Bicycling New England, the
Erie Canal, & around Lake Ontario 2005
Skowhegan to Augusta ME

June 12, 2005
Distance 35.8 Miles
Climbing Elevation: 1,670 feet

We left Skowhegan after eating breakfast at 7:00 AM. It was cold and foggy, but as usual, we started by climbing a hill, part of which had a 10 percent grade. Before we were half way to the top I knew that my rested legs were still tired. For the next 5 to 7 miles we only had a couple of small hills. The scenery was lovely, tree covered hills and grassy fields. We have noticed one thing, a lot of fields are almost completely covered in dandelions that are 18 to 24 inches tall and all of the dandelions are nothing on top but white seed pods. We noticed a few days ago that the lilacs were in full bloom and in a few places these fields of dandelions are being plowed under. Possibly we are just going through this area before the farm crops are being planted. Many individuals that we have met have indicated that they had an immense amount of rain in the month of May.

We continued on our way and turned onto a back road where we encountered a couple of good hills. On a couple of them, we got off the bike and walked to the top due to tired legs. We reached Oakland and continued south to Augusta. As we continued south I turned too soon and we were off our planned route traveling on Maine highway 23 instead of a back road called Middle road. Our GPS instructed us to turn left to get back to Middle road and then turn right onto Tiffany road which looked like a good paved bicycle road. After 2 miles it became a hard packed dirt road with lots of pot holes.

For the next 3 miles we continued on this road that went from a two lane dirt road to a one lane dirt road and finally back to a 2 land dirt road before becoming a paved road again. Instead of our usual 10 plus miles per hour speed, our speed during those 3 miles was more like 6 or 7 miles per hour and most of Mary Kay's time was steering the bicycle around the pot holes. Mary Kay was not very happy with me. Once we reached the paved road the rest of the trip was almost flat or down hill and we arrived at our destination tired but grateful that tomorrow would be a day of rest. We did laundry in the bath tub as the motel does not have a guest laundry and we did not feel like riding three miles to the nearest laundry mat. George and Jane arrived at the motel about an hour after us, as they had taken a different route. We later all walked about a block to an Olive Garden Restaurant where we had a good supper.