Two cyclists meet while biking the National Bicycle Route Network.
By Gail Geraghty
Staff Writer

NORWAY – Part of the fun of touring the country on a bicycle is meeting other serious cyclists along the way.

Take Karen Little and Dan Capron, for example.

Seventy-four days into her trip, Little met up with Capron while climbing the 2,860-foot elevation Kancamangus Pass in New Hampshire – the highest point on the Iowa to Maine route, as mapped by the Adventure Cycling Association.

Little came up behind him on her bike. Because it was raining so hard, she walked beside her bike on the way down. “I’m never going to take a risk I can’t justify,” she said. “It’s just not worth it.”

“It was intense,” grinned Capron, 32, a second-grade teacher from Booneville, N.Y., who is making his first week-long bicycle trip. They hit it off at the pass, and decided to peddle together for a while.

“I’ve learned a lot from her” about the art of serious cycling, said Capron.

The spandex-and-helmeted pair stopped Wednesday with their pack-laden touring bikes for a leisurely lunch at the Fare-Share Market on Main Street.

“That place is great. I loved it!” said Little, checking her tow-behind pack on wheels as they prepared to leave,

Norway’s Main Street, or Route 118, is part of the ACA’s National Bicycle Route Network, which totals more than 30,500 miles of North American back roads and mountain trails. Route 118 is part of the 4,300-mile Northern Tier Route, which starts in Anacortes, Wash., and ends in Bar Harbor.

“The northern route is very challenging, and it’s also the longest,” said Little, compared to the original TransAmerica Bicycle Trail created by the 40,000-member ACA in 1976. At age 25, Little is a veteran tour cyclist. She’s averaged 75 miles a day since beginning her trip in Portland, Ore.

In her other life, she works as a back-country instructor for a juvenile offender program in Colorado.

Little will continue through Lewiston to Richmond, Damariscotta, Rockport, and on east to Bar Harbor. Then she’ll fly back to Tucson. She and Capron will part ways when he heads south to Portland, on his way to visit his parents who are staying the summer in Wells Beach.

It’s not the first time Little has found someone to ride with. Once, she rode for a while with a large touring group of cyclists.

“It’s fun to have someone to ride with,” Little said. And the detailed pre-scouted cycling maps provided by the ACA make the journey an enjoyable adventure, she added.