Damariscotta, ME to Naples, ME
Day: 84.7 miles, Trip: 204.68 miles
I started looking for some new tires today. The beasts (Schwalbe Marathon Mondials) are too big and provide too much resistance compared to the light road bikes I am riding with. I am not going to just buy any lighter tire, but if I can find a good touring tire lighter than these I am going to get them. I can't really complain about these tires except for that they aren't good for keeping up with lighter road bikes, I have really only had 1 flat tire in over 3000 miles riding them and the same tubes in them. So far I have been striking out, a couple years ago people recommended 26 inch wheels and in my frame size my Surly only had the option of 26 inch wheels but not all the shops mostly carry 26 inch mountain bike tires and 700c road tires.
Like the rest of Maine we are moving up and down along rollers most of the day. I arrived in Brunswick, ME at the first rest stop and got to stop into Walmart for some supplies that I needed. I stopped into town at the bike shop in town but wasn't really thrilled with the service or advice I received from there. I realized I still haven't changed my brakes like I planned so that is on my list as well. I am sure I can find a decent bike shop along the way to get all this stuff fixed.
From Brunswick we cruised along to Shaker Village, ME for the second stop where it began to rain and again I was running behind the group. We were hoping for a quick rain but it decided it had a lot to dump on us. The road from Shaker Village to Naples, ME was via route 11. This road was in horrible condition full of deep pot holes and was more rubble than road. Add rush hour traffic (as rush hour as you get out here) and rain and it was not a pretty picture. Out of the 3000+ miles that I put on my bike this was some of the most sketchy riding.
I stopped in Naples, ME (population 3,270) with Michelle, Molly and Sonja and had a hot sub from Subway to warm up and get out of the rain. By the time we finished dinner the rain had mostly stopped. From here it was a short ride to the campground. The route leaders had hot chocolate ready for us when we arrived. We set up our tents on soggy ground and called it a night, grateful that it has stopped raining.
