PA ECG Team

In Calais, ME that is! I told my wife that my follow my dot will not go any further northeast than it is right now! Our wonderful West Transportation driver Erica, got us right to the motel before 5 p.m. And that was even after we stopped for a few minutes to pick up her daughter who stays after school with her mother in law. They met us on the road to Calais (Route 9) a few miles out of town. She was grateful that she did not have to backtrack to pick her up for their school open house. She saved us an hour of riding time, so we really could not have any issue! Motel is old, but clean. Lots of working people staying here. Should not be an issue on a work night. I’ll bet it gets a little wild here on a Friday night! Rode to the US/Canada border and spoke to border control officer who took our photo at the same place as the W-A-Y folks took their group photo some 10 years ago! Then rode the first mile of the ECG back to the motel. Will probably do that again in the morning. 

We arrived in Bangor about noon today, Tuesday 8/31. We immediately purchased our next leg tickets from the not overly friendly clerk! After I asked if we could buy our West Transportation tickets at the Concord bus terminal, he said, “Yes, ID”. Then as I got my bank card out, he snapped “cash only!” I then inquired about including the $7 cost for each bike. He quickly quipped “pay the driver”. It’s nice to love your job! With about two hours to kill till the West bus leaves, we decided to have a gourmet lunch at the dining establishment next to the terminal. Yup, you guessed it, Wendy’s! We watched, from the Wendy’s elegant outside dining room, as the tiny West bus arrived and dropped off its arriving passengers. When I say tiny, it is smaller than a short school bus. More like a 15 passenger van on steroids! We each looked at each other with a thought of slight despair that our bikes would not fit along with us and any additional passengers.  I even began to search the web for po...

Arrived in Portland around 9:45 a.m. Cloudy and comfortable. Timely departure at 10 a.m. sharp! On to Bangor!

We arrived in Boston yesterday evening around 6:20 p.m. We gathered our gear and got ready to ride the 2 miles to our hotel. We used Google maps to get us to our destination. Even though we selected bicycle routing, it directed us on some busy roads that were not for the faint of heart bicycle rider! We made it safely and were able to enjoy a relaxing dinner outside at the hotel restaurant amid the busy streets of south Boston! The beer was cold and the food tasty!  We left the hotel this morning around 7:15 a.m. Pedaled our way down Washington St toward the terminal. We enjoyed a nice leisurely ride in the bus lane and bicycle lane that delivered us to the bus terminal. Two elevator rides later we are on the third floor of the terminal. Who knew that you would catch a bus on the third floor. We thought the only Air Busses were in France! There were about 8 people waiting to board the bus. We positioned ourselves at the rear of the line. The bus driver, Mark, was checking passenger...

We arrived in Phila with no issues! Getting on Amtrak to Boston was slightly more difficult! There is only one bike rack in each car. The bike racks also can serve as luggage racks. Because this train was very full when we boarded, there was a large amount of very heavy luggage in these racks. We had to remove and relocate this luggage, reconfigure the racks, disassemble our bikes and hang the bikes in the racks. This was made even more difficult due to the constant stream of passengers moving through the cars and the tight aisle at the rack area as the rest room is opposite the bike rack.  We are now settled in for a multi hour ride to Boston!

At about 9:22 a.m., we departed the Mount Joy train station, heading to Phila where we will change trains and head to Boston. The bikes have been stored, one bike per passenger car!  My Surly Long Haul Trucker bike with all my gear weighs 55 lbs, until I add about 80 fluid ounces of water which will add about 6 more pounds to the overall weight! Glad we are going south! It's all downhill when you look at the globe!

 Here is a general overview map of our ride.

The inspiration for our ride comes from the Dec 2020/January 2021 article in Adventure Cyclist magazine titled "Where There's A Will There's A W-A-Y (Week-A-Year)". There is also a YouTube video https://youtu.be/0KvyzmlhY5M made by the same group as in the magazine article. This group rode the East Coast Greenway one week per year, taking 9 years to complete the full trip from Calais, ME to Key West Fl.  Being retired, I am able to spend more than one week per year touring. Obtaining permission from the "One Who Must Be Obeyed", I came up with the idea to ride at least two weeks per year and hopefully we will be able to complete the total East Coast Greenway ride in 4 years. When I asked my long time touring friend, Dan, if he might be interested, there was not even a brief pause when he agreed to participate.  Then asking Gary, our two time cross PA (routes "Y" and "S") touring friend, there was a quick email response "Absolutely...

Greetings, We are a team of three individuals who have bicycle toured before. We are attempting a four year East Coast Greenway ride, two weeks per year.  Our tour will be from Calais, ME to Key West FL. This year, 2021, we are departing from the Mount Joy, PA Amtrak station heading eventually to Calais, ME. We will begin riding from Calais, ME on 1 Sept, 2021.