Wow. Totally have had my fair share of the Down East Sunrise Trail. I was on it the entire day. And two-thirds of it was uphill. Not just uphill, but lots and lots of washboard. Not just uphill with washboard, but sand and/or muddy. The day started overcast with 40% chance of rain. Perfectly comfortable for a 32-mile ride. That's a lot of miles for an "off-road" ride. But doable. Well, under most circumstances. Right at 0.3 miles in, there was a light fog. But it dissipated quickly.
This was the good part of the trail. Not unlike the Eastern Trail.
One thing I have not mentioned was the number of apple trees I have passed along the trail. I have not taken a picture of any of them, but I did ride past a most beautiful specimen today--leaves light green with red apples, and the tree was beautifully shaped.
I know I have mentioned wetlands. I cannot count how many rivers I crossed and/or skirted today. Here are a few of them today. Lots of places I should have seen moose. But I didn't. If I had a real chance on this trip, I expect it would have been one of the first three days. Alas.
This scenery is why I wanted to take the DEST. But boy howdy, what a slog. It rained a lot in the area, from Dorian and again last night. Puddles are typically okay to navigate.
When the sun came out, I was well into the trip, but my speed was so reduced from the slog and then a nice crosswind, my average was just under 6.5mph. (frowny face emoji!) On the few partial miles of flat or downhill, I tried to push it. Another feature of so much water is the prevalence of mosquitos. Many people say the state bird of Maine is the mosquito. They are fierce, for sure. Lots of still water around all of this running water.
Finally, I just could not ride another mile. I was hot, out of water, and I had only six more miles to go. I stopped at a gravel road crossing that was luckily on the map. I begged for my kind sherpa to make her way through inconsistent road names to pick me up. The road picture here shows what the ride about a mile or so prior to my stop. And this was a dry section. Imagine miles and miles of this soft or with mud (uphill!).
At the stop, there was a nice, shady parking area for some of the local hiking and ATV trails. And this cool old thing was parked to the side. The tires looked almost brand new--no wear. Could not quite figure how it could have moved, though.
Tomorrow is another day. All road, I believe.
26.45 miles (6 miles short of plan) / 75.44
I forgot to mention that I saw only five people on the trail itself during the entire day. One person walking a dog, and a young couple hiking or training for some kind of hike. The woman had on a backpack; the man had a walking stick. There were two individual runners on the trail near Machias. All were friendly. No ATVs. The people sightings were all near towns where the trail crossed.
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