Bicycling New England, the
Erie Canal, & around Lake Ontario 2005
Lancaster NH to Bethel ME

June 9, 2005
Distance 52 Miles
Climbing Elevation: 2,980 feet

Today was another hard day. We left are motel around 9:00, after a small centennial breakfast. We started out by doing almost all the climbing for the day in the first 15 miles. Part of this ride was along the Israel River.

For a short time we went downhill or across fairly flat roads. By the time we reached Gorhan, NH Mary Kay and I were both extremely tired. We had only gone half the distance we had to go for the day and we were both beat. The good news was that the rest of the bicycle ride was on back roads with almost no traffic and only a few short but sometimes very steep hills.

We sat and ate lunch on the side of the road. We ate out of the back of our bicycle; cheese, crackers, a roll and banana. 3 miles later we were in Gorhan. We looked and looked for someplace in Gorhan that sold ice cream. Mary Kay and I finally stopped at a gas station/store and had prepackaged ice cream. George and Jane found good ice-cream, but we were too tired to turn around and go back.

When we reached Bethel, and found a B&B, we were so tired that all we wanted to do was flop down on the bed and fall asleep. However, we knew that we needed food so we showered and dressed walked downstairs to the restaurant and had a superb supper. The food was very good.