Rockland Maine

Day 60. 2,316 miles

I awakened to a chilly, rainy morning. I would of liked to stay in bed a bit longer but that wasn’t really an option with the location of my campsite. I packed up then made coffee at the first bench I came to along the rail trail. Shortly after leaving the rail trail I saw my first East Coast Greenway sign. I will be seeing a lot of them from now on. The ECG runs from Maine to Florida and I’m planning on loosely following it.

Outside of the town of Belfast the light rain turned into a heavy rain. Raindrops the side of nickels were coming down so hard that visibility was limited. I stopped at a little corner store to wait out the worst of it. I bought a hot cup of coffee and sat on a bench on the porch. The store sold sandwiches and I could smell the bacon and sausage cooking, causing my stomach rumble. I sat there and enjoyed the coffee and a roof over my head for at least a half hour. An older man, wearing rain pants, a rain coat and still using an umbrella was walking down the sidewalk. He walked up to me and handed me a McDonald’s bag from inside his jocket pocket and said “there two for four, I only wanted one but couldn’t pass up the deal. I took the bag from him as he walked into the store. I excitedly opened the bag wondering what I had been given. It was a sausage egg and cheese mcmuffin! I wolfed it down in about 30 seconds. It was great . I thanked him when he came out of the store. He had only stepped in to say hello to the person at the register. After I said thanks he said sorry, its cold, they have a microwave here and will warm it up for you I bet. Then he saw the empty wrapper and said I guess it being cold didn’t slow you down any.

I past lots of little ship yards and marinas. Even in the rain it was beautiful. It was dismal that some of my pictures look monochromatic.

After the town of Belfast I took US1 to Camden. It was packed with tourist and I couldn’t get through it fast enough. I was planning on walking around the waterfront there looking at the lobster boats. Yesterday I made arrangements with a warmshower host and I was going to meet them at 5:30 in Rockland. Because of the rain I didn’t lollygag taking pictures and what not so I was way ahead of schedule. I was on the town of Rockland and only had 2 miles to go and it was only 3 o clock. I stopped at a McDonald’s for a up of coffee an a cheese burger.

I was really glad I wasn’t on the road right then. It started pouring really hard. I got a refill on the coffee and a medium fry. I was a bit cold but didn’t want to put on dry clothes then have to put the wet ones back on to ride the rest of the way to my hosts house. I started a conversation with a guy and it turned out he used to live in PA and was actually good friends with one of our neighbors! Its a small world! He offered to drive me wherever I wanted to go. It was tempting but I declined.

I left McDonald’s and headed up the road to the WS host house the rain had quit and the sun was trying to come out. I was happy about that. I was planning on camping tonight and setting up in the rain is the worst!

I met the WS host and right away we got along good he has done lots of rides and crossed the country at least once. Maybe more. His wife has hiked the Appalachian Trail. Any way he also has a wonderful dog named Sadie. After chatting awhile all three of us drove down to the light house.

I know some of you guys are probably thinking that looks familiar. Well thats the Marshall Point lighthouse in the movie Forrest Gump. We took Sadie for a little walk there and arrived at the perfect time for a spectacular sunset!

When we got back it was nearly dark and had started to rain again. Instead of having to set up my tent I slept in side the glassed in porch! It was terrific. I stayed up way later then I should watching the boat lights out on the water. Sunrise this morning was great too!

The neighbor was a lobsterman. I don’t know how many hundreds of traps that he had but he had circled his property with the ones he was not using. It made unique fence.

So that was yesterday. There’s not much to say about today. It was sunny finally and there was some great scenery

In a little town there was a food truck that only sold oysters. I love raw oysters so I had to stop and try Maine oysters.

The man running the food truck was a rock climber and also did quite a bit of cycling. We had a nice talk. The oysters were delicious. I saw oysters farms in a couple of the rivers today. I would of liked to of been able to get good pics of that but I couldn’t really.