39 miles

Jenny and I went to King’s Bakery, a donut cart that pops up (weekly?) a short walk from her place. I bought a dozen donuts for us to split and we sat on her porch to eat way too many of them and drink our coffee. 

When I finally hit the road, I started with a very strong headwind into Arlington, VT, but the weather was cool and crisp—my favorite, like early September. I visited a bike shop called Battenkill Bikes that I had called yesterday for route advice. Garth was very helpful, and looked at my derailleur for me. I thought I’d frayed the cable when I adjusted it a couple of days ago, but he said it looked okay. He had a dog named Dash. She tried to eat a nectarine out of my hand, very gently.

 Next, I went to North Kill bookstore in Manchester, at the recommendation of Garth, who said it was “the best bookstore in the world”. I could see what he meant—I could have spent all day there. I bought a couple of postcards and some chicken salad. I sat in the garden outside to eat and a kid came up to ask about my trip. He told me he’d just finished high school and always wanted to do a bike trip. I encouraged him to go for it. 

I kept moving toward Hapgood Pond Campground, which turned out to be a great spot. It struck me that the way people camp here is very different from a lot of the busy places I’ve seen recently. A lot of the sites here are occupied, but you wouldn’t know it. It’s quiet. There was a woman reading aloud while a man behind her set up camp. I chatted for a while with a guy named Dan, who advised me to stop in Belfast but not Searsport when I get to Maine. 

As I was riding through the campground looking for a good site, I spotted two men pulling into one. I said hello and they graciously invited me to camp with them. Jonathan is a baker in Northampton, MA, and James is an astronomer and teaches at Smith college. He talked about street light design and how it’s never done with the right considerations, and how there’s no evidence that lights make a city safer. Jonathan shared some bread he had made, which was delicious.