Maine Foliage Loop: October 11, 2003

CJ and I set out for Bridgton, Maine at about 8:30AM. Halfway there the fog closed in and things got a bit cooler. It was already below 45 degrees without the fog! We stopped at Moose Pond, split by Route 302 and bordered by Shawnee Peak Ski Area. Locals know it as Pleasant Mountain - a name it carried for nearly 45 years before being changed in the mid eighties. Here's CJ thinking about a swim. Maybe to that island in the fog :)

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Here CJ stands in front of Shawnee Peak, across Moose Pond. The fog was now slowly burning off, so, after warming up some in the new sunshine, we remounted and headed off to meet with the rest of the day's riders in Bridgton.

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Nobody knows why computers and digital cameras go bad, but ours sure did - just as we were taking pictures of everyone in Bridgton. Oh, well. We mounted up and headed north on Route 117 towards Harrison, Norway, South Paris and Buckfield.

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Here, in the center of Harrison, ME we take the left fork to stay on Route 117. Just after this fork Crystal Lake runs alongside the road on the left for a few miles. Unfortunately, the road along the lake is so bad photography was out of the question.

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Once past Crystal Lake the road opens up and smooths out. We got a good blast going for about 5 miles.

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Even though the roads were wet in the shade we made good time on the crossing to Norway, Maine.

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This is the junction of 117 and Route 118 in Norway. You can see the edge of Norway Lake in the background. We had little traffic to this point and had no problem getting onto 118. This is Wilson, from Center Harbor, NH on a very nice silver Yamaha.

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We cruised through downtown Norway...

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And then through South Paris.

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Once we left South Paris the roads got very rural again, becoming pretty bumpy for the next ten miles or so. We had to ride at no more than 35mph it was so rough.

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Here is the tail of the ridwe making the right curve through downtown Buckfield, Maine.

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We stopped at the intersection of 117 and 219 only to find this totally bizarre trike parked across the street in a barnyard by the road.

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The thing must have been 20 feet long with a V8 engine and huge rear tires.

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The front end is a Honda 750 frame.

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And the back end is completely homemade.

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The creator of this thing seemed like a nice guy, but we began to wonder at the depth of his compulsion when we spotted his lawnmower. That's a Harley pipe on that thing!

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Jumping on 219 we got back on the road and found some more great riding through some incredible foliage.

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Eventually we stopped for lunch. This, of course, took the obligatory hour and a half to get everyone inside, fed and back on their bikes :)

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See, you gotta stand around and look at bikes for a while before you go in to sit down to eat.

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Once inside we found the service friendly and the food good. On the left is Bill, with Larry on the right in this picture. Bill is from Bridgton. Larry is from very near this lunch stop. I forget where. Old brain cells... Sorry Larry :)

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At the head of the table is Roy, Ride Leader for the day. The next guy is Chad McGrew from Bethel, ME. At the very edge of the picture is a glimpse of yours truly.

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After lunch it's time to pack it and saddle up again.

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Here's Larry, and Roy's back.

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OK, helmets on? One final wave for the camera and we're off...

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Now headed south on Route 11 and 202 towards Lewiston.

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Still some excellent twisties and foliage between lunch and Lewiston.

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Yee, Haawwww!

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Then through some semi-rural roads on the outskirts of Lewiston.

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A quick stop for some cross traffic.

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Then some more semi-rural...

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And more...

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Until we finally reached Lewiston. Here's Ron at a stoplight. Shortly after this we split up to head out separate ways home. Until next time... knees to the breeze.

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