Final Spring Moto Camping Trip
Well, I had 5 days to do one final Moto camping loop before the summer busy season hits and my opportunities to camp go to near zero. I left the coast of Maine in beautiful weather and headed up into the NH White Mountains. Heat, lots of heat, almost 88 degrees of heat quickly sapped my energy. I was not prepared for the heat and failed to bring my lighter riding gear, thinking instead it would still be cool spring weather.
Ugh, hot, and buggy, I made camp outside of Lincoln at Hancock NPS campground. A beautiful spot, right next to the road and alongside a beautiful mountain stream. I had stopped about 30 miles earlier at a local butcher and acquired a bottle of red wine and a 1 pound ribeye steak. I have totally adjust to a carnivore diet and I try as best as I can to keep it up on the road. Realizing that is not always easy, I do my best.
Once at camp, I settled in to the afternoon heat, wrote in the journal and fought the bugs until things started to cool down. Using my little Fire Box Stove, a piece of equipment that I now carry with me wherever I go, I built a nice little fire and proceeded to cook a perfect medium rare steak.
Paired with some red wine and a bit of chocolate, I ate half of it for dinner and saved the other half for breakfast. The wine, well, I finished most of that the night before. With a full belly and a near full moon, I settled into my Warbonnet Hammock for the night and slept like a baby.
The next day was off to Vermont and then down to Max BMW in southern NH to look at my potential R9T build. I got to see what that beautiful white and gold version looks like and may have just found my next build.
With temps now in the 90’s I sweltered my way up to Biddeford where I would spend the weekend enjoying the grandkids and my daughter along with the delicious local fare. The weather was way more like summer than spring and the kids enjoyed a bit of time in the water at Old Orchard Beach before we went and consumed our first Lobsters of the season over at the Bait Shed. Wow, what a beautiful location right on the water. Great staff and delicious food.
After saying good bye the weather had now gone back to Downeast Maine style spring weather which meant rain, a bit of wind and temps in the 40’s. Thank goodness I had that heavy jacket, but alas, I forgot my gore-tex gloves and thus paid the price with cold hands that were now orange from the leather dye. I love my Lee Parks Design Sumo gloves and sure hope they were not ruined by that soaking.
I made my way back towards the coast to one of the most beautiful areas around me, the Machias River corridor. I spent some time exploring a few of the remote campsites, but the bugs were just too bad, so I went back to one that I stay at often. With another bottle of red wine and leftovers from the weekend, I stuffed myself for a bit and then retired into the hammock to hide from the bugs and listen to a podcast.
Seriously refreshing to my soul. Good food, good family time, a bit of challenging conditions (heat/wet) and time in the dirt. Time in the dirt, in the end, is really where I am happiest. The BMW R1250 GSA continues to be an incredible do it all bike. I travelled around 700 miles, through all types of conditions and it never skips a beat, just does what you ask of it. Heavy as shit if you are not careful, but keep power to the wheels and you are good to go.
