Day 23 - East Conway to Portland, 55 miles

We finished our Ride Across America today in Portland ME.   Portland to Portland is done!  What a wonderful bike tour, precious time spent together, and great experiences meeting such friendly people all across the USA.   Fantastic to live in a free country where we can have this kind of experience.  We thank all our friends and family for your encouragement and support. And a special thanks to all the veterans for the freedom to do this. 

First stop this morning in the sunshine!  Maine was only 2 miles away. 

We made it!!  East End Beach Portland ME.  We can hardly believe it!

Todays route

Day 22 - Lincoln to East Conway, 42 miles

Today we faced the final climb of this tour - Kancamagus Pass.  This is also in our high point in the eastern US.  We rode route 112 up the pass and over to Conway.  The climb to the top from Lincoln was 13 miles.  The weather stayed cool and cloudy all day with temps from 55F on the pass to 70F in Conway.  As we neared the pass a light rain started, but thankfully the rain stopped as we headed down the other side.  

 

Mountain views during the climb. We have been riding in the White Mountains National Forest the last two days. 

At the top!  Yahoo we made it!  The grade over the last 4 miles was 9%.  

Todays route

Day 21 - Woodsville to Lincoln, 27 miles

Today we rode route 10 to North Haverville NH, then turned onto route 116 for the climb up to Kinsman Notch.  Route 116 merges with route 112 and then on 112 into Lincoln. 

 

We did our best to time things so we would not be descending the pass in the rain.  It had rained overnight but somehow it avoided us today during our ride. It did start up after we checked in to our hotel!

 

The climb started very steep on narrow roads, but as we gained altitude the grades eased and the road shoulders were much wider.

 

And our rest day really helped!

 

Beautiful views!

The leaves are starting to turn!

The lake called Beaver Pond near the top.

Once again, no sign for the pass, called Kinsman Notch.  But there was the sign for the Appalachian Trail right at the top.  Mark’s brother Scott hiked the trail end-to-end.  

Todays route

Day Off - 8/25/2023 - Woodsville NH

Very nice to have a day off after riding for 11 days, over the Adirondacks, and through Middlebury Gap.   A day of rest, time to give the tandem a checkup, and planning for the challenges ahead has been really relaxing.

 

Raining most of the day so no sightseeing.  Chilling out is what we needed.  Nice lodge with big comfortable rooms. 

Day 20 - Lebanon to Woodsville, 42 miles

Another beautiful sunny day for bike riding.  The day started very cool but got all the way up to 75F - we can’t remember when it was last that warm!  We took a combination of NH art 10 and River Road north from Lebanon, around the Dartmouth  College campus at Hanover, and along the Connecticut River to Woodsville.  We had some beautiful views of the river valley. 

Covered bridge on the Connecticut River Rd

View of the Connecticut River valley, looking over to Vermont from the NH side.   

Todays route

Day 19 - Ripton VT to Lebanon NH, 61 miles

We woke up to a beautiful clear blue sky.   The temps were in the 50s - great for climbing mountain passes.  The B&B provided a tasty breakfast to start our day.  With Middlebury Gap ahead of us and the very steep slopes we encountered yesterday we were a bit apprehensive.   The road from Ripton up to the Gap turned out to be very doable and we were over the top sooner than we thought.  

We took route 125 east from Ripton through the Middlebury Gap to route 100 heading south.  Then we turned onto route 107 east again, and over to route 14 heading south into Lebanon NH.   

 

Sherri on top at Middlebury Gap.  No sign for the pass but the Long Trail crosses here. 

Rebuilding Vermont.  We encountered a lot of roadwork today. Everything from bridges being replaced to repairing big landslides.   Numerous one lane road situations and at times needing to walk the bike.

Much of the route ran along the clear waters of the White River.

Todays route

Day 18 - Ticonderoga NY to Ripton VT, 30 miles

The conditions today were perfect for bike riding; sunny, cool, and almost no wind.  Our route was from Ticonderoga to the Lake Champlain ferry crossing, into Vermont, on route 74 and then route 30 into Middlebury VT.  

The conditions were great but we had other challenges …

 

There were some very steep hills on the way into Middlebury.   Our bottom brackets started making some serious noise.  By the time we got to Middlebury it was clear that we could not continue on without overhauling the bottom brackets.  Luckily we found a highly recommended bike shop  - Frog Hollow Bikes.  Middlebury is a college town and located near Vermont mountain biking hot spots. The mechanics didn’t have spare parts for our brand of bottom brackets, so they installed new compatible ones and had us back on the road in three hours!  Fantastic!

 

From Middlebury we rode to Ripton on 125, which starts the climb into the Green Mountains.  In the first 4 miles of climbing we struggled with long sections of 8 to 10% grades, and one short stretch of 23% !!  We expected steep but this is much steeper than we thought. 

 

Short ferry ride across Lake Champlain

Docking on the Vermont side of the lake

Hello Vermont !

Aaarrrggghh

Todays route