Day Five - Jackman ME to North Woodstock NH (344 miles)
We started the day looking forward to another great day's worth of riding in Maine . We started out heading east on State Route 6/15, we rode along Long Pond. However, this pond was more like a lake. The scenery remained wonderful, and the road was in decent condition. At Rockwood ME 6/15 takes a southerly course and runs along Moosehead Lake. We were still in the mountains at this point, and passed Big Squaw Mountain on our right. At Monson we bore right and ran along the Piscataquis River . In Abbott Village we stopped at the river for a break. As we continued toward the ocean we began to lose sight of the mountains. Just south of Dexter we picked up ME 7. What a terrible road! This road was in absolutely pitiful condition. We even briefly stopped to see if there was another route that we could take down to Belfast . Finding no alternate route we continued on. The road meets the ocean in Lincolnville and we were ready for lunch. We found a little lobster shack next to the water, and pulled in for lunch. After munching a couple of lobsters we had a decision to make. We had planned to run east up the coast, stop at Bar Harbor, and the night back in Belfast . We had been watching the weather the night before, and realized rain was expected in the entire region. Since we wanted to ride the Kancamagus Highway under good conditions we decided to turn west, and ride the highway while it was still nice weather.
We rode down the coast on U.S.1 toward Portland . This is a wonderful road, and packed with scenery. At Brunswick we jumped on I-95 down to Portland . We found U.S. 302 on continued West. U.S. 302 is also a nice road. Just outside of Portland it runs along Sebago Lake . At the northern end of the Lake is the town of Naples. As we rode through the town we noticed another lobster restaurant. We could not pass it up. After another couple lobsters under belt we continued on. As we crossed back into NH we turned on NH 113 which turns into the Kancamagus Highway once it crosses NH16. The highway did not disappoint, It was just as we remembered it from 1994. It was more fun for me this time on the BMW. Turn after turn never seemed to end. As we pulled into N. Woodstock we began looking for a motel. We found a great place to stay. We decided to take a stroll through the town. This town was full of tourists. We found another place that was still serving dinner, and we just couldn't pass more lobster. We only had lobster rolls this time.
