Triking in Franklin County

What a great time we’ve been having in Deerfield, Massachusetts! It’s great to see my Mom, who is an amazingly independent and vibrant 92 year old. We’ve enjoyed lobster, fresh peaches from Clarkdale Farm, home cooking, and triking with our friend Carol.

The truck service was uneventful, although we’ll return this week for a wheel alignment and a transmission fluid replacement, just so we take good care of it. The trailer service was harder. The motor and mechanical mechanism for the slide is shot and needs replacing. The technician straightened and stabilized it for us, and advised us to shore up the slide inside the trailer to have it travel better until we can get the replacement parts. He said this would allow us to safely sit in the slideout (the dinette) when the slide wasn’t extended. Since we were able to get the slide in we haven’t extended it again for fear of it getting stuck in the out position. We have an appointment in late August in Nipomo, California where we purchased it. They have already ordered parts. Keep your fingers crossed that they can fix it quickly.

While Carol was here we triked to Turners Falls and Montague, and showed her Upper and Lower Roads in Deerfield. Weather was hot, but with our early starts, we survived.

On one of our return trips, as we were turning into Mom’s driveway, I noticed my steering felt weird. Turns out the right steering tie rod had come loose from the frame at the heim joint. We suspect a combination of off-road riding and the extended travel vibrations of the truck may be the culprit. Boy, was the timing good for me — I had just done a 36 mph twisty descent! Paula thinks she’ll update my life insurance! Thankfully Paul and Mel at Recumbent PDX in Portland sent us a replacement tie-rod, and Paula was able to do the reassemble. Whew!

Today, based on the recommendation of a triker we met on the Turners Falls loop, we traveled to Adams to ride the Ashuwillticook Rail Trail. It’s about 14 miles one-way, fully paved with fresh hot-top, and has lovely shade and scenery. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Here are a few pictures:

Check out the lights on the side of the building; excellent bicycle motif. 

The visitor center had this bike in its lobby. An E-bike that can take two passengers up front. Wouldn’t this be cool for the Sequim Wheelers?

And lastly, here are some photos of Old Deerfield where my Mom lives. Quite the idilic community…

I baked this fresh peach pie for Mom.

We visited Treehouse Brewing with Mom. Their flagship location is Charlton, Ma, but they’ve just expanded to other locations including South Deerfield. Paula enjoyed an IPA while Mom and I had ‘Dad’s Shoes’ — a milk stout. Yummy!

Welcome to Deerfield, Massachusetts

We arrived in Deerfield on Monday with Maine lobsters in tow for Mom. We parked the trailer beside Win’s home again; what a wonderful spot. It’s so nice to drive the truck without the trailer, and have a place that is so easy to park at.

The lobsters were delicious as you can imagine. So good that we didn’t take a single picture — too busy digging in.

Now we’re doing all the little things that need doing when you stop traveling for a bit — the truck needs service, the trailer has an appointment (hopefully to get the slide fixed), haircuts, cleaning, etc. Unfortunately it’s ‘stupid hot and humid’ (as Paula says) here in western Massachusetts. Yesterday we saw a temperature of 95 degrees, with a heat index of 99 degrees! Yuck pooey!

So when we bicycle, we head out around 7:00AM or so, and are back in 2-3 hours. At these hours, when you’re moving, the air isn’t too bad. But the stops are short so they’re not overwhelming. Paula and I are rediscovering the routes we took two and four years ago. The light traffic is a bit heavier than during our Covid-lockdown time two years ago, but the drivers are pretty good thankfully.

Today we look forward to Carol joining us. Our Catrike Trail is all ready for her, so we’re be ‘The Triking Musketeers’ or perhaps more aptly ‘The Dawn Trio.’ More photos soon…

Lovely Trike Riding on Acadia National Park’s Carriage Roads

We departed Prince Edward Island on Thursday, to drive 275 miles to Hidden Springs Winery in Hodgedon, Maine. The border crossing was easy, but we were surprised they wanted to look inside the trailer. They explained that when they ran our trailer plates, it came back as registered in New Jersey. Weird, but once they inspected the trailer we were on our way again.

The Hidden Springs Winery had lovely farm acreage at the top of a hill with wonderful views across the valleys below. Their wines were mostly made from local berries and fruits and they had what looked like a wonderful restaurant we could have taken advantage of if we had planned well. As it was, using the food we brought and relaxing was just the ticket. Plus we were well ensconced when the thundershower went through in the evening.

Then it was down to the Bar Harbor area where Acadia National Park is, 175 miles this day. We stayed for two days at Somes Soundview Campground. It’s a private campground on the side of a mountain, but beautiful, quiet and remote. 

Unfortunately their directions to our campsite weren’t very good, so we wound up overshooting the site, and traveling down the steep hill to the boat dock. Thankfully there was enough room for me to turn the rig around, and a camp worker showed us the site we were assigned. Of course the sun was too bright so the Ford Back-up Assist didn’t work, but at least I’d had enough experience to get it handled without it.

We got set up and headed out for some trike riding on Acadia’s Carriage Roads. We started from the Hulls Cove Visitor Center, and rode around Witch Hole Pond, and Eagle Lake. The surface is crushed stone, so slow going, but super pretty. We got lots of forest bathing in. Then today we started early, 7:30AM!, so we could get a convenient parking place at Parkman Mountain.  We rode  the ‘Around the Mountain Loop’, climbed ‘Day Mountain’, and ‘Jordon Pond Loop. Overall yesterday was 14 miles and today was 22 miles with 1768 feet of climbing. I feel sure we’ll sleep soundly tonight. Here are some photos…

We adored each of the bridges — crafted with concrete and faced with stone. The stone masons were amazing. Each was different, yet fit into the environment perfectly; built between 1922 and 1932.

Paula said I could play queen of the mountain.

See the rocks that form the road edge? They’re nicknamed Rockefeller’s Teeth. He designed the carriage paths to blend with the topography rather than destroying it to put in roads. He had the roads designed with drainage, high crowns, and these road edges so they would stand the test of time. Pretty wonderful, and well used by cyclists and hikers and horse & carriage.

Another tree with fortitude; roots are across a granite ledge.

Tomorrow it’s on to the KOA at Franconia Notch, NH so we can totally dump our tanks before arriving in Deerfield, Massachusetts on Monday to see my Mom. While we visit her we’ll be cycling around Franklin County and stay with her at her home. This will allow us to get both the truck and trailer serviced at their respective locations.

More news as we have it…

Last Triking Day on Prince Edward Island

With us planning to leave PEI tomorrow, today was definitely a triking day. Yesterday we took the day off from triking, and drove the truck to the North Cape of the island. The wind blew the entire day! We were amazed that the locals could cope with it long term. We know it was tough on us.

Check out the photos. We were amazed at the wind mills and their size. If you can click on the sign-board photos, you can read what we read. Pretty interesting stuff…

 

This is ONE of the turbine blades.

This is one of the control modules. One of these sits at the top of each wind mill.

We loved the scraggly shoreline…

How was this truck going to get out of there?!? We know it had four-wheel drive, but still…

Then we wound our way back to the trailer for a lovely steak dinner Paula had planned. Yumm!

So today had to be a triking day, our last full day on the island. We drove to a little wide spot in the road called Fredericton Junction, unloaded the trikes, and cycled to Royalty Junction, another wide spot about 18 miles away, for a total of around 36 miles. Believe it or not, this was our favorite day of triking because the trail had more ups and downs (still at railroad grade, so not terrible), and a cross section of farms and forest. See what you think of the photos…

Those boxes on the end of the parking lot are mailboxes.

See, Leslie did go on the ride. See her foot?!?

This is one of my favorite signs. It identifies an upcoming bridge.

And one more reminder that Leslie is on the ride (and holding the camera).