a birthday bike ride

the day: july 17th, another beautiful day in the neighborhood! and beyond, all the way across central new hampshire into maine... sunny but not hot, in the low 70's, a decent breeze most of the day. given it is mid- july and air quality has been crazy bad with smoke from the wildfires in minnesota and ontario, it was pretty much heaven with cool~ish, clean air--just for our ride.

the adventure: taylor and i have been thinking of riding over to maine to visit kevin & mariel and clayton, their oldest. i've been biking to kevin's for years, always trying to whittle a few miles off. so far, it seems like all my shortcuts end in the name "...hill"! 

taylor lives--and runs the 'last stop bike shop'--on province road in dorchester, a favorite shortcut. the last time i rode home, i cut over that way from the back side of plymouth, through hebron and groton. there's a sweet 'untraveled' gravel stretch, with a washed out bridge a mile or so from taylor's house. no cars = very pleasant riding! it made a fine start!!

we went around a couple of the other "...hills" but mostly stuck to my shortest version. not even sure how far we actually road, but probably in the neighborhood of 80 miles. 

the memories: we did go over the durgin covered bridge--off of "fellow's hill"--between sandwich and tamworth, as it was not washed out. later, going up a long steep "moody hill," we were passed by a police car with lights and siren on, going fast. a half mile further, going down an even longer steeper "glines hill," four police cars, lights still flashing, were parked, dealing with an suv, perched precariously down in the ditch, nearly flipped over.

tactfully avoiding "sam brown hill"--we actually missed our turn flying down another hill on the brownfield road--we ended up carrying our bikes across another river, as we headed up to kevin's. how à propos, a bridge out - river crossing on the first and last mile!

notes:

• pack light but for gosh sakes bring electrolytes and stay hydrated... 
  
• "...hills" might make the trip shorter, but they are not always your friend (as the driver of the car in the ditch--taylor heard the cops giving him a ticket as we passed)...
• thank you pam, a last slice of the birthday cheesecake was a delicious treat...
• ride--and ski!--with taylor more often...

go outside and play!