Miles: 297
Breakfast was supposed to be at Penny's but it was closed so we went to Ron's Corner instead and it worked out great. The old gas station turned restaurant was set to open at 7:00 but we arrived 15 minutes or so early and the staff let us in and our breakfast was served before 7:00. We rode south down the West side of Lake Champlain with a target of the Barbara Point Lighthouse. We passed by the road leading to the lighthouse once and after turning around found it and rode down the road only to be disappointed discovering the lighthouse was on private property and looked to be a private residence. I guess Google Earth doesn't tell you everything. No big deal, we rode on to Crown Point where we stopped at two different forts on the peninsula jetting up into the lake. There is an old French fort nearly on the water, Fort St. Frederic, and the bigger English fort, His Majesty's Fort at Crown Point. The latter having some of the old barracks still remaining. This is a big park and we walked around a good bit before riding across the street to view the Champlain Memorial Lighthouse. We didn't get off the bikes to view this, and then rode across the Lake Champlain bridge and over into Vermont. In just 24 miles we took a little side road, Lincoln Rd, to find Bartlett Falls but we stopped short and really didn't see the falls. Our stop was on the New Haven River but we should have gone a little further down. Either way it was a nice stop. We were pretty much going due east, and loving the Vermont roads and scenery. On our 2007 trip we stopped at several Covered Bridges around the VT/NH State lines but we missed Haverhill-Bath CB back then so we stopped there this time. It is fairly similar to the Bath CB but I think the Bath CB is much more scenic. It was 12:30 when we got back on to ride and once we hit the Kancamagus Highway we just wanted to keep riding. There are many greats spots along the highway to stop as it follows several different rivers with the Swift being the main one. However, we were determined to get to Portland before it was too late to do anything so we just enjoyed the ride and stopped at Tuckerman Brewing in Conway when we reached the end of the highway. It was a little past 2:00 and we were only 67 miles from the hotel so we stopped on our way in at Sebago Brewing. In Portland we quickly unpacked and walked down to the Portland Lobster Co where we had a couple of 1.5 pounders and shared a bottle of Pinot Noir. We hit Liquid Riot Brewery and Stars & Stripes Brewing on the way back to the hotel. This was certainly the signature night of the trip.