Day 50 - Meandering thru Milo to Millinocket
Another day another beautiful day for riding a bike. What a glorious day it was. Nice and cool. Warmed up a bit, but didn't get out of the 70's. There were some hills from Dover Foxcroft to Milo, but I found Rt 11 North out of Brownville to Millinocket surprisingly flat! It was great and even with my bags I managed 11.9 mph average. I had lots of time to stop and check things out. In Milo, I meandered around to look for the Bissell Brewery, and added a couple of miles to my ride before giving up, but I know where it is and how to get there. It was closed anyway. It looks like they only have weekend hours of operations.
Coming into Northern Maine is like coming into another world. The vegetation changes. The trees change, and even the wind and the smell of the air changes. It's amazing. I hadn't experienced it since Doug Frati and I brought Zach and Demetri to climb Katahdin. Interesting thing is that I didn't notice it then! With the slow ride up Rt 11 on the bike it became more and more palpable. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
And there are incentives to keep your speed up on the bike! When climbing a hill the black flies, deer flies, and horse flies are able to keep up. It's not until you're going more than 10 mph that they can't maintain. Fortunately, there was also a steady breeze out of the south yesterday to help keep them away, but when you slow to less than 10 on the uphills, they can find you!
5 Lakes Lodge B&B on the southern end of South Twin Lake is just spectacular. My view out the window and their proximity to Katahdin is incredible.
I'm lucky it was a beautiful day yesterday as the clouds came in last night and today.
While weather.com consistently said it's going to rain today, it doesn't look like it. But I'm going to try to get out early and hopefully miss whatever rain does pop up along the way!
Awesome ride! Help raise money for Cancer Research!