Thursday was a rest day. There was supposed to be rain, so Jacqui and I planned on going to Freeport. Forecast changed, and I had good weather after we got back, but I wanted to take a rest day so I wouldn't wuss out Saturday and just drive straight home.
In Freeport, they still don't have the main LLbean store open, they just have a big temporary tent thing, which is functional and climate controlled. Supposedly the big opening is late September.
I found a nice pair of green, rip stop nylon, hiking pants that fit well, 35x30's ! 36's are kind of loose now, 34's too tight. In the old bike and kayak LLBean store, I found some good closeout deals on a NRS, thin long-sleeve 0.5mm top. $60 instead of $140. LLbean has given up on bike stuff; they're not renewing the lease they have on the former bike/kayak building. Sad. But the money wasn't there. Also picked up a thing of cross country glide wax and a beanie for more than half off. Jacqui wasn't as lucky, but found some stuff at the British store she likes.
After Freeport, we double backed to Brunswick to Groove Records and a second hand bookstore she likes there (they're never open on the weekends). I just sat in the car so I wouldn't be hovering with a "hurry up please" vibe. On my phone in the car, I investigated nearby lunch options and killed time on Reddit. We tried a fried chicken food truck (technically a trailer), it was Tasty! (BiziBuns) Their spicy chicken isn't spicy (like not at all. at most, sweet baby ray's bbq sauce level spicy), but Mainers don't like hot spice from my experience, so it makes sense I suppose. An 80 year old guy was bitching about them not selling chips or having straws. I never understand why people act like whiny aholes to the people who haven't made your food yet. Stupid or brave? Just saying, you can't taste spit (or worse).
Anyway, we found a bench in the adjacent park, and I stopped myself after inhaling half of the sandwich, Jacqui ditto. It was tempting to devour the whole thing, but it's not what I call "fill up food" it was tasty food. And the leftovers would be yummy tomorrow too. The fries were kind of greasy (fryer was too cold I'd guess), but I thought I could salvage them at the cabin. Which I did the next day, Just a non-stick fry pan on medium heat. dumped them on some clean paper towel, light press, repeat 2-3 times. Jacqui was pleased! Just shy of crunchy, after starting as gross, soggy, greasy.
Anyhoo, even though the weather turned out fine the rest of the day Thursday, I just lounged at the cabin the rest of the day instead of going for a paddle or bike ride. Naps were taken instead. If I'd brought a wetsuit, maybe I'd have gone for a swim instead, oh well.
Friday
I decided to paddle around Barters one last time (for the year). This time, I did things in reverse from the previous Saturday. I went up the narrow, east Back River side because the winds were coming down from the North/Northeast, and it was close to low tide when I started. Low tide makes the Back River much more narrow; large mud flats appear. Anyway, I first paddled from the bottom right corner of the screenshot, straight up the right side. I hooked over to the cove on the upper left. Haven't had the energy to go over there the last few years. There was a seal in there checking me out. Heading South, I decided to just bomb down the middle of the river, which was fun. Like I had the entire river to myself. Usually, I hug the shoreline. Wind at my back, I flew down. No passing boats making wakes. Per my garmin watch, I hit a max speed of 6.5 mph during the paddle, and I bet it was during that stretch. Made amazing time.
Quick stop in Porters Preserve at the bottom of Barters and then back to the launch. Almost made it back without having to pee myself, but there were a couple of older ladies hanging out at the cove so I couldn't go pee in the weeds at the beach of Porters. So I just hopped off early at the launch and flushed out my leggings with cold sea water. Brrr! Still, I don't think I'll ever switch to a drysuit. They do come with zippers, but the logistics would still require you to find somewhere to stand to relieve yourself. I couldn't do that with my old man bladder. Besides drysuits are way more expensive (>$1200). and I don't paddle during Winter (when you really need a drysuit for more warmth)
After getting back to the cabin, I had lunch and lounged for a bit. Around 2 p.m. I did my last bike ride from the cabin around Southport. Always makes me sad to do that last ride from the cabin for the year, but it's a fun bike loop. Although, as I was discussing w Jacqui, I wish they'd take down all the military posters of people who've served. The posters are everywhere around Boothbay & Southport. They've been up for like 3-4 years now, and it kind of ruins the "nature" ambience IMHO. They put them up in May and take them down in November. Idk after awhile it starts to feel creepy in a 1984 kind of way. Like forced patriotism/appreciation as a thinly veiled attempt to extract compliance/subservience. Just my two cents. On the ride, the weather was nice at least. Here's some photos. Some from the Newagen town dock, the others from Southport's town beach on the Northwest side. All in all, a good ride, and I discovered a new mini loop when visiting the town beach. It had an amazingly fun S turn downhill section (multiple curves, so more a snake turn section then?)
Good way to say goodbye to Boothbay on the bike
After getting back to the cabin, I did a few walks to carry stuff out to the truck before dinner. In past years, Jacqui and I will take turns and move our vehicles close to the cabin to pack up, but we each felt like getting some steps in this year and left our cars out in the parking area by the central meadow. After dinner (leftovers), I packed up as much as I could. In the end, we skipped the last brewery/pizza outing. It felt more fun to eat up the remaining yummy leftovers from the fridge. Anything that could be composted, I bagged and put out into the cooler without ice; no need to worry about keeping it cold. All the valuable remaining food supplies, condiments mostly, were put into the truck's powered, mini fridge after dinner. So in the morning I only had to carry out 2 duffels, my bathroom shoulder bag, and strip the bedding before leaving. Normally Jacqui and I move our vehicles closer to load everything up, but it felt good to get some steps in.
Saturday morning.
Woke up around 5:30 a.m., lounged in bed until 6. I always wake early the last day; my brain doesn't let me sleep in on travel days. All week long, the local cellphone traffic doesn't work well for internet/data at night, but in the morning it's good, so I just browsed online while lazily staying in bed. The nighttime data problems helped me get out of the habit of browsing reddit/instagram before bed, which probably improved my sleep. Felt good to read books on my Kindle before bed and just unplug from the world. I need to work on that habit at home.
Anyway, I ate some toast w peanut butter, helped Jacqui clean up the cabin, and took off by 6:30a.m. I left Jacqui at the cabin to do the final sweep out. I would just get in the way.
I drove 45 minutes to the doggy walk park in Brunswick along the river, near rt1, and I used my kayak cart to walk the kayak and my gear to the nearby boat launch. I just locked the cart to a nearby tree while I was off paddling, it was there when I got back. A lot of the rowing club were already out on the water when I arrived (7:30a.m. ish) Most were way faster than me, but not by much. I was faster than the novice 8 person coed crew, so that's something I suppose.
Good paddle. On the way back, I saw a juvenile bald eagle on the beach further away from rt1. They're fun to watch walk around. They have a grumpy old man gait. And you can tell they're juvenile because their feathers have a mottled mix of brown and white and a dark beak.
Best clip I found to show an eagle walking. I've given up on taking photos/videos while paddling. The surfski isn't stable enough for good photos/videos most of the time. Besides, someone's posted better photos online anyway. Instead, i blog.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/oSfJnLc8SVo
After the paddle, I stripped off the wet gear and chucked it all into the white 5 gallon bucket i keep strapped to the back of the truck. Avoids stinking up the truck that way. I also put the fabric cover I made over the surfski. Keeps it cooler in the Sun, and I was going to leave it on the truck during my bike ride. I then drove 5 minutes over to the Brunswick Park and Ride and started my bike outing from there after eating some snacks from the fridge. Before packing up everything yesterday, I pre-made a protein smoothie, so I didn't need to run the blender at the cabin at the crack of dawn. I drank it after my paddle.
Anyhoo, the bike ride was definitely more fun than last year, (I'm 60lbs lighter than the last time I did it), but I was definitely tired from all the rides and paddles this past week, and it was more midday, so the heat was radiating off the pavement even though it was probably only upper 70's. I was able to comfortably maintain a good cruising/touring speed though.
Near the end of the ride, I changed my mind and instead of stopping at Flight Deck Brewing for lunch, I went to the deli place next door. I was thinking it MUST be good to have more people than the brewery. It was a mad house though. Granted it was 1p.m. on a Saturday, but you order your sandwich at the deli, they give you a slip of paper for the register, and they have signs posted saying it takes 20 minutes to actually get your sandwich. You pay, and wait. I just went and sat down in their air conditioned cafeteria area and ate my cookie and small bag of chips while waiting. 20 minutes or so later sandwich finally arrived. So i don't know. I was thinking deli because it'd be quicker than waiting for food at the brewery. Bad bet. Food was probably healthier though. I got a chicken, veggies, honey mustard in a spinach wrap. Saved half for dinner at home, I didn't want to have to cook later, after driving a couple hours and unloading. Also, I was a little worried that if I had a beer, it'd be harder to stay awake for the drive home.
https://www.wildoatsbakery.com/
On the ride, I skipped the merepoint peninsula extension, so that cut off 6 miles on the ride. Back at the truck, I did indulge in a geyser sponge shower before driving home. So nice to feel clean and change out of sweaty bike clothes.
The drive home went well. 2.5 hours. No major traffic delays. So I may do the Brunswick stop from here on out, Idk. Traffic heading south is super busy later in the morning, with all the weekly renters heading home after the 9a.m. checkout time. Doing a paddle and bike ride until mid afternoon is a good option. If I drove from the cabin straight home at 6:30a.m., it would have been just a 3 hour drive. But wasting the rest of the day being tired from vacation seems silly. Maybe next time, I'll pack my chair instead of putting it in Jacqui's car. I'll take more of a break between the paddle and the bike ride.
Unloading the truck went super fast. All my home made duffel bags ftw! Like 10 minutes at most, including rinsing off the surfski. I don't want the saltwater left on the metal bailer for too long. During the week, there's an outdoor faucet near the cabin, and I often rinsed off the kayak during the week too. And when I stepped on the scale, I was still 215.8! No weight gained, even though I ate out a fair bit, and didn't have salad stuff at the cabin.
Speaking of, it's Sunday morning now, time to go to BJ's to restock on healthy stuff. Haven't had much veggies the past week. Mostly apples and dried dates. Screw the cyclospora, I'm loading up on greens! We have fresh cherry tomatoes ready from the raised garden bed out front too. Yum! Going to make a 50% sourdough whole wheat pizza for lunch.
Later!
