Day 39

June 20 - 31km (Calais)

When I woke up, my firefly friend was gone; in its place were a swarm of mosquitoes. I enjoyed swatting them. I was motivated to have a quick breakfast by the bugs outside and I headed out a little later than I would have liked.

Crossing the border into Maine by bike was a cool experience. Once I entered Calais, I was confused as to what my next steps should be. It was about 5pm, and I knew I had two routes that I could take into central Maine (where I had family friends). Both options had a questionable shoulder at times. One route was more direct but much more isolated and trucks passed along it. The other had a 70km detour, but was more scenic and would have less traffic.

The visitor information centre seemed like the right place to go because I wanted a local opinion. It was there that I met Vicki and Carrie-Ann. We had a long discussion and they were both very helpful. We all came to the conclusion that there wasn’t a great option. I think they sensed my confusion and Vicki offered a place to sleep because it was getting late. I had to think about it because I had only biked 30km so far, but in the end I realized that was fine. The point of me going to Maine was to take a detour and wait out the fires.

When I arrived at Vicki’s place, I met Ed and we had an amazing dinner. I also became acquainted with Charlie the pug who was extremely excited and Finn who lazily watched me from the couch. I had never met a dog with as much energy as Charlie.

While we were talking over dinner, Vicki and Ed proposed something interesting to me: they would be driving into central Maine in a couple days and could take me there. My gut reaction was no, but then after thinking about it, I remembered that I was biking every inch across Canada, not the States. This was a detour, and it didn’t matter to me what I did here so long as I returned to the exact point I entered the border. Besides, I could bike back from central Maine and enjoy the safer coastal route. Speaking of safety, that was the biggest concern for me. The more direct route via the 9 wasn’t in the greatest condition, so this made my decision easy. I gratefully agreed, and crashed for the night.