August 5; 138 km 1392m vertical; cloudy, some sun & cool

Ernie’s Hunting Lodge (Island Brook) to Kingfield (Maine)
Last night Ernie drove us through the woods to show us the shorter way to get back to the main road so this morning we rode a rough trail uphill all the way and saved 8km. Now, it would have been nice if that had been it for riding uphill but, unfortunately, the road through eastern Quebec takes the hills in straight lines with frequent 12% climbs. When we arrived in Woburn we had climbed 875m in only 50km into headwinds and we were working harder than anything we had done in Ontario. I was a stretcher case before I’d even had lunch. TimB is only a shadow of his former self. If he dresses too fast in the morning he will fall straight through his clothes. Five km after Woburn we crossed the U.S. border into Maine and the remaining 85km to Kingfield were a long haul even though the terrain was a lot easier. We are now settled in a hotel with a décor from around 1900 and we dined across the road on scallops in a 3-cheese sauce washed down with iced water interspersed with the occasional local brew. Or was that the other way round???? Can’t remember. Anyway, we both feel we may, after all, live to see another day though we are not sure about the 140km to Bangor. Night night.