West Quoddy Head Lighthouse trip - easternmost point on the U.S. mainland. part 1

Every country has extreme points (points that are farther north, south, east or west than other locations), but it's usually few sets of them. Wikipedia says that there are 15 points for just easternmost one depending on size, number of states considered, etc. Since it's hard for me to ride to Hawaii or Alaska I picked 48 states set:

West Quoddy Head Lighthouse, Maine (east), Key West (south), Northwest Angle, Minnesota (north) and Cape Alava, Washington (west).

This set is approachable on motorcycle it makes it a good destination for Iron Butt SaddleSore 1000 challenge (but it was closer to 1200 miles round trip from my home if I miss no turns). In 2013 I tried to complete this challenge on my 1989 Honda CB-1 but mechanical failures (blown engine head gasket that mixed oil and coolant together) changed my plans. I was less than 100 miles from that but head to turn back. Some say that CB-1 was not meant to be tortured at high speeds for so long and that it had to fail but that day I safely made it home at 40 mph, sold my motorcycle and decided that I need something better. And "better" turned out to be custom Ducati Monster: beautiful versatile street bike that made me smile every day (except few glitches that it had with electronics, mostly sensors). I bought it in "like new" condition with many performance extras as cheap as dirt.

Yann Lepentrec dit Le Dop aka "Doberman"

When I went to Daytona Bike Week for the first time (that's going to be another post in few weeks) I needed to pack my bike for my first multi-day trip. So I started early (2 months in advance), wrote down a list of things I may need during the trip, reviewed the list a few times adding new things I though were missing. Surely there was enough time for me to buy everything, check it, test it and recheck it again. I stuffed everything into my tank bag and big BMW backpack that has a harness to get attached to the motorcycle (rear seat). I even had a test ride for 50 miles to see if everything was in place. As a side effect of that preparation for the trip I made photos of cloth, gadgets, tools and other things that may come handy on long trips.

As you can imagine, it was a no-brainier for me to pack essentials using tested list in just a few hours and a short trip to the grocery store to get some snacks. I prefer variety of juicy fruits, nuts and sweets so I can add as many calories as needed by choosing the right snack. Same goes for liquids. Since in most cases coffee is bad for motorcyclists I take 1 Qt thermos with black or green tea.
My absolute favorites are chai tea with milk for colder weather and iced green tea with lemon for a hot rides. Plus hydration pack with sports drink mixed with water as 50:50 solution of 2 Qt size. This gives me enough liquids for a warm day. And I can use my hydration pack as an ice pack of some sort (it helps my food/snacks to stay cool longer by absorbing heat in my tank bag during the day. From there I can reach hydration hose with my left hand, make few gulps and put everything back without even slowing down. One of my jackets (Scorpion Exo Commander) had a fixture and special pocket for hydration pack and it proved to be good solution for long rides. Too bad they removed this feature from new model of this jacket. I'm still looking for do-it-all apparel for affordable price.

I put my summer jacket on (with only windproof liner in it), attached my pants, got summer boots and 2 pairs of gloves: street and summer ones (I should have taken my waterproof pair too), put all the food and drinks into my bags and took it all downstairs.

It was 1:15 am. I know my neighbors hated me as I was starting the engine with slip on exhaust but what could I do at that moment, I bought my bike with all those upgrades and even if I have found my stock exhaust I could no longer make it work again: previous owner changed too much on my "Doberman". Nobody showed up to yell at me or even to turn on the lit up their windows while I was waiting for the engine to warm up. To waste no time I attached the luggage, checked tension on backpack straps and warmed up my muscles. You have to stretch and warm up before you ride (and during the trip too) since you need to provide oxygen to your muscles to prevent cramps.
Once "Lo temp" light went off my bike growled through somewhat empty streets of New York going north to Bronx. City that never sleeps definitely did not want to let us go too easy so I stuck on Hamilton Bridge eastbound for an hour because someone planned to perform roadwork there and did not ask me. I should have checked an alternative routes or at least for delays before we left home but one of us (me or bike, don't know for sure) forgot to do so early in the morning. Now we had to wait.

I like to start my trips at night: you have 5-6 hours of empty streets and highways that give you chance to leave any big city far away. You tend to get less tired with calm, monotonous night ride in the beginning, saving your energy and attention to later part of the voyage. In this case I can be in Florida before sunset, spending 16-18 hours on a first day and covering more than 1000 miles in 1 day.

After you break away from traffic jam, any road at any speed will feel special for at least 30 min and then some more. That's how I prefer going through New England: endless ride with short stops at gas pumps to feed my bike and myself and leave the hundreds of miles behind. The rest of my way there was pretty ok. Except 1 little thing: I was going north and street riding (short 30-90 min trips) is not the same as highway marathons in every way you compare them.

Clouds ment "less direct sunlight heat" to me. Before I started my ride I though it's cool :)

In cases like this one I always remember my father telling me: "It's better to get more layers than you think you may need. In worth case you just take it off. But if you miss a jacket or sweater you can not simply go back if you're hours or days away". So I try to always take extra pair of gloves, warm cloths and balaclava with me. And I did the same this time. But since I was expecting to have 70-77 F for the most part of that day I felt like it's too warm I decided to get summer mesh! jacket with windproof liner. I could not have been more wrong with my choice: constant high speeds for 24 hours make you loose heat real quick. I wanted to save some space and left insulated windproof gloves at home. Who need them anyway in summer, right? Wrong! Getting tons of air through my sleeves made me cold and angry in just a few very short hours. Thanks God I've got some Yankee Ingenuity with me :).

You can notice glove perforation that was not very welcomed that day

plastic bag goes here

I took few plastic bags I wrapped around my wrists to prevent air coming in easily. What a relief! Was it a perfect replacement for proper garments? Of course not although it provided enough insulation to retain most of the heat inside, providing more comfort and thus saving some energy to let me last longer.

Another thing we all know for sure is that urban people tend to rely way too much on technology and all it takes is no Internet to make value good old paper maps (or get another gadget to postpone enlightenment). My cell phone coverage was always close to perfect everywhere (that's why I changed my carrier years ago in the first place). But I should have considered this: 43 people per square mile (1.3 millions of people live in Maine) is way too low to have LTE coverage on the outskirts of the state. Many mobile apps offer offline maps caching so you don't need data coverage to find your way. But we all know that as a last resort you can ask real people if in need. But I wish I had a paper map of the remote corner with me. Don't get me wrong, I had a bird's eye overview of my route from home to the final destination. But all I actually needed was a piece of Washington county size or smaller with street names. It could save me from riding extra 40 miles 'cause I missed my turn.

My biggest fear at that point was the lack of gas stations. And I guess it's normal, given that my bike have about 110 miles range. Once you filled up you may forget about the need to get fuel for 60 minutes or slightly more. In fact, it's not a lot but still acceptable. The only problem I can think of is a need to refuel at night. Service areas are almost non-existent and the rest will close at 5 or 9 leaving you with an empty tank in the forest. No, the best way to spend a night for sure.
But to my entertainment things were ok and I was enjoying the ride with no cars/police around.

Sometimes you see no cars for many miles

I passed Lubec Municipal Airport and noticed few great places in town: lighthouses, smokehouse museum, gallery and beautiful scenery everywhere you lay your eyes on.

There are 3 other lighthouses in the area: Mulholland Point Light is one of them

Lubec, Maine

Smokehouse sign is still there

Where is the traffic? And yellow cabs?

McCurdy's Smokehouse Museum: this place was a herring smoking facility before in 1991 it was closed.

After 10 minutes ride in the West Quoddy Head park I arrived to the lighthouse. There were few motorcycles parked already and a few cars as well. I took my backpack off the bike and went down the road to visitors center.

I was not the only motorcyclist there

This place is kinda popular among tourists and even locals

Part 2 of the trip