered a Lamb Gyro.  Both pretty decent.

We plan to ride to Belfast tomorrow - about 54 miles.  Another long and hilly ride.  When we told Minnie we encountered a lot of steep hills today, she simply said, 'we are in Maine'.  That told us we need to expect this type of terrain going forward!