PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — The 450 cyclists who participated in this year’s BikeMaine ride across central and northern Aroostook County were in good spirits Saturday, as they rolled back into Presque Isle and reflected on the good times they had during their weeklong 320-mile trip.
“This is my second trip with BikeMaine and so far my favorite,” Amy Graves of Boston said, as she stood outside the Sargent Family Community Center. “The local people are the friendliest group of people that I’ve met in all of New England.”
Graves noted that some of the best memories she made during the trip occurred while she was in the St. John Valley. While there she took a boat trip on Long Lake in St. Agatha with a local couple named John and Diane, whose last name she did not remember, and played pickle ball with an 81-year-old woman in Madawaska who she said was “quite something.”
Although Graves drove more than five hours from Boston to Presque Isle, she thinks the trip was worth every minute and said she would definitely come back to Aroostook County for hiking trips with her family.
“I had visited Maine before, but never Aroostook County,” Graves said. “The scenery, the food, the people, everything about the area is amazing.”
BikeMaine is the biggest event for the Bicycle Coalition of Maine, a bike advocacy group. Each year the coalition chooses a different region of the state to ride through and the various trips have brought thousands of dollars into the local economies of towns and cities they’ve visited.
During each trip cyclists stay in host communities overnight, who provide local volunteers to arrange meals, set up the “tent cities” that many of the cyclists sleep in and offer cultural and historical tours and public events to welcome them.
Presque Isle greeted bikers the night before they headed north with a Maine style meal and performance from Star City Syndicate, while Caribou hosted a Sweden Street block party that featured a visit from Senator Susan Collins on Sept. 9. The rest of the trip saw cyclists touring the St. John Valley, with stops in Madawaska, Fort Kent and St. Agatha.
The warmth and friendliness of Aroostook County folks also left a big impression on Phil Coffin of Carrabassett Valley, who has participated in all six BikeMaine trips that the Bicycle Coalition of Maine has held so far. Though both he and his wife have visited Aroostook County before during work-related trips and have friends in Fort Kent, riding through the region made Coffin want to return again. He even learned facts about northern Maine that he never learned before.
“I learned that potato farmers in Aroostook use 90 percent less pesticides than the national average,” Coffin said. He added that the local people he interacted with during all stops of the trip were “friendly and welcoming.”
On Saturday, BikeMaine staff and local volunteers were on hand at the community center to sell T-shirts and souvenirs and pass out out water and snacks to the cyclists before they headed back home. BikeMaine ride director MaryBeth Luce thanked all the volunteers and residents who welcomed them at each host community, stating that the trip could not have been as successful without them.
“This week was one of the best weeks that we’ve ever had for BikeMaine. Each community was so welcoming and accommodating,” Luce said. “We still have parts of the state that we have not yet ridden in, so it will be awhile before we look at repeating different routes. But I will say that at some point we’ll certainly come back to Aroostook County.”
Next year’s theme for BikeMaine is “Coastal Connections,” which will offer cyclists a trip through Maine’s midcoast region and southern Kennebec Valley. For more information or to register visit http://ride.bikemaine.org.
