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Lily Bay State Park (Maine) on $140.....

This was our first foray into bike-camping. I am plenty familiar with camping itself having done a lot of it over the years. But this was my first time loading the bikes up. We have a truck camper so it's been a number of years since we've tented and since all my tenting stuff back then was from my highschool and college years, it was time for new. With one of our crew working for LL Bean's, we got me a new sleeping bag, a couple of dry bags and two nice self-inflating mattresses at a nice discount. We'd been looking forward to the trip for several weeks now. The plan was to make our way to Moosehead Lake in a round about way, to Lily Bay State Park. The weather report for the weekend was for some of the best weather so far this spring. Saturday dawned with some low clouds that were promised to burn off by lunch.

The Missus:
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Our travelling companions (thats an '83 R100RS there...)
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The ride up took us up to Bangor via SR 201. We stopped at a store in Newburgh, home of Nascar's Ricky "The Red Baron" Craven. Most NASCAR folk probably don't know of the nickname. I remember Ricky when he was running Saturday nights at Unity Speedway about 20+ years ago where all of the 12, 13 and 14 year old girls used to swoon over him. Unity was also home to Steve Letarte who is now Jeff Gordon's Crew Chief. His Dad Don had a race shop right next to the track. Good times good times, but I digress.

As we were getting ready to mount up, three HD's pulled in with riders and their respective SO's, all typically clad. As I was talking to my wife, one of them looked over and said "That wouldn't be Nik Rende would it??" Turned out to be someone I knew back in middle school and high school who is also now the president of the United Bikers of Maine. Small world.

From Newburgh we motored north, stopping to fill up at Hampden. North thru Bangor and on to US2 following along the western shore of the Penobscot river. We crossed just south of Lincoln and hooked up to SR116 which was a much more interesting road. Lunch was in Medway, just oustide of E. Millinocket. I'd been leading so far and opted to take the rear, allowing my buddy Gil to lead. We made our way thru Millinocket and on to SR11 South toward Milo. 11 is a nice road, traffic was VERY light and aside from some old frost heaves, we were able to make 55-60 mph no problem.

The ride down SR6/16 was a nice one. We were heading generally southwest so often the sun was directly in front of us. At one point I realized something I'd never thought of before, my cheeks were getting VERY warm. I'd never thought of the prospect of sunburn while riding! I opened my visor a whisker to let in some more air which seemed to help. Fortunately no sunburn but I'll definitely apply before taking a cruise again. I remember the ride then being occasionally dreamy like being lulled by the road, how easy it would be to just float off into some other reality while motoring along, surely nothing some place I want to be while on a bike!!


In Milo we picked up SR6/16 over to Dover Foxcroft. It was now just after 4:00pm and we were making good time, shooting for a campsite arrival somewhere around suppertime.

Somewhere on SR6/16
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My wife notes that she's gone 104 miles since her last fill (her VLX gets 125-130 before needing reserve. I think she'd have done closer to 140-150 on a cruise but why stir the pot?) so we opted to pull into a gas station. I parked beside her bike as the attendant filled our co-riders. She got off her bike, took her helmet off and the said


"OH MY GOD!!! NIK!!!! WHERE IS THE TENT AND YOUR BED ROLL??????

Crap. They WERE strapped to my rack behind the back rest. Sure enough, my straps were there, still attached. But the rack was empty. Brand new Eureka Apex 2 2-person tent and an LL Bean sleeping pad. Gil says "Let's go." I suggested the women wait as we weren't going to motor at a sedate pace. We didn't. By 4:20 he and I were back on the road heading back north/east. We made the 53 miles back to Millinocket in about 45 minutes. Thank God the traffic was almost non-existent. Secondary roads at 75+ trying to dodge rough pavement and looking in the ditch on the other side of the road for sign of a tent or bed roll was not my idea of fun. By the time we reached Millinocket, my fuel light was on. After a fill up we headed back south/west. Slower this time, still looking. Maybe 65-70. Saw nothing. Fact is, if it was where we'd see it, someone else already did. We got back to Dover Foxcroft just after 6:00. 106 miles in just over 45 minutes. Allowing for the "BMW Odometer", still a pretty good clip. Now we were tasked with getting to Greenville where there is a large outfitter/trading post just as you start down the hill into town. If they close at 6 we're already too late but if they close at 7 we still have time to make the 40 miles. We get there around 6:50, they close at 8. Thankfully. A new Chinook 3 person tent and another thermarest sleeping pad, $140 thank you. Also, thankfully, the prices weren't out of line with anywhere else. In fact, the tent was $20 cheaper than the Eureka, the pad a little more expensive. By 7:20 we were on our way.

Lily Bay SP is about 5 miles out of town. A small park but with some wonderful sites right on the water. There weren't another half dozen campers in there.

The FIRST thing I did:
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I was trying to remember when a beer tasted so good. All told we'd done well over 300 miles with the extra "trip" and I was beat.

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Dinner was Bush's Boston style baked beans and fried light spam. MY wife was on my case all week for planning the menu. She insisted she hated spam to which I replied "Why? When was the last time you had it??" She said that it was the little gristly fat globs in it. I said "this is not your father's spam...." Our companions opted to try some freeze dried Pad Thai. Guess what? My wife loved the beans and spam more than the pad thai! Who's the man???!!?
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Coming down over the hill from the trading post with the lake in the distance
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Ready to go home, tent and bed roll SECURELY strapped
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We've already got our next trip planned for July......
 
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Greenville, Squaw Mt. and Moosehead Lake looks pretty much the same...

Thanks for the memories.

Regards,

Clay
(former Camp Allagash camper- 1962-1964)
 
Very entertaining:clap I've lost a brand new (never slept in) sleeping bag from my top off Landcruiser and a brand new (never used) thinsulite camp pad ( I think that was ripped off at a rest stop) from my moto. I always justify it in that someone very needy finds them:laugh . That's a GREAT portrait of you by the lake. You resemble a young Winston Churchhill. Well, the summer is just starting, hope to read more of your adventures. Keep posting.
 
One of the nicer aspect of SP camping, at least here in Maine is that it's $3.50 pp per night.
 
One of the nicer aspect of SP camping, at least here in Maine is that it's $3.50 pp per night.

That'll help a lot if you keep dropping expensive gear offa the bike! ;)

I did a ride to Moosehead and Jackman 18 months ago. Gotta go back! Nice pictures!
 
Site 245 (even tho there aren't 200 sites in the place!) Best location. 30' from the water down a trail. Would definitely go back.
 
Tom,
We were going to go home via Jackman but needed to be back in town by noon. Instead we took SR16 from Abbot to Bingham. VERY VERY VERY nice road. Great pavement, lots of nice curves and elevation changes. We stopped at the Kingsbury Lake rest stop for a bit about 10 miles from Bingham. Loons and Ducks abound.
 
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