After exploring the beaches around Old Orchard and Portland for a day, riding without my trailer in almost sublime comfort for lack of its bulk, I began to move south to find the Germans in Boston. And while the scenery was spectacular and the world’s largest chocolate moose remained an attraction, the overcast skies and constant threat of being soaked at any moment urged me onward. After a leisurely start and a calm day of riding through a few minor showers and many bustling tourist villages I settled on a spot just south of Portsmouth, NH.

It turned out to be a good thing that I planned to make a short day after leaving Tilton, since 10 miles from my end goal for the day, Wolfesboro, NH, my right pedal ceased to do so. Upon attempting to fix the problem, I made it worse, and all the now-useless bearings in the mechanism are now hiding in the grass somewhere near the Mt. Major trail head. I had also been feeling somewhat ill all morning, with an upset stomach that constantly asked to used the toilet. I may have overdone it on the Starbucks banana smoothies with added fiber powder the day before.

Lake George, where I wrote from last, was a tourist infested mess, but beautiful non-the-less. Upon leaving town I tried to take what I thought would be a shortcut to my next destination, Lake St. Catherine State Park. State route 18 was probably about 5 miles shorter, but the map, being flat as it is, did not demonstrate the 6-10% grades all along the road very accurately, and the last 15 of my 113 miles on the day were by far the most challenging. I made it to the park just as the sun went down and almost fell into my sleeping bag.

The ride out of Syracuse started out slowly, since when I awoke to brilliant blue skies and a sparse but satisfying continental breakfast, my rear tire was flat. Now, that wouldn't have been such a big deal if I hadn't just put on a new tire and a new tube the night before in preparation for an early departure. I thought the bike was high and dry and ready to fly, but it turned out not to be the case, when the second tube I pumped was in fact also flat. The third plumped nicely, but by this time I was almost an hour behind schedule.