Homeward bound.

preface: I hate the way images lay out in this blog. If you ever make one, make sure the way they show in the editor is the way they show when published. I can't be bothered to fight with it constantly. 

Still in Maine

Well the last time we wrote we were dining on Maine lobster for breakfast. Its funny how one person's suggestion can change your entire trip.
While we were in Nova Scotia, we ran into a guy while riding. He seemed to know what he was talking about and suggested we visit Kingdom trails in Vermont. We were already debating by this time about whether or not to take the time to visit the Eastern seaboard cities, Boston and New York. We knew we wanted to visit the Adirondack mountain range so this actually seemed to line up fairly well. We rationalized our decision to skip the cities that we could visit anytime via plane and hotel vs an area that would take hours to get to only by car.

So after doing the Maine coast for a while, we headed inland through Bangor after seeing Acadia National Park. I said it before and will say it again. National parks are for people who NEVER visit parks or wilderness. Acadia national park is right in the heart of an area known as Bar Harbour, Maine. You probably don't know it because I am not pronouncing it correctly. Imagine Kevin Costner saving some woman because he is guy who saves lives and lives in "Bah Habor". There. Now you remember.

Acadia National park was mediocre to say the least. The crowds were the most amazing thing. We arrived at the beach and turned around. It was just a horrible experience.

And into Vermont

We drove North West up through Bangor and stopped in Skowhegan. It was a pretty casual night and I suggested we catch a movie as I noticed a theatre in town. Great, yeah lets do that. 20 minutes later we were in a complete electrical/rain storm that was violent to say the least. While we were hanging out in the van for the movie time I said to Lisa, "you know I usually tend to get these things wrong so I am just going to double check the time." Turns out I was right, I was looking at the wrong time... and the wrong theatre. The theatre was in a different town. arghhhhh!. I ask the kid behind the counter, "will I make it?".. "Yeah you will make it." So we peal out Skowhegan for the mighty town of Farmington, Maine. Under a full on howling storm. Sporty to say the least. We made it, saw the movie... (tix were 6.00 a person!) and slept in Farmington that night.
Next morning we waited around for a farmers market to open to grab some food and got chatting with a guy setting up..
"What are you doing in Farmington?? "
'Just travelling and riding around.'
"Argh.. if I wasn't working I would take you up to Sugarloaf. The trails up there are great. You should stop there on your way through to Vermont."
So we did. He was right. Riding and travel that day was pretty fun as we ended up on some roads that we weren't planning on taking.
"Make sure you have gas 'cause there ain't much up there."
That afternoon after recreating, we broke out West across Maine and slept a night in a campground in Colebrook, New Hampshire. Sounds like a lot of driving but the states are tiny. They are however remote and very beautiful. The New England states are like you imagine, old treed hills rolling down into lazy meandering rivers. Very peaceful.

The next few days we spent in the enormous village/hamlet (whichever is smaller), warren of East Burke. You probably won't find it on a map. If you ride though you will know you have arrived because every spot in the parking lot is take and has a bike rack on it. This is home to what is known as Kindom Trails. The claim is 100 miles of singletrack. For my riding friends that is a pretty big claim. I would say it more like 40 , (maybe they measure both ways), but either way it was good. Good enough to stay for two days. They are doing an interesting experiment out there. 100% of the trails are on private land. You actually buy a ticket to ride for the day. Just like a lift ticket. I am assuming this is how they are dealing with liability issues. The trails were pretty fantastic though. Fast flowing trails that had a ridge in the middle and rivers on either side. Essentially, climb the ridge, descend, climb the ridge, descend. fun.

	check out my pickle.

Adirondacks and New York

We split out of East Burke, (well turned right actually and we were out), to make our way on through Vermont and into the Adirondack Mountain range of New York. The Adirondack range was pretty. Not overly inspiring but we could easily see why people would vacation here. Tons of pretty small lakes, and easy hiking trails.

We stopped off in Lake Placid, home to the '32 and '80 winter olympics to watch kids training on the all season jump line. Pretty cool time to be a kid and have parents who have the cash to throw you in something like this.
We blasted the Adirondacks over a long day kept driving West.

We actually ended up that day catching the sunset at Niagara Falls!

The flatlands of the west

The last few days have sucked though as we are on the big drive West. After Niagara there really is no reason to stop again as we head West back towards Teton National Park. Its just long days of driving. Luckily the heat wave seems to have faded a bit and we are just getting temps of 34.
That is all for now. As I write this we are just about on the border of Wyoming inside Nebraska on Highway 26 watching a beautiful red sunset.