Journal Entries

Day 2 -an out and back loop: Grande Pre-beach-motel to Avondale Winery. A welcome pre-lunch snack stop by the lake in Windsor, @hammerhead with our friends, Paul and Janice R. Stopping - especially for food - is a big deal for us :-) Lunch was several grinding hills later at the winery, sitting in the shade, enjoying a vineyard view. A 109Km ride on hills and in full sunshine! https://www.strava.com/activities/1071111735.

Perfect ending to day one - joined by friends at the Beach Breeze Motel, Grande Pre. @hammerhead and Paul R catching the last of the sunset on Evangeline Beach (Minas Basin/Atlantic Ocean).

A delightful discovery on the #201 about halfway between Paradise and where our car was parked in Middleton. Cold water, some wine tasting, a decadent dessert, and a bottle of White Cranberry Wine purchased and carefully stowed in the “bento box” on my bike. Enjoyed an intersting chat with the owners of http://www.beavercreekwinery.com - who have successfully capitalized on their beautiful setting for hosting weddings - working hard and loving what they do!

A Sunday afternoon bike (June 18th) on the ‘rails to trails’ system, from Mahone Bay to Chester Basin, NS. Enjoyed a short breather off the bike saddle for a good view over Gold River.

Evening paddle on Casco Bay. I haven't been paddling nearly enough this season, and it looks like I won't have many more opportunities because of how busy I'll be for the rest of the summer. Maybe next year!

From a short trip into Katahdin Woods & Waters National Monument on the day of the Interior Secretary's visit. Here are a few of us on Barnard Mountain, with a gorgeous view over Katahdin Lake to Mt Katahdin. This is on the International Appalachian Trail, and we met a through-hiker headed southbound all the way to Florida. It sounds like I may have to try out some more hiking on the IAT one of these days.

A short overnight in the White Mountains with a handful of good friends, including one who hadn't been backpacking ever, and one who hadn't been backpacking in the White Mountains. One of my favorite overnight trips in the White Mountains is going up the Nancy Pond Trail, then up the Desolation Trail on Mt Carrigain. This picture is from Signal Ridge on the way down Carrigain. There's a lot of good stuff to see on this hike, including two alpine ponds, a big waterfall, a 4000-footer with wonderful views, and an open ridge with more views. Can't go wrong there.

On our Alberta trip we biked through Calgary and spent the night in a barn at Heritige Park. We toured the park and I had fun trying out the old fashioned amusment rides...before I got too dizzy. The next day we continued our bike ride heading towards Canmore. When we got to Canmore we had a break day where the group split into two. One of the mini groups helped did some painting for a museum while my mini group tried to clean tables from paint. Then some of our group did some hiking up to Grassylakes. Other members of our group did some shopping. I along with some other guys did some extra biking to Banff and back along the Legacy trail. We finished the trip in Banff staying at the YWCA. I had a great time on trip. I recomend looking at Two Wheel View. http://www.twowheelview.org/ if you like biking.

The Quebec trip was an incredible experiance. We met our new Alberta friends on the first day and gave them a tour of Montreal. We left Montreal the next day and headed towards Orford. The group then turned around and headed towards Marieville. The best part of the Quebec section of the trip was in Orford where we went to a place called Jouvence. https://www.jouvence.com/en/ It lies within a park. There are several buildings but we stayed in the massive building called Hors Piste. There we went for a ride in a huge canoe and went indoor rock climbing because it was raining that day. We averaged 40-50 Kilometers per day. On one of the days we followed a crazy GPS with the nickname WIld-Rose and it took the group on crazy Mountain bike trails!

Mt Chocorua, via the Champney Falls Trail

Not-A-Chance is in Massachusetts for the summer, so I whisked her away to the mountains over the weekend. It's been a wet and cold season this year, quite the opposite of last year, so conditions were dicey. The trail was fairly wet, but nothing bad. It turned out to be great hiking. Champney Falls was gushing, the clouds were high enough to show off the colors of the mountains in the distance, and the rain held off or passed us by pretty quickly whenever it showed up.

With dreary weather like this, hiking plans have to be pretty flexible. Instead of camping for the night, we stayed at The Notch Hostel, arriving just before a torrential downpour. Good stuff. Despite the dampness over the weekend, it was a great time to be in the mountains.