Ready for my hammock!

I woke up around 5:30 this morning after only 2 hours of sleep. Every now and then I have insomnia and last night was the night! No matter what I tried I could not fall asleep. It was ok though. The moon was fairly bright and there were beavers in the river. I sat on the bank and watched them for hours. I could not really see the beavers themselves, just the V-shaped ripples reflecting the moonlight. Often they would try to get out of the water near where I was sitting. Even though I sat very still and had no light they could always detect me. That would cause them to slap the water with there tail causing a huge splash to warn there friends. When that didn’t cause me to move they would float closer and closer , slaping the water every so often. Clouds were building up and soon covered the moon. Around 3 I got back in my hammock and slept fitfully for a few hours.

I felt surprisingly rested for such a short sleep. I packed up and headed back to the road. There was a Dunkin 3 miles away! I passed a gas station before I reached the Dunkin and made the frugal choice to get coffee there instead of 5 dollar gourmet coffee. I didn’t have enough water to make it at camp and I didn’t want to take the time to filter. I was hoping to ride 50 miles today with quite a bit of elevation gain. With the lack of sleep I knew I needed to get as many miles done in the morning as I could because by 2pm I would be dragging.

I was on a long down hill when a man started hollering from his basement to stop in. It was friendly hollering so I did. Also the downhill was really aggravating because the road was so rough I had to continually brake. I pulled into the man’s driveway and stopped. After the typical questions he said how can you still be so big after riding all those miles. The way he said it wasn’t insulting at all. I told him I wanted to lose 100 pounds. He asked how much I had lost already. I explained I had no idea because I haven’t seen a scale. He said wait here then he ran to the house. He was gone for quite a bit time. Then finally he came out of the house with a scale and a cup of coffee! I was shocked about the coffee. We had not talked about it at all and he never asked if I wanted any. I guess maybe I looked tired. Anyway if his scale was accurate I’ve lost 27 pounds! We talked about about weight loss and health. He said he is 64 and in the best shape of his life. He had an odd habit of looking into things such as the duffel bags at his feet abruptly zipping them up and shouting loudly… Aint nothing here luitentant! While a bit startling at first it did not keep us from enjoying our coffees out of used McDonald’s cups. He had 16 acres and said I was welcome to camp anywhere I wanted. It was only 9 so I pushed on.

It rained lightly most of today so I didn’t take many pics.

After 51 miles and 2200 feet of elevation gain I got on the Kennebec Valley Trail. I rode 3 miles to find a good campsite. Total miles for the day are 55. Im ready for bed now!