Just a little up!

After leaving the beautiful Sebago Lake, we biked westward towards New Hampshire leaving 'vacation land' behind us. Much to our surprise and possible neglect to truly study our route, we found ourselves pumping up and over a much longer and hillier route than anticipated. We biked through the beautiful countryside of Naples, Sweden, and Fryeburg, during which Kathryn's rear derailer cable snapped. A slight detour to North Conway to stay with Brendan and Kate, two remarkable friends of Carmen's, proved lucky as we now also needed to visit a bike store the next day in search of a new cable.

The following day after a relaxing sleep in and sad goodbyes to our guest rider friend Tim, we headed through the misty rain to North Conway. A warm coffee stop at The Met, a visit to Zeb's candy store, a stop at EMS for lost/forgotten/broken gear and equipment and an extended hang out in Hanafords, which included a visit from Kathy, another amazing friend of Carmen's (seeing a trend here?) pretty much made up our day. Alas at 7:15pm we finally got biking and a start on the infamous Kancamagus Mountain HWY pass.


The following day we were greeted with sunshine and clear skies, perfect weather for biking! Up, Up and up we went into the mountains, slowly inching our way to the top. Neither of us shall ever have to wonder what it feels like to be riding a bicycle in a motorcycle grand prix as little did we know this week is 'bike week' in New Hampshire. 1.000s of the faster and also louder type of bike screamed past us as we granny geared our way up the mountain, unable to hear ourselves think. However on reaching the peak we were greeted by hundreds of motorcyclists enjoying the vista and offering us a much deserved congratulations.

Believing the hardest part of the day was behind us we sped (up to 63kms) down the other side to the home of Lindy Dawson and Clarence, in southern Campton, via an ice cream stop in Lincoln. We soon learned that the road to Lindy's while offering beautiful mountain and country vistas also involved many "little ups and little downs" that our tired legs just managed to bare. A smiling Lindy at the end of the driveway greeted us offering hot showers, an incredibly tasty dinner and a well earned beverage all which topped off our remarkable day. Tomorrow we find ourselves heading west into Vermont towards Waterbury, the home of the Ben and Jerry's Ice cream factory!