Perhaps I was a little harsh yesterday.
The group that rode the Down East Sunrise Trail on Day 1 loved it. They took their time, seemingly stopping on every bridge to take photos. And the surface, while not consistent, isn’t as rough once you get more than a few feet away from a road crossing, they said.
While the trail is the longest trail segment on the East Coast Greenway, the big users are ATVs and, in the winter, snowmobiles, not cyclists. While the machines kick up some rocks, they also pack down the surface.
So we took a walk along the trail in Machias. It still felt too sandy for our skinny, slick tires, but it certainly looked better than what we saw on Sunday:
Taking the trail today cut off about 8 miles and all those hills. There’s barely a grade on on this trail Still, the surface seems to have beaten up our riders. Those who made it the whole way arrived much later than all of us who took the road.
Here’s a sign by the crossing in Machias that I liked. Can’t ignore the economic impact of trail tourism!
Exploring by bicycle 