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Sunday, June 8, 2003
Pedaling/peddling Maine
Copyright © 2003 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc. | ||
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Also on this page: RIDING AROUND MAINE | |
Bicycle touring guides Brian McLaughlin and Ted Cavotta have a lot in common cycle-wise, even though one is from Maine and the other New York. Both lead relatively low-budget bike tours as part-time work. Both have offered summer tours for eight or more years. Both have cycled well beyond the Northeast as well as around Maine. But only McLaughlin would dare to plan the logistics around a bicycle tour in his home state. For Cavotta, of Saratoga, N.Y., Maine is too vast, too costly, and too difficult to navigate. "I don't know the area. I can't spend enough time there to draw up a bicycle tour," Cavotta said. "Maine is a beautiful state. But Maine is very expensive in the summer." Next weekend, the ambitious Trek Across Maine Sunday River to the Sea tour will gather together more than 1,000 riders to cycle from Newry to Belfast over the course of three days. The major ride is Maine's biggest, best-known bike tour and a creature unto itself. It is run by a full-time staff at the American Lung Association and has proven a major money maker for the charity, bringing in as much as $1 million a year. But what has worked for the American Lung Association is too much for many independent bicycle tour guides to pull off here. Maine has drawn some 2 million tourists to come and bicycle here, according to the state. Meanwhile, Vermont has drawn just 100,000, according to the Vermont Department of Tourism and Marketing. Yet the Vermont department lists 10 in-state bike tour companies compared to four listed by Maine's Department of Transportation. Steve Bell, owner of one of the four Maine companies, CAN-AM Wheelers, leads his tours mostly in Canada. "The problem in Maine is the roads are in kind of rough shape," said Bell, a tour guide since 1993. "I don't know where they get the money in Vermont, but the roads there are better." John Balicki, bicycle and pedestrian coordinator with the Maine Department of Transportation, said the only reason Vermont has trumped Maine in the amount of bicycle tourism it receives is because it has marketed that sport well for years. "Vermont doesn't have a lot of paved shoulders and it has lots of hills," Balicki said. "But a lot of tourism companies started in Vermont. And Vermont has an appealing image. There is good infrastructure there because there are a lot of country inns." This year Maine is increasing its efforts to promote bicycle touring in Maine based on the belief that there is a market for it. A 1999 Maine Department of Transportation report showed more than 2 million bicycle tourists brought in $36.2 million annually to the state. The study also showed that 98 percent of those 2 million riders went on day trips here, proving what those in the bike touring business here claim: Promoting the popular New England activity in Maine is long overdue. "I'm surprised it's not bigger here. I'm from Vermont. I grew up with Vermont bicycling," said Jamie Wright, owner of Gorham Bike and Ski in Portland. Wright has a good perspective on what out-of-state riders want. His store hosts weekly morning rides that draw scores of participants. Through the summer, Wright said many of those riders are tourists. The short treks along the Cape Elizabeth and Kennebunkport coast are popular with riders. The scenery - cool ocean and dramatic rocky coast - turns the morning rides into an easy escape. "Maine is a beautiful place to ride. On any given Saturday, we have 50 people out for a ride, and only 15 are probably racers," Wright said. However, tour guides like McLaughlin say the drawback in Maine is that the bicycle touring season is short and this is an expensive place to host a tour at the height of tourist season. McLaughlin charges $340 for his six-day mountain tour and $460 for the six-day coastal tour, but he and his riders camp, making his trips cheaper than many of those around New England, which can run as high as $2,000. Cavotta of New England Adventure in New York charges $794 for his six-day tour that includes hotel and inn lodging in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont. He said the hotel and inn prices for group tours here are a drawback for an independent out-of-state tour guide who may be considering bringing a trip here. Cavotta has cycled from Bar Harbor to Kittery and through the White Mountains in Maine and enjoyed the wild nature of the landscape. But in addition to the cost of traveling here, Cavotta said Maine's bike loops are unknown - and those that are popular are daunting. "It's a very beautiful state. But I don't think Vermont is as hilly as Maine," Cavotta said. Balicki contends there is no reason Maine can't rival other bicycle touring destinations. He said scenic, bike-friendly loops exist here and that the state has done more in the last year to publicize them. Others who have ridden around Maine, like Jeffrey Miller at the Bicycle Coalition of Maine, contend safe, easy, scenic routes exist here - it's just a question of finding them. "Everything else in the country should be compared to us," Miller said. "Vermont is known around the country for bicycling. I've done a bunch there myself. They do have beautiful rides. But Maine is a well-kept secret. There is a lot more riding here." Miller said the varied landscape in Maine, with its mountains, farmlands, islands and expansive coast, provides summer riders with all they need. Plus, he added, beautiful remote areas, such as those in Aroostook and Washington counties, offer traffic-free roads riders prefer. Miller has ridden from Lubec to Bar Harbor and from Ellsworth to Calais in Washington County. He said there is little bicycle touring going on there because it's not marketed. "Maine just started to realize there is real money to be made here," Miller said. The Department of Transportation has made efforts to do more to lure bicycle tourists here and to promote the state's safe, attractive bike routes. Two years ago, the state hired Wilbur Smith Associates of Portland to estimate the total economic impact of bicycle tourism in Maine and to offer recommendations on how to improve it. Since then, the department has updated bicycle maps, expanded its bicycle Web site to include more information about bicycling here, and produced a new map with 25 newly developed loops. At the end of the month, it will distribute the newly printed maps, Balicki said. But whether the new and improved maps lure bike tour guides here is hard for anyone to say. What has worked well in recruiting is the 19-year-old Trek Across Maine Sunday River to the Sea. But the aim of the event is to raise money for the association. And it has. Bob Verrill, the association's manager of special events, said the trek started in 1985 with 108 riders and that year raised $50,000. He said each of the past three years about 2,200 registered riders raised more than $1 million each year. Of the recent $1 million contribution, Verrill said $750,000 went directly toward education and research at the American Lung Association, and 87 percent of that money stayed in Maine. But the trek is different from traditional bicycle tours in several ways. To start with, riders have to raise pledge money and the tour has no leader. The trek operates as a free-for-all, with hundreds of riders finding their way along the course. A volunteer corps of more than 300 helps direct bicycle traffic on a well-mapped course. Another difference is that the course, while scenic with views of Maine's western mountains and mid-Maine coast, was developed largely based on the routes that passed by universities and small colleges, Verrill said. Most bike tours map their routes based solely on the landscape. The three-day trek has to pass by schools to provide dorms for the thousand of riders. Another aspect that sets the trek apart from traditional tours is that the vast majority of its riders - 80 percent - are from Maine, Verrill said. Other Maine bicycle tour operations draw most of their clientele from out-of-state, McLaughlin said. And that's the group the state hopes to lure here to bicycle. McLaughlin said he has been able to draw more out-of-state riders than he can accommodate. He limits his six-day moose tour to 165 riders and said he turns riders away. McLaughlin's secret is the unusual niche he's created in offering tours through mountains and coastal towns for campers. "There is not much wine tasting on my tour," he said. There's a market here for more of these kinds of tours, McLaughliln said, but only in the good weather. "The problem with the fall and camping is if it's 45 degrees and raining, it's not something most people want to do," McLaughlin said. "As far as good weather, you only have July and August in Maine." Staff Writer Deirdre Fleming can be contacted at 791-6452 or at:
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