Gravel & Grit...and Singletrack and Loose Stones and Sand and Some Hiking

For whatever reason, this century a week thing has gotten addicting.  This week I was flying solo and decided to take the cross bike so I could plan a route uninhibited by the restrictions of tarred roads.  The weather was beautiful, hot and the ride didn't have as many negative thoughts as Last Week's Post.

Long Lake

I planned the ride so the wind would be with me for the last quarter, as I try to do.  This meant that the first part of the ride included a lot of the climbing including Douglass Mt.  I decided that instead of just climbing the road I'd continue up the trail to the tower.  We scattered some of my dad's ashes at the top so it is a special place for me.

I took a trail I knew to the top but took a longer loop around to come back down thinking that it would be flatter and rideable.  The top, not so much but the bottom was a nice riding trail.

Hi Dad

From there I headed to Limington or Limerick.  (And now a limerick about pickups)

Back roads are fine here in Maine
They are far from the mundane
But the redneks abound
So keep an ear to the ground
And don't end up as a stain

I can never keep those 2 straight since they both start with "L", are both in about in the same place and are both places I never go.  I'm pretty sure I went to both of them yesterday.  Most of the back roads I found actually had tar on them.

I had checked google maps for a place to buy drinks midway through my ride.  When I came to the spot to turn to go to the general store there was a Dollar General conveniently located at the cross-road.  Well FU Dollar General, you are a cancer spreading across Maine and I hate your stores and will never shop one!

Baby Food, Ice Tea & Ice Coffee - Power Food!

I stopped for "lunch".  I found that baby food squeezes available for $0.50 at Big Lots are almost identical to the Cliff Organics Squeezes that cost 3x more.  I think I had Sweet Potato, Mango & Millet .  I realize that Big Lots probably isn't that different than Dollar General but hey, I like them more.

From here the adventure began.  The paved roads gave way to gravel, the gravel gave way to sand, the sand gave way to loose stones and the cycling gave way to walking.  To call these gravel roads would be optimistic.  The trail I road to the top of Douglas Mt was a better ride. 

We'll call that "loose" gravel.

Actually there were only a few sections that were so bad that they needed to be walked.  I didn't stop to take pictures of the giant sand washouts that also slowed me down, 'cause it was getting late.  I did take the time to ride down a short trail to a place on the  Little Ossipee River that was very cool with water flowing over big flat rocks.  It might be worth exploring sometime.

  Little Ossipee River

Overall it was a great ride with over 7000' of climbing even if I did get back 2 hours later than I thought.