Day 1: West Quoddy Lighthouse to Bucksport

The fact that all the bars in Lubec close at 8pm in the off season facilitated an early sleep and an early morning start so by 10.30 I found myself sitting in a rocking chair listening to the sounds of wind chimes outside the (sadly closed) Columbia Falls General Store with the first 50 miles already done.

The morning had been spent first on small, quiet roads hugging the coast but as 9.00 approached and traffic increased my route conveniently took me off the roads and onto gravel tracks.

Most of the rest of the day was spent on such tracks and some of them were pretty sandy and draggy but the increased rolling resistance was more than made up for by the lack of traffic (apart from grannies on ATVs) beautiful countryside and deer and squirrels darting across the trails.

And yes, grannies on ATVs were a feature of the day. Rather than trundling to Tesco on their mobility scooters the pensioners of Maine like nothing more than bombing off into the woods on their ATVs it seems. God bless America.

The villages and small towns held a combination of immaculate little houses and abandoned and sometimes burned out properties and closed down shops and restaurants, suggesting that all is not well with the economy in this part of Maine.
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The evening bar plans were somewhat hampered by the fact that, as in Lubec, all the bars in Bucksport close at 8pm. I may need to replan the route taking more careful note of bar opening hours! Nevertheless, despite the short time available I managed to have an interesting chat with Tony whilst at the bar at McLeod's Restaurant. Tony is a musician so we talked about the music scene in the area as well as American history, great train journeys and travels around America and the world.