Video

Hope you enjoy this short recap video of our ride.

Epilogue

The adventure is over.  Already the fringe of normal life is overlapping the memories of the previous nine weeks.  Six souls rode bicycles over 4100 miles across eleven states and one province from Puget Sound to the Atlantic.  It took camaraderie, humor and courage to accomplish such a task.  Terry posted this on Facebook Sunday, September 26, 2016:

"So much to say...for now I'll tell you how grateful I am for this funny, courageous, loving, supportive group of men I rode with... Thank you Bill, Tom, Scott, and especially my other brother Tim Krell and most especially my Steve...it's one thing to have a grandiose idea...it's quite another thing to work together to make it happen. I'm so proud to have you all in my life and to have shared this Epic Adventure with each of you! Oh, the stories we have to tell!
Thanks be to God!"

#epic2
#5brosandasis
#humanpoweredpursuits

Cycling afforded us greater opportunities to interact differently with the landscape and the people who inhabit it.  Riding a bike slowed our progress so our five senses could experience the environment more fully.  We felt the wind and rain on our skin; we smelled freshly cut hay and the livestock that were to eat it; we heard the rush of air across our ears and the water descending streams along the route; and we tasted as many of the delicacies within bakeries, large and small, as we could.  Cycling slows us down so that we experience more of the rich variety of the regions and towns we visited. 

Many of you have encouraged us with words that describe our trip as a great accomplishment.  Some have said, “I could never do that.”  Many dreams stay in our imaginations.  We were fortunate to have had the courage, time, and the support of our loved ones to activate one of our dreams.  We encourage you to continue to dream big but also to explore what it might take to enact one of the ideas that seems beyond reach.  If your experience is anything like our own, you will be glad you did.

So the second Epic Adventure is over.  The memories live on as we re-enter our routines.  If you imagine life a bit differently, each day is really an adventure.  Our hope is that you will experience God’s mercy, new every morning, as we have each day of this journey.

Stats:

4100 miles
11 states
1 province
54 riding days
76 miles/day average
62 total days (July 25 - August 24, 2016)
Six riders rode the whole way, five others joined for part

Special thanks to our support: Allie, Maya, Kate and Rhett - we could not have done it without them!!

Day 61/62 - Searsport and Bar Harbor

Day before yesterday we left camp in the rain. Steve got in a little fun before we left.

It was our fifth time in the whole trip that it rained during the day.  Even though we were wet and cold, we celebrated when we hit the Atlantic Ocean in Camden, ME.  

Terry and Steve stopped at the docks and saw lobster being unloaded from the boat.  And that's Terry's bike in front of those sailboats.

We had a nice campsite on the Penobscot Bay outside of Searsport.  There was a blue grass festival there and we heard music into the evening.  There was also a guy making potato chips.  They were delicious.

Riding across the bay. 

Yesterday we arrived in Bar Harbor after riding our bikes through 11 states and one Canadian province for a whopping total of 4100 miles.  

Here we are dipping our front tires in the ATLANTIC OCEAN. 

You can imagine the emotions are still pretty mixed.  Bar Harbor is an amazing location and I'm sure much lobster will be consumed.  We wanted to let you know that we arrived safely but there is a lot to do so I'm keeping this somewhat short.  I'll post an epilogue as soon as I can.

Day 60 - Damariscotta

Well, yesterday was our first riding day in which we reached camp after the sun went down. Our faithful SAG driver, Rhett, gave us a scolding and said we'd need to leave earlier. Terry, Steve and Tim went off route on two different occasions as they missed a turn or two and turned a 78 mile day into a 90.5 mile day. The important thing is that we ate well. 

We also discovered that Scott and Beth are apparently running an under cover landscaping business in Maine. 

As we puttered our way across Maine we found this bridge. 

With nice views of the Androscoggin River. 

Several of the team also stopped by Red's Eats for a lobster roll.

It's raining this morning so we're waiting a bit to obey rule #8, never start riding in the rain.

Two more riding days to Bar Harbor. We've passed the 4000 mile mark . . . Bitter sweet for sure. 

Day 59 - Naples, ME

We entered Maine, our last state today. We're almost at the 4000 mile mark. We went up to Kancamagus Pass (elevation 2855) in NH. It was a great climb.

Leaves are turning. 

Oh and yesterday on our rest day there was some serious eating.

Mine was a baked banana covered with three scoops of ice cream, straw berries, nuts, fudge and whipped cream. Delicious. 

THREE MORE DAYS OF RIDING. 

Day 57/58 - South Royalton, VT to North Woodstock, NH

Vermont and New Hampshire are narrow states and we ride across them in a little over a day each.  Yesterday we crossed the White River into NH.  Terry and Steve had to ride back across a bridge to get this picture since the one we rode across earlier in the morning did not have a welcome sign.

Here are a couple pics before we started our climbing through the White Mountains of NH.  We had serious rain during the night and our tents were soaked. By the time we started to ride the rain had stopped.  After packing up soggy tents, we were off.

 

The hills of NH are similar to the ones in VT but a bit steeper and longer.  Riding was tough but beautiful.

We made it to the top where we crossed the Appalachian Trail.  And en route we saw a couple of octagonal barns, a novelty associated with New England.

 

Today is a rest day in North Woodstock, a very nice little village with year round tourists and skiing in the winter.  The campground, called Country Bumpkins, is next to this little stream and apparently it is ok for moose to fish there.

Day 56 - South Royalton, Vermont

We caught a ferry first thing today across Lake Champlain to Vermont.

We rode through beautiful Vermont countryside. 

We rode by this pretty church while townsfolk were worshiping inside. 

Tomorrow we've got more hills through the Blue Mountains of Vermont and the White Mountains of New Hampshire to the ski town of Lincoln. We're grateful for our last layover day in Lincoln.  Five more riding days until Bar Harbor.