You know how you swipe someone’s ride off Ride With GPS or similar and it’s … not what you hoped it would be? Not this one!
We picked it because it went past a friend’s house and the mileage — about 34 miles — was right. One word: fabulous. A lot of quiet roads, roads that dead-end at beaches, roads with generally respectful drivers (and when they came a bit too close, odds were the cars had out-of-state plates).
We hit part of the Eastern Trail in Maine and went off-route for hipster ice cream in Biddeford. (Hipster in the nicest way, of course.)
You might remember my not-so-patient wait for ice cream during last year’s week-long ride along the East Coast Greenway in Maine. Because of course you should eat ice cream while biking whenever possible.
We were back in Maine this month to visit friends. They said they’d be up for a bike ride …. so off we went on the Eastern Trail, another part of the East Coast Greenway. The section from Kennebunk to Biddeford is hard-packed, not asphalt, and in one spot a bit muddy after some rain. Glad we had the hybrids. It switched to quiet road through Biddeford and into Saco, where we stopped for lunch at a cute cafe with a deck. I, however, was more interested in ice cream. Not on the menu. Fortunately the waitress was a connoisseur and pointed us in the right direction.
So once everyone was fortified with real food (and my “side” of pulled pork had to be the equivalent of a breadless sandwich — somewhere between a quarter pound and half pound), off we headed to Biddeford and and the Sweetcream Dairy.
Our Maine friends and their ice cream
Oh, hipsters. This place is a registered dairy and milk processing plant. Can your favorite place in Brooklyn, Portland or wherever claim that? It batch-pasteurizes its milk. Locally sourced, of course. Provenance on the website. Maine herbs and fruits. I’d say it’s mostly farm-to-table for the ice cream crowd. And located in a repurposed mill — more hipster points.
“Mostly” locally sourced because how do you get local chocolate? Lemon and poppyseed? Key lime? In that true hipster way, it was well-curated — no 31 flavors and all that. Yet I was tempted by so many — rhubarb sorbet, perhaps?
A couple of samples later, I picked the dark chocolate. But there’s a twist: It was vegan. So not me. No idea what the secret non-dairy ingredient was, but it was awesome. I went for the kiddie size and it was so rich, I really could have used one of the citrus flavors to offset that. (Wonder if they’d do a half-and-half in a cup?) A single scoop would have been too much.
Sweetcream, get yourself a sign to and from the Eastern Trail!
All in all, nearly a 20-mile ride. One day I’ll ride the rest of the trail, from Portland down to the New Hampshire border. Stopping for ice cream, of course.
Ash, one of the two Maine residents on this trip, rode the entire route on a mountain bike — and took the road the first two days, rather than the Down East Sunrise Trail. Being a Down Easter, he’s already ridden a lot of that trail and figures he can do more whenever he wants. Hills were tougher than for those of us on road bikes, but he wasn’t the only one who walked a few of them.
He rode in regular shorts, no padding hidden underneath. Seven days and 350-plus miles? That can be painful.
We were in awe that he has built his own log cabin, beginning with felling the trees himself and turning them into logs. The cabin has solar power and well water but lacks every modern convenience — making it too rugged for Alan, our mechanic who dreams of being off the grid as long as he can still somehow run Netflix.
Ash has a deep interest in caring for the land — he built and maintains trails in his area. He’s ready to share it through a primitive campsite he has built on his property for cyclists.
When Clive spotted outdoor cookers near homes on Day 2, Ash explained they are outdoor wood-burning furnaces. People use them to heat water that runs through their homes and radiates heat. Of course I then had to start looking too. Clive spotted plenty of shed-like buildings with a smokestack that houses furnaces — and even a furnace for sale for $900 — but I never saw a one.
I’d include a link to his local newspaper’s article about him and this ride, but I can’t find it.
I’ve decided that one of my focuses this week should be to seek out as much lobster as I can.
So I started in Portland with a 7-inch lobster roll for $10 at a non-descript deli:
I’m going to need to try a few more to discover what makes one truly great.
And if I can’t find lobster? The bus driver warned me it’s harder to find in northern Maine. It’s blueberry season, and those are plentiful in northern Maine.
Here’s our itinerary for the Maine ride along the East Coast Greenway.
Next Saturday afternoon we’ll be on a bus from Portland to Calais (pronounced cal-iss) and the start of our 337-mile ride along the East Coast Greenway. Calais seems to be not quite the most eastern point in the U.S. But it does have a border crossing — passport and Canadian dollars are packed. Dinner? Ice cream? Definitely a passport stamp!
We’ve gotten the cue sheets and here’s how it’s shaping up:
Sunday: Calais to Machias. We’re taking the road option — the Down East Trail looks rocky and we’d rather have our road bikes for the hills that come later. 46 miles.
Monday: Machias to Ellsworth. Once again, road over that rocky trail. Thankfully we have the option. This is our long day — 68 miles. I think we stopped in Ellsworth on our first trip to Maine 11 years ago (destination Acadia National Park) — there’s an L.L. Bean outlet in town. Looks like our hotel is a parking lot away.
Tuesday: Ellsworth to Bangor. This is apparently where the hills start. At least it’s just a 42-mile day.
Wednesday: Bangor to Unity. More hills? But just 38 miles. We’re spending the night in a college dorm. We did the same thing at the start of the charity ride I did for Anchor House three years ago (then it was Burlington, Vermont) — here’s the blog about that year.
Thursday: Unity to Augusta. A 43-mile day, and our hotel at the end has the word “spa” in it. Better pack a swimsuit.
Friday: Augusta to Lewiston/Auburn. The day includes an event with the Maine Department of Transportation just 2 miles from the start, at a trailhead for the Kennebec River Trail. It’s always great to meet local and state officials and help make the case for the East Coast Greenway. And to say thanks too, of course. It looks like we’ll ride most, if not all, of this 6.5-mile trail. I wonder if there are plans to extend it? We end the 44.5-mile day with a much shorter Riverside Greenway.
Saturday: Lewiston/Auburn to Portland. We’re ending the ride with another long day — 56.6 miles, with the option of another 3.5 miles for a victory lap with Maine Adaptive Sports. If people with physical disabilities are coming to ride with us, heck yes we can do another 3.5 miles!
It’s always exciting to read about gaps in the East Coast Greenway being closed. There’s been good news in Delaware and Maryland (and of course Connecticut, which I’ve written about earlier).
Delaware Gov. Markell and the East Coast Greenway ride in 2014
Back in 2014, I took part in my first East Coast Greenway Week-A-Year ride, pedaling from Philadelphia to Fredericksburg, Va. We rode on some great trails, of course, but we also were on roads plenty of times (some good, some bad).
So I was excited to come across two items Friday that show gaps on the trail are being closed.
One of the most ambitious projects that will now be completed with this authorized funding is the Wilmington-New Castle Greenway, a safe, direct, paved, flat and nearly uninterrupted non-motorized six-mile travel route between the Wilmington Riverfront and downtown New Castle. Another project that will gain additional momentum is the Lewes-Georgetown Trail, a 10 foot wide paved trail that will extend a total of 17 miles all the way from Lewes to Georgetown, creating the longest trail in Delaware.
The East Coast Greenway goes from Wilmington to New Castle; maybe one day there will be a direct Wilmington-Newark route. No word yet on how quickly construction can happen, but it’s still a great step.
The Lewes-Georgetown Trail isn’t part of the East Coast Greenway but it’s about getting people to and around the beaches. and of course people already are biking on vacation — here’s a recent news article about some badly needed signage down in Rehoboth. Another bonus: it connects to New Jersey and the Cape May area via the ferry at Lewes.
Some of the 2014 group advocating for a safe crossing in Perryville
The day’s other news is that the bridge over the Susquehanna River between Perryville and Havre de Grace opened for bikes on Friday. This is a great victory! Sure, there are some complaints (and yes, we have to pay the toll too), but it’s far better than being barred. When we were here in 2014, the boats that were to shuttle us over never showed (they got the wrong day), so we were bused over the bridge.
Bridges. That’s the costly and really time-consuming part. If it had taken a new bridge to close this gap, we’d be waiting a long time. It’s also the gap in the WB&A trail from Washington to Baltimore. We rode part of this trail in 2014 too. The East Coast Greenway route goes from Baltimore to D.C. via Annapolis, and the vision is have a traffic-free route there too. A 1.7-mile gap on that leg closed in May because a developer realized it made sense for his own project (no doubt with some prompting).
But I always wonder what could be done to make bike bridges less expensive. Would more prefab parts help, vs. constructing on site? Do construction standards require that they be able to support something as heavy as an ambulance and that adds to the cost? Can anything be done? Or is this just the unfortunate reality?
I’m riding twice for the East Coast Greenway this year — from the Canadian border to Portland, Maine, and from Raleigh, North Carolina, to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
The East Coast Greenway’s Week-A-Year ride continues to roll down the coast — and another effort is starting from the top.
So I’ll be going from Raleigh to Myrtle Beach in October AND I’ll be going from the Canadian border to Portland, Maine from July 30 to Aug. 6. Each ride will top 300 miles — the Maine ride is closer to 350 miles.
I’m looking forward to being part of the 2016 version of this photo:
The 2011 version
Since we’ll be shuttled from Portland to the border that Saturday late afternoon, you know I’ll be crossing into Canada for a stamp in my passport to mark the ride.
Better yet, I’ll be riding with three of my best friends!
The Carolinas ride is Oct. 2-8. And when that’s over, I will have ridden my bike from Philadelphia to Myrtle Beach on the East Coast Greenway. The plan remains to hit Key West in 2019.
This route is 100% mapped, but as I’ve seen on previous ride, there are many gaps between off-road trails. Some are quiet roads — almost as good as a trail! But in other spots, a trail is desperately needed, both for local residents and for long-distance riders.
As for me, I will still have gaps in my personal East Coast Greenway after 2016. My training goals this year include closing some of them. I want to ride several of the East Coast Greenway trails in Connecticut and go from Newark’s Ironbound section (Portugal!) to Metro Park’s Oak Tree Road (India!) and on to New Brunswick. Any interest in joining me? Or on another training ride?
Exploring by bicycle 