Day One Hundred Fifty, 090728 - Belfast, ME

Day One Hundred Fifty, Date Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Time in Saddle: 3:24
Distance for the Day: 27.93 miles From Union, ME To Belfast, ME
Accumulated Trip Distance: 6954.44 miles
Altitudes: Starting/Ending 212’/99’, Highest: 631’ Accumulated: 1923’
Speeds: Avg: 8.2 mph, Max: 38.8 mph
Weather: 65° foggy, clearing by late morning to sunny and warm
Expenditures: $13
I woke up at 5am with the bright fog of morning putting moisture on everything. This did not deter the mosquitoes, however, so I quickly donned my rain clothes to try and thwart them. I spent an hour packing up my gear, making extra effort to try to do it as clean and dry as possible. I was ready to go at 5:59am, but didn’t see any sign of Cory, so I just took off, heading north from Union. At 6:40am had breakfast at a very mini mart of choco milk and Danish ($2). At another mini mart, at 8:28am I re-supplied drinks ($5). There was a short, torturous bit of a hill climb, still in the fog, where the mosquitoes were crazy numerous; I must have killed more than a dozen of ‘em as they landed on my thigh. I got little “preliminary” probes from them, but managed to kill or swat them away before they began tanking up. The fog lifted around 9am, and I was treated to views of backlit, bejeweled spider webs amongst the flower stalks on the side of the road. I made Belfast by about 10:30am and wandered around a bit in this scenic/quaint/touristy little seaside town before finding a library with free, unlimited wi-fi. So, I then spent the rest of the day, from 10:45am – 6pm blogging. I managed to get 3 or 4 posted out of the 5 or 6 that were now ready, before they closed. I went to the outskirts of town to get dinner at Wendy’s ($6), and at 7:06pm, began looking for some stealth camping. Before leaving Wendy’s, I met a fellow who was a member of the Maine Cycling Assoc (or something like that) and he recommended not taking Rte 1 to get to Quoddy Head, but instead using the coast-hugging Rte 191 as it was a better road with less traffic. I also fielded the usual questions from several other people who were admiring my trike. The weather was sunny and warm, but the forecast said “chance of thunderstorms next several days,” so I girded the ol’ loins for yet more wet weather. I didn’t get too much further after leaving Wendy’s, when I found a nice, large visitor center at 8pm that was closed for the night (N44 25.683’ W68 58.847’). It had a lower parking lot, so I went down there and set my tent up just under the building’s pilings. The half-moon was out over the trees, and I had a nice view of Penobscot Bay from there. I had a minor disaster with the tent – hooking its material to the tent poles has always been a little difficult because it was so tight. This time, one of the seams ripped about an inch or so, and left a small hole. I tried to start to fix it, but I couldn’t get the dental floss I wanted to use as thread into the eye of the needle. I like using floss as I think it’s better than cotton thread. I’ll have to see if I can buy one of those needle threader thingies, and some Shoe Goo. I was set up by 8:30pm, so I hopped inside and read my book until 9:30pm before falling asleep. It was a nice quiet site with a beautiful view, protected from the noise of the road without being very far from it. Sites just don’t get no better’n this!