On day three, the sun woke me up early when it rose above the treeline. On these short bikepacking trips my daily routine changes quite a bit. I go to bed at sunset, since there isn't really much to do in darkness. This lets me get up at sunrise and maximize daylight usage for riding.
I tend to travel pretty light, which means no cooking equipment, not many clothes, no big supplies. As such, packing my camp in the morning takes me a little more than half an hour. By 6:45AM I was already rolling out.
The first part of my route was to cross Seboeis Land forest and reach shores of Schoodic Lake. Fortunately, the road was wide and empty and cool, cloudy morning presented perfect conditions for a bike ride.
I eventually reached Railroad Bed Rd, which is basically a wide, smooth, flat and straight highway in place of a former railroad (obviously!). It was a welcomed change from all rough ATV trails I visited day before. Rolling there was like riding on a high-quality pavement. So nice, so easy.
Logging industry is the mainstay of Maine's economy. In fact, I'd bet that it's not moose or bear who is bicyclist's biggest threat in these lands, but logging trucks.
In no time I reached Milo - a small town on Sebec River. My goal was to get to Dover-Foxcroft by noon and stop for lunch. Of course, I could've just followed Rt6 and be done with it but this would've been too easy and not fun enough. So I opted for River Rd, which is actually a dead end road ending somewhere deep in the forest with a concrete barrier - a serious problem if you're in a car but only a minor obstruction if you're on a bike.
I finally got to Dover-Foxcroft and stopped at The Mill Inn & Cafe, which I can certainly highly recommend. Their food is delicious and the only minus I would give them is for the lack of a bike rack in front of their building. I had to chain my bike to the railing of nearby bridge.
Next, I had to get back to my car in Pittsfield and conveniently there was a long off-road trail extending all the way from Dover-Foxcroft to Newport, which means I could stay off the main roads and ride through some quieter areas. At least that's what I hoped for.
Unfortunately, people in Maine have a bit different understanding what "recreational trail" is and Newport/Dover-Foxcroft Rail Trail turned out to be heavily used for Maine-type of recreation. That is - ATV riding. By noon, sun was out, it got drier, which means it was dusty. Like - very dusty. During the full 40km/25mi of the trail I encountered only one cyclist, one jogger and hordes of ATVs blowing clouds of dust in the air. This proved to be tiresome and I was happy to get off the trail in Newport and merging with a regular paved road.
After getting back to Park & Ride in Pittsfield all I had left was to spend the next 3 hours driving back to Boston,... which welcomed me with hot and humid weather again. Argh..., I should've just stayed in Maine!
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