Follow the yellow brick road...

Plans? What plans?

Brrr... a morning temperature of 45 degrees kept me sitting at the breakfast table enjoying morning conversations with my fellow B&B guests while I waited for the sun to warm the air. Breakfast was a wonderful treat of deep dish french toast topped with warm pineapple, and a side dish of Maine blueberries.

My somewhat late cycling start time of 10:30 still gave me plenty of time to ride, with time to chat with people along my biking route, and time to walk and hold conversations with the ducks prancing across the grass and paddling through the harbor here in Camden.

Today's plans were to drive south two towns to Rockland and to follow the Rockland to Port Clyde bike route published on the Explore Maine by Bike web site. Did I follow through on my plans? Of course not! Somehow following directions didn't feel right to me this morning, so I didn't follow them. I should know by now that I'm happier letting my wheels follow the roads as they desire (and yes, my bike does often express route desires!).

I rode south from Camden, through Rockport, and then on to Rockland, following Route 1 which was busy but very rideable. It was a two-lane road with wide paved shoulders, and while there was traffic it was not a bother at all. A quick stop in Rockport at Sweet Sensations & 3 Dogs Cafe added a blueberry scone to my food stash for the day; extra energy in fresh baked goods is always welcome. After I arrived in Rockland I searched out the Chamber of Commerce to pick up a local map. What luck! They had a printed copy of the map from my planned route for today. I had printed the directions and not the map, and the map was really what I needed. It showed the main route rather than turn by turn directions, much easier for my wheels to follow without much thought. I turned away from Route 1, heading toward the water. Glimpses of the coast jumped out and continued to entice me to keep rolling down the road, and the very jagged coastline was occasionally reachable. Owl's Head Light provided some stunning views, and then the road wandered through the trees once again.

After riding today, I finally have Rockport and Rockland straight in my mind. For some reason before I rode my route, I kept confusing which of the "rock" towns came first. The names of these towns reminded me that long ago Maine was part of Massachusetts. Similar town names at home have always struck me as odd - Medfield and Medford, Westfield, Weston, Westford, and at least one other "west" town. And now here in Maine we have Rockport and Rockland right next to each other. I wonder what the town-naming powers were thinking. Do you think it was a conspiracy to cause confusion? Or was it just a lack of imagination?

I arrived back in Camden this afternoon with time to do some wandering by foot. I attempted to walk to the top of Mount Battie, following a trail through the woods. I knew there would be a section of increased exposure, and I knew there was more than a small chance that I would not cover that terrain. I reached an area with good views before the trail headed up at a very steep angle. I'm more comfortable going up than down, and I learned a long time ago to think about whether I would be happy on the return trip. Remember Angel's Landing in Zion National Park? I didn't make it to the end of that trail, and I also didn't top out on Mount Battie today. I found out later that there is a road to the top, so I could have hiked up the trail and back down on the road. I'm not unhappy that I turned around though, no regrets!

I wandered down to the harbor once more, this time accompanied by my camera attired with a long lens so I could easily sneak up on the resident birds. The ducks very kindly agreed to pose for me.

Dinner tonight was a real treat. Kerry and Donna (of Fit and Fat across the North with RAGBRAI) finished their cross-country trip last week. They started in Portland, Oregon, traveling across the north, and finishing in Massachusetts. Kerry reached out to me a week or so ago, asking me to share dinner with them at the end of their voyage. Sometimes timing gets in the way, but this time things worked out. They planned to travel in Maine before heading back to the west, and we were in the same town tonight. Camden, Maine was a good (in person) meeting place for three people who had met online, three touring cyclists, all sporting yellow wrist RoadIDs... Funny, we could have used that as a subtle way to recognize each other at our first meeting. Our shared dinner, and enjoyable shared conversation was a good end to another good cycling day.

Somewhere over the years my biking trips have turned into an excuse for finding new sources of good dark chocolate. And guess what! I've found another winner. This time my treat is made my Hershey's, and is one of their Cacao Reserve products. The package bears the description "extra dark chocolate 65% cacao". Yum! I'm sure I'll be adding this prize to my chocolate diet.

Tomorrow I'll be jumping a bit farther up the coast. I plan to see the world from the top of the bridge in Bucksport and then to use my bike to wander on Deer Isle. I'll end the day in Bar Harbor, my home base for the next four nights.