The ride to Hampton Beach this weekend was very fun! Even though I didn’t verify the directions, and even though I freaked out when I thought you were leading me onto a highway, it was my favorite bike trip yet.
I was so surprised that you had gotten a bike GPS! I think it worked really well.

It was neat to see all of the places you used to go when you were younger. I couldn’t believe how big the kiddie ice cream size was from The Beach Plum! I will definitely always get that size from now on.
Even though there was plenty of seaweed, I’m glad we went in the ocean. The beach was also great for dog-watching. Thanks for sharing your towel with me.

I’m sorry that you got so chilly with your two throw blankets. I really liked my new NeoAir Xtherm pad and my Western Mountaineering Caribou MF. They packed so small and were so cozy. Soon you’ll be just like me with the (almost) same sleeping bag! You just get six more inches than I do.

The big beach houses were so beautiful! I can’t believe the size of the lawns that some of them had, too.

Overall, I think it was a fantastic trip 🙂

Trip Stats:

• Distance
  • Somerville, MA to North Hampton, NH: ~60 miles
  • Round trip ~120 miles
• Total bike weight @ finish
  • Chris: ~77 lbs
  • Rachel: ~64 lbs
• 3 crashes
  • Chris: 1
  • Rachel: 2
• 1 flat tire
  • Rachel

Lesson learned to reiterate – when using MMR, Google Maps, or Strava to generate a cue sheet, verify the route!  For this trip we used Strava which was great because it put together a route comprised of the most ridden roads between our point A & point B.  However, there were a few times when a “bear right” in our minds was described as simply “continue” which was problematic.  Also, one “left” was incorrectly generated as a “right” on the cue sheet.

Also – we were very happy with Shel-Al Campground.  The sites were pretty close together and not sheltered by forest, but at this point in the year, it wasn’t crowded at all, which was great.  The bathrooms were very nice, and a 6 minute shower only cost $0.25, compared to $0.75 for 4 minutes at Burlingame!