Littleton to Fryeburg August 18, 2022

Littleton to Fryeburg

August 18, 2022

The big rain storm started about 6:00 pm last night and continued all through the night.  In fact it was still pouring when I woke up this morning.  Rather than packing up from the outside I packed up from the inside of the tent leaving only the fly and the supporting rods in place.  It is a little more time consuming as everything has to moved a couple of times to get things rolled up but in the end only the fly is wet.

Breakfast was in a local restaurant just a couple of miles down the road.  The egg casserole was really good and the bacon was extra crunchy.  There was also grapefruit juice which is the first time on the tour that I have seen grapefruit juice. 

On the road the rain was really cold and there was strong wind blowing which seemed to be coming out of all directions at once.  One second it was a howling side wind knocking you over and the next a nasty head wind.  Wearing my rain coat, rain booties and rain gloves it wasn’t long before I was wet on both sides of the coat.  The rain booties only keep your feet dry in light rain but this was a down pour.  My cold water padding gloves keep my hands warm even though my hands were wet.

I have always stopped at the historic Mt Washington hotel as it is really quite a sight, however I was so cold and wet I didn’t want to stop.  A few miles further on was the Crawford Notch which was the summit of the days climb.  The wind was howling out of every direction whipping the bike about so hard I could barely control it.  There was a really steep decent and I rode the brakes all the way down. 

A few miles up the road was picnic.  I rolled in to say that I was there but not stopping.  I was just shivering.  Stopping would have been a big mistake.

By the time I got to the 55 mile mark the rain had let up a little and the temperature was up a few degrees so I started to thaw. 

When I got to Fryeburg I rolled into a pizza place and ordered a cheese and steak grinder with a coffee. The coffee warmed me up and the grinder filled me up. 

We are staying in the Fryeburg fairgrounds tonight.  It is the night that the plaques are presented to the C2C riders.  Our coast to coast t-shirts were also handed out today.  As  Greg is retiring this year some of the riders have organized some bubbly as a toast to Greg and I have prepared a phot album of the pictures of riders I have taken.

Although it was only a 64 mile ride today with just 1670 feet of climb it was a hard day in the rain and cold.  I think I would have sagged if I was not working on my EFI.

Terry