Day One on the New England Adventure

I rolled out of the Moseley Cottage Inn in Bar Harbor at a comfortable 0930 this morning. I had hoped to roll out earlier, but the Moseley is a B&B, and everyone at breakfast wanted to talk about my ride, and get my contact information and follow me on my ride. And it was fun; I enjoyed the attention. I got lot's of, "If you're ever in 'blah-blah', look us up and you have a place to stay." I enjoy B&B's for that reason, Loy's of shared experiences. Alas, that is probably my last B&B for the trip. And after I rolled out of the Moseley, rather than head out of 'Bah Hahbuh', I rode down to the pier so I could get the traditional picture of my bike with the rear wheel in the ocean at the start of the trip. "Excuse me ma'am, are you in a hurry?" "Yes, kind of. Why?" "Never mind. I can get someone else. I just wanted someone to take my picture." "Oh, I can do that." After she took my picture and found out why I wanted the picture, she was telling complete strangers, "He's riding his bike to Philadelphia! He's riding his bike to Philadelphia!" They were less impressed  than she was. But she and I were impressed.

Then I started my trip for real. My Garmin 810 has two ways to guide me down the road. One way is to just follow a track the I plotted out before hand based on the downloaded gpx files from Adventure Cycling Association. And the other way is to not plot the tracks out, but use the gpx files as a route and then my GPS indicates when I need to turn ... but between turns it does not indicate if you are on or off course. I never used the routing capability before, so I tried it out leaving Bar Harbor ... and quickly got lost, or at least off track. The heck with routing, and back to my plotted tracks.

The weather was fantastic today, and more tailwinds than headwinds. However, six miles out of Bar Harbor, I had already climbed about 600 feet. I was going to be riding about 50 miles and if that rate of climbing kept constant, I was in for 5000 feet of climbing. That would not be too bad on myroad bike, but I don't think I was up for it on Surly with loaded panniers. I slowed down and climbed everything in granny low to conserve power. My fears were not realized. The climb for the day was just about 2500 feet, which was still more than I expected. Dennie told me on my phone home, "Yes, Marvin. I remember the hills in Maine. Don't you remember? And you have a lot more in front of you." I am struggling to find that to be encouraging, but at least I am forewarned.

At about mile 20, my front fork started making a funny noise when I would turn sharply to avoid road debris or catch my balance.Yesterday, when I was assembling my bike, a bearing fell out of my headset. I was kind of teasing when I wrote my blog wondering if I got the crown race in right side up or upside down. Now I was wondering, "Maybe I did assemble it incorrectly. Well, I am not going to take it apart on the road. It is not going to fail while I am riding. This is when I need Jim. Maybe I can google 'assembling headsets' in my motel tonight." The climbing was getting more tiresome. But I also was not coasting down hill as fast as I thought I should. And then on a moderate grade I found myself pedaling a lot harder than I thought I should be pedaling, even if I was at mile 42. So I stopped the bike, turned it over and gently spun the front wheel. Rather than spinning, it came to a stop before it even made a full revolution. Crap! I didn't have a headset problem, I had a brake problem. Sure enough, my brake calipers must have got misaligned during shipping. They had been rubbing, maybe for 42 miles. Yeah, I know what you all are thinking. Don't say it. Note to self: Test ride the bike after you assemble it. Don't wait until you actually start your ride. And another note to self: When a hill seems tougher than it should be, don't always assume it is just your tired imagination. Anyway, after a bit of roadside maintenance, I was rolling free and easy again. It is too bad I missed a comment on yesterday's blog from a Malaysian friend of mine, New Bill. Yesterday he commented, "Great pics already! Hope you got the brakes properly aligned!" How did he know, half a world away.

I plan on about 40 miles tomorrow. 48 was a bit more than I was up for today.