Did you happen to see 250 or so cyclists strung out along the roads of Central Maine this past week? Maybe you chanced upon the Bicycle Village one night, tents neatly lined up and a phalanx of geared-up cyclists stretching, showering, inhaling Bixby Bars – grinning.

You were looking at Bike Maine 2014, a weeklong 350-mile bike ride now in its second year and sponsored by the Bicycle Coalition of Maine. The idea behind the ride, similar to tours in Iowa (RAGBRAI) and New York state (Bon Ton Roulet), is to promote good health and spur sustainable community development in the many towns the riders pass through. This year’s route went through Norway, Paris Hill, Monmouth, Bath and more, passing by lakes that few of us could spell or pronounce.

From firefighters to librarians, Lions Club members to fourth-graders, the townspeople along the route feted riders with clanging bells, drifting bubbles and homemade soups, cookies and pies. Farms donated local food and flowers, musicians played, museums welcomed us, and cheerful signs along the route encouraged us often at the very moment that big hills discouraged us. In Gardiner, a tiara-bedecked self-described traffic fairy helped riders through a tricky crossing. At the YMCA Camp of Maine, two cyclists – riding tandem yet – got married.

Among many other things, Bike Maine was a reminder that hopping on a bicycle for a bike’s eye view of this very pretty state is exhilarating, freeing and joyful. No gasoline. No noise (except for me huffing and puffing up hills). No traffic jams. No parking tickets. No smog-causing emissions. And no extra charge for the full moon over Lake Cobbosseecontee, however you spell it.

— PEGGY GRODINSKY

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