BANGOR – When they roared off the parking lot of the Broadway Shopping Center en masse Sunday morning, the lady bikers turned more than a few heads.

Despite the dark rain clouds that kept some would-be riders at home, more than two dozen area women turned up to ride their motorcycles to benefit the Bangor Humane Society, the only chapter in Maine that has its own veterinarian on staff.

The annual Just For Ladies Motorcycle Ride was born last year, when eight area women got together to ride the roads of Maine, just for fun.

This year, organizers added a fundraising component to the ride, a 200-mile trek from Bangor to Newport – by way of Greenville.

In all, $120 was raised for the society, which takes in about 5,000 animals each year, at a cost of about $300 each. Donations like the one collected from the lady bikers, who paid $5 each to ride along, help pay for food, water, toys, blankets, medical care and other shelter necessities.

“It wasn’t bad for a rainy day, but I wish it could have been more,” said Mills, an animal lover herself. Her household includes three dogs, a black Labrador, a chocolate Labrador and a Redbone coonhound.

This year’s trip was dedicated to the memory of 21-year-old Adam Bourgoin, the son of Mills’ friend Joanne Bourgoin. Adam Bourgoin, who grew up in the Carmel area, died earlier this month in a motorcycle crash in the northern Aroostook County community of St. John Plantation.

Danielle Arbour of the Bangor Humane Society turned up at the parking lot to see the woman riders off with McKensie, a dainty border collie-sheltie mix, in tow. She said 60 percent of the society’s annual budget comes from public giving.

Other than the weather, the trip was pronounced a success.

Mills said 25 woman bikers took part, more than triple the number last year.

“We got caught in a heavy downpour on Interstate 95, around Carmel,” Mills said. The group kept right on riding.

“You might as well. There’s no place to stop and you’re already wet anyway,” she said.

“Other than that, it went great. Everyone said they had fun,” Mills said.

Dawn Drew of Eddington, who also helped plan the trip, said the 200-mile route through eastern and central Maine was chosen because of the scenery and for safety reasons, because it steered clear of places popular with tourists.

Erin Smith, another local woman who took part in the trip, said opportunities for women to ride together can be rare.

“You have to create them yourself,” she said.