Tuesday June 26, 2007, 60 m(97 km) – Total so far: 438 miles (705 km) 60.2 miles
37.5 top mph Chuck
10.4 averages
95-100 degrees all day long/slight headwind.
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It rained on and off all night. Chuck was up first. Jamie wasn’t here.
We packed up mostly everything last night so getting on the road went quick.
While we were packing those bastard chipmunks would not leave us alone. They kept jumping all over the picnic table, our bikes and even jumped onto my tent. I chased them, threw rocks/water at them, called them every name in the book and they still wouldn’t leave us alone. They kept making that horrible screeching sound at one point I was tempted to shoot them with my dog spray but decided that was too cruel. We weren’t feeding them and had all the food packed away tight.
Before the heat came out we climbed back up 1200′ to the pass over Mt. Moosilauke, I left my water bottle at the top of the mountain yesterday so I picked that up. At the top of it was super windy.
Mt. Moosilauke is where we crossed the Appalachian Trail. Last summer I hiking on the AT about 10 miles south of where we just crossed the trail.
The ride down Moosilauke was real fast. At the bottom of the hill the heat came out. We rode into Haverhill and Chuck became obsessed with all the pretty buildings that sited around the large open green in the center of town. We ate our spaghetti sandwiches for lunch. Then we rode through the Connecticut River valley.
After lunch we pushed through for another 15 miles into Orford and decided to take a nap under a shady tree across from the convenience store. The heat was really taking its toll on us. I called The Smiths the 2 cyclists we were staying with and they told us there was an ice cream place in the next town over. So we went to go find it.
When we were having ice cream we met these 2 girls from Dartmouth out on a bike ride. They told us that they rode cross country a few years ago almost following the same northern route we are taking. They did their trip with habitat for humanity and it sounds like that had a really great time. They were really jealous of us riding bikes all summer.
After ice cream we finally found a library that was open. The librarian had me sign all these legal papers saying I won’t download child porn or make illegal eBay deals on their computer. Then I found out they only have a dialup connection, so I didn’t even bother doing journal stuff. Chuck did email and I called Jamie.
Jamie’s really upset. He was having such a great time. He’s got a doctor’s appointment on Thursday and is talking about going to see some sports doctor that was recommended to him.
We left the library it was still really hot. We finally crossed into Vermont over the Connecticut River.
And had 18 miles to ride until we got to the smiths house. 8 miles from smiths we rode up this hill that took our last. We rode really slowly. 3 miles away from the smiths chuck decided he couldn’t ride any father and refused to come out of his granny gear even on the downhills. I was exhausted too but got annoyed and basically dragged him the rest of the way.
When we got to the smiths they were happy to see us. We dropped off our bikes and they took us up the hill to this really pretty lake for a swim. It felt so great jumping into that lake. I also hadn’t showered since Conway so it felt good to get off all that grime from my skin.
The Smiths fed us a delicious dinner and we sat around talking all night mostly about cycling. They are leaving in a few days for a 3 week trip around the Canadian Rockies. They told us all about their last trip there and cycling in Cuba and Mexico. Chuck and I had a great time hearing all their stories. Wally gave us an alternate route for riding out tomorrow. We stayed in the spare bedrooms at the smiths. It felt weird sleeping on a fluffy bed. The Smiths are a lot of fun. I’m really glad we got to meet up with them.
Here are the leftover pictures we both fell into a trap of taking too many barn pictures today.
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