Ride Information
Start Location: Sewall St next to Clarion Hotel, Portland ME
Finish Location: Clarion Hotel Portland ME (1230 Congress Street, Portland, ME)
Start Time: 05:00am, June 15th, 2024
Length: 300k / 189mi
Time Limit: 20 Hours
Lights & Reflective Gear: Required
Ride Leader: Michael Arciero
Sanctioning: RUSA/ACP
Cue Sheet: See RWGPS
Online Map/GPS: https://ridewithgps.com/routes/38586858
(Tentative route)
Registration: BikeReg
Controls: Waterfront Park, Richmond ME; Morse’s Sauerkraut, Waldoboro, ME; Pemaquid Point Light House, Bristol, ME; Sheepscott
Note for 2023: Amtrak/Concord Coach Bus Transportation Station opens at 4:15am daily. Public Bathroom/vending machine will be available. If you are staying in the finish hotel, parking is free for guest but otherwise park at adjacent side street or the public lot near the transportation center for the ride.
Ride start on Sewall Street exit of the Clarion Hotel Parking Lot.
This route offers a mix of postcard Maine coastline, coastal towns, rural country roads, and farmland. By the numbers there is not a lot of climbing, but it punches a little above its weight with rollers and hills concentrated in sections throughout the course. From the start, riders will cut to the at Back Cove in Portland, the route heads northeast along Casco Bay toward Yarmouth, passing by Eartha, the word’s largest rotating globe (according to Wikipedia) located at the former headquarters of DeLorme. Having acquired DeLorme in 2016, Garmin now has an office at this location. Garmin users who still have a stack of DeLorme “gazetteers” with loose pages will appreciate the parallel; perhaps with some wistfulness. Continuing up the coast, the route skirts the shopping destination of Freeport to the east, along rolling rural roads to Brunswick, home of Bowdoin College, at mile 28, with the route passing through the town center. The route then crosses the Androscoggin River on the bike path and begins a half circuit of the Merrymeeting Wheelers’ Merrymeeting Bay Loop route, on occasionally rolling sections with elevated views of the bay. The route passes through Bowdoinham to Richmond at mile 47. Annabella’s Cafe and Bakery can provide second breakfast and there is also a spigot on the outside of Annabella’s Café and Bakery for filling water bottles and a park across the street with a gazebo, this is where you will meet NER volunteers to get your card signed.
The route crosses the Kennebec River with a nice view of Richmond from the bridge if you care to look over your right shoulder. Next up are more rural sections through Dresden and Alna, including a brief dirt section at mile 60 which is prone to washboard.
At mile 64 the route turns northward and around the west side of Damariscotta Lake. This nine mile section has narrow shoulders but typically has light traffic. Morse’s Sauerkraut, cite of the second control, a local destination famous for it various fermented and deli offerings, would be open on Saturday from 10 am to 4 PM, and this will be a vendor control at mile 75. Gallon Water will be placed under the bench under the overhang of the building and a portable toilet is available outside toward the N-side of the property.
The section of the course from mile 89 in Waldoboro to mile 128 outside Damariscotta will see more traffic than the rest of the route. Some sections also have narrow shoulders; a tradeoff for the terrain and views. Route 32 from Waldoboro north of Pemaquid Point has varied terrain and vistas, including rolling hills, farmland, coastline, and the small coastal village of Round Pond in Bristol. Pemaquid Point, site of the fourth control at mile 111, is a signature point of the ride with its iconic lighthouse and jagged coast. Get your card signed by either the volunteer or the park ranger at the gate.
Heading back up Route 130, the route continues north toward Damariscotta at mile 125. This section has wide shoulders with the exception of a two mile section after it merges with Route 129 just south of the iconic “Down East” coastal town of Damariscotta. After passing through the town center, the route crosses back over to the west/non-ocean side of Route 1. From here to Bath, the route is rural aside from flirting with Route 1 in Wiscasset and Woolwich. Highlights on this section are Sheepscott (an info control) and the Sheepscott River, the coastal town of Wiscasset, the section along the Kennebec River with views of the Bath Bridge, and views from the bridge itself, which riders will cross heading into Bath. The route continues along Old Brunswick Road, aka Old Bath Rd when going the opposite direction to Brunswick, including a three mile section on the bike path along the Androscoggin River. The route rejoins the outbound section near Brunswick for the remainder of the ride, with the exception at the very end to go into the Clarion Hotel lobby to find the volunteers who greets you to check you completed the ride.