The Dog Days of Summer

By Scott Landry

Summer, hot dogs, and cycling. They all came together on June 24, 2012. The idea: ride to hot dog stands along the New England seacoast. On cycle: Gary, Lisa and me. On support (and additional hot dog eaters): Derek and Logan. The ride of the summer was on.

We picked our hot dog stands:

Flo’s in Cape Neddick, ME

The Dog House in Kittery, ME

Gilley’s in Portsmouth, NH

Casey’s Hot Dog Empori-yum in Hampton, NH.

We charted a course. Because the only bridge accessible by bikes between New Hampshire and Maine is under construction, we had two detour choices: a southern Maine route that would take us on somewhat busy streets and cause some back-tracking; or a northern route that would take us along Mt. Agamenticus. We chose the north.

 Gary and I met up in Newmarket, NH around 10:30am. 

The first leg was the longest—27.2 miles to Flo’s. We pedaled past beautiful farms and countryside arriving at the Maine border ahead of schedule!

Soon, we encountered something we didn’t expect. On retrospect, the names of the roads should have been a dead giveaway: Mountain Road, Mt. Agamenticus Road, etc….we met what seemed like an endless climb. When we did finally reach the top of the hill, it wasn’t exactly smooth sailing coming down. The road suddenly turned to gravel and stayed gravel for at least one more climb and descent.

 

 

After a mile or so of gravel (at very cautious speeds), the road became smooth again and a few minutes later…our first stop: Flo’s!

Our next stop was The Dog House at the Kittery traffic circle. It looked like a straight shot down Rt. 1, so we didn’t print the route. And it was a straight shot down until we somehow got on the wrong road and saw The Dog House down below the overpass we were on. One unplanned u-turn and we were there.

 

After some Dog House Dogs, Derek and Logan came to the rescue. They shuttled us and our bikes across the river into NH (due to the closed bike bridge).

 

 Then we were off to Gilley’s, a famous hot dog stand in Portsmouth inside an old diner.

Next, the nicest part of our ride—from Portsmouth to Hampton including 12 miles along the NH coast. Lisa joins us on bike for the second half of the ride to Casey’s Hot Dog Empori-yum in Hampton.

By now, we were quite full of hot dogs, but we still had to get back to Newmarket, another 13.5 miles. We left Casey’s and got back to our starting point around 7pm.

 The stats:

64.23 miles of cycling

1,125.33 ft. total assent

5:13:44 hours of riding time

18 hot dogs

1 fun day

We’re already talking about next year’s Dogs Day Ride…with more dogs and more riders!