John Aylward Photography

Ride Statistics:
The official distance of the tour reported by ABB was 3872 miles in 47 riding days. The actual distance measured by my bike computer was slightly less, perhaps due to some route changes along the way. In addition to riding the entire route, I actually added bonus miles some days by choice or by mistake. Each rider’s actual miles will very a little. There were five other riders who rode the entire route (ie. did not SAG). They were Mark Brandjord, Ken Koele, Bud Seabeck, Emma Mason and Ken Harris.

Count: 47 Activities
Time: 252:14:02 h:m:s
Distance: 3,834.38 mi
Avg Distance: 81.58 mi
Max Distance: 120.82 mi
Elevation Gain: 128,323 ft
Avg Elevation Gain: 2,730 ft
Max Elevation Gain: 7,949 ft
Avg Speed: 15.2 mph
Max Speed: 45.4 mph

Today’s Highlights:
We had an awesome finish to our cross country bicycle trip! After fifty one days of sunshine, we had pouring rain today. It would not have been a fulfilled challenge without some rain, so today’s downpour made it complete. We started out at 6:45 AM in a hard steady rain. After four miles I was soaked all the way through and water was squishing out of my shoes with every pedal stroke. For the next sixty miles, almost seven hours, the soaking continued. There were times when it came down so hard there was a steady flow of water across the entire road. It felt a little like swimming and biking at the same time. Once you are that wet, more water just doesn’t matter. You might as well just stay out in it and ride. The trick is to stay warm by cycling hard, and also being careful with your speed and breaking and watching out for potholes hiding under the water. I really enjoyed it! A sunny finish at the beach would have been nice, but the satisfaction of riding so far through any situation was far more rewarding.

Our last SAG stop was at thirty miles, and set up under a porch roof. After a brief rest out of the rain, we continued. Twenty miles later we stopped at The Hungry Horse Cafe in Rye NH. There I enjoyed a big hot chocolate and apple strudel to help warm me up. We waited for all the riders to catch up, then continued a short distance to the planned meeting point at a school. The Rye police met us there at noon, and led us along the shoreline in a parade fashion. Our two eldest riders, Ken Harris and Mike, led the group behind a police cruiser. We all arrived at Wallas Sands Beach at 12:15. Many of the riders had family or friend waiting there to greet them and take pictures. We took our bikes down to the water to dip the front wheel in, which is the customary way to finish.

After officially reaching the Atlantic Ocean, Mark and I road to the border of Maine. Well, almost. The bridge between New Hampshire and Maine was closed for construction and we were not allowed on the next bridge over because it was interstate. So we could see the border about 200 yards away, but could not quite touch it. After 3834 miles of cycling, that was close enough. Several other riders cycled from the beach to the hotel, which was a mere 1.5 miles before Maine. Others hitched a ride in a car to the hotel where we all got our luggage, cleaned up, packed up, and said some final good-byes.

It was an amazing and rewarding trip, and I met very nice people, some very inspiring, who I will remember forever. Thank you to all my new cycling friends for making the trip very special.

I tried to get pictures of everyone today, so check them out to see our final approach to the beach. Today was a very long including my travel partial back toward home and a nice visit with my brother Jim and his wife Joan. Perhaps I will write a little more tomorrow.

I hope you have found my journal and photos helpful or enjoyable. I don’t know who has been following, except for those who sent me a note already (Thank you very much.). If you have been, and you have any feedback, I would appreciate hearing from you. I will consider any suggestions to improve the site content and format whenever I start my next adventure.

Day 52

Statistics: Zoom and pan the map to explore the route.

Time: 7/23/2013, 3:50:0

Duration: 06:39:57

Ascent/Descent: 1029 ft 1132 ft

Distance: 63.51 M

Today’s Highlights:
It’s hard to believe that I have been on this trip for fifty one days so far and everyday I have said that it was another great ride. Today was also very nice. It was supposed to be full of challenging climbs and a possibility of rain. It did not rain on me – it hasn’t the entire trip, and the mountain climbs were quite manageable today. I actually remember more fun downhills than the climbs. Although it did not rain, we did climb high enough to be in the clouds for a while. It was a bit foggy and cool at the higher elevations. The sky was overcast until around 12:56 PM when the sun peeked through for just moments at a time. I captured only one sunlit picture all day.

We started out at 6:30 this morning. Only one mile down the road we crossed over the Connecticut River and crossed into New Hampshire. Several of us stopped for a photo at the welcome sign. From there we started climbing and gained about 1000 feet in the first thirty three miles, topping out at about 3430 feet. Although there were some climbs after that, it was mostly downhill and very enjoyable. We traveled on some wide four lane roads for part of the route, but mostly on smaller local roads. In either case, the roads ran through a thick forest of tall trees, sometime forming a canopy across the road. The local road were especially quite and peaceful. We passed through a few tiny towns, so tiny that we were in and out of their centers in thirty seconds. Keene was the only exception. It looked like a very nice town to explore, but we just cruised through it. I was looking for some sites there to take a picture of, but none jumped out at me. Perhaps the gloomy overcast weather played a part.

I rode the entire route with Emma today, not seeing anyone else once we started the first climb. We both like the big hills and pushed right up them. It was nice to have a climbing partner and nice to share the next-to-last ride with a fellow adventurer. We finished at 1:15 PM, behind Ken and Bud as usual.

Pictures Of The Day: Click any thumbnail to see the photos in full screen mode.

Day 51

Time: 7/22/2013, 3:35:1

Duration: 06:43:03

Ascent/Descent: 2253 ft 2623 ft

Distance: 78.39 M

Today’s Highlights:
The heat and humidity broke today, and we had a very pleasant day to ride compare to last week. Four miles from the start we crossed the mighty Hudson River and continued across New York. After a short ride through Troy we got into the countryside again. We finished our traversal of New York State after thirty five miles and crossed into Vermont in the town of Bennington. By the end of the ride, we had reach eastern boarder of Vermont in Brattleboro.

The highlight of today was the hills. Mountains really. I enjoyed doing some real climbing again rather than just rolling hills. There was one eight mile climb, one three miler, and a bunch of other short, steep ones. The long descents were also fun and fast. The last several miles into Brattleboro were all downhill, so that was a great easy way to finish the seventy eight mile ride. Often, the road followed a river and there were nice views of sparkling mountain water running over rocky stream beds. There was also a nice view of the Harriman Reservoir. At the summit of Hogback Mountain we had a panoramic view across southern Vermont, into New Hamphsire to the east and down to Massachusetts to the south. It was a beautiful expanse of green forested mountains and hills.

The only significant towns we rode through today were Hoosic Falls in NY, and Bennington and Brattleboro in VT. Each had some New England charm and some uniquely Vermont character. And each was quite busy with shoppers at farmers markets and local shops on this Sunday.

Ken, Bud, Emma and I finished the day properly at an ice cream stand. We have two more days of living the good life.

Day 50

Statistics: Zoom and pan the map to explore the route.

Time: 7/21/2013, 4:05:0

Duration: 06:38:00

Ascent/Descent: 5357 ft 5207 ft

Distance: 78.75 M