This is a map I put together of my ride in the White Mountains of New Hampshire this past Saturday, the 7th of July.
Rode up from Philadelphia on Friday, to the cabin in Tamworth. Not the clearest of evenings when I got there, can't see Mt Washington. I set off the next morning with the intention of riding the Kancamagus Highway and then swinging around to ride the Mount Washington Auto Road. Headed up 16 and filled my tank before hitting the Kanc. The Kanc on the climb up to the high point is not in the greatest shape it's been in at the moment. Pretty lumpy, broken up and patched. Didn't mind the pace due to traffic. For the most part the people in front of me were keeping a good pace, and it was still fun. Stopped at an overlook for some picture taking. On the downslope, the road was in a lot better shape and a lot more fun. Stopped for another picture taking opportunity. Rolled into Lincoln and headed up 93 to Franconia Notch. Real nice ride. Stopped at the Cannon Mountain tram in the notch. Spotted this Bandit that had been converted to hack duty. Nice looking rig! Took the tram to the top. And took the short hike over to the observation tower at the top of the mountain. Quite a hazy day, but still worth it. Got a great cup of chili and a Sierra Nevada while I waited for the tram back down. Where The Old Man of the Mountain used to be before he fell down.
From Franconia Notch, I headed over through Twin Mountain and Gorham, so I could catch White Mountain Raod down to Mt Washington. Real nice roads, fast and smooth. Beautiful surroundings as you can imagine. I was having too much fun to stop and take pictures. There was a pretty good wind kicking up on my ride over, so I wasn't too surprised that the Auto Road was shut down to motorcycles due to 65MPH winds at the summit. They were able to get in the Newton's Revenge bicycle hillclimb earlier that morning at least. Since the ride to the top of Washington was at least delayed till the winds calmed down, I decided I'd head up over Crawford Notch, and to see what the mountain looks like when I got to Bretton Woods. Crawford Notch Road was an amazing ride. Way nicer than my ride on the Kancamagus earlier. Stopped to take some pictures at Crawford Notch State Park. And again at Bretton Woods. Looking back to Mount Washington, the top of the mountain is completely in the black clouds. No reason to go back to see if the road was open to bikes. Headed back towards Lincoln when I got to Twin Mountain, so I could ride the Kancamagus in the other direction. Spotted that hacked Bandit coming the other direction on the way, and was suprised to see the rider was solo. Riding back down through Franconia was a blast. Heading up the Kanc from Lincoln was much nicer than earlier. I was able to really enjoy some fast speeds on the climb up. A real blast. Even when I got behind some slower traffic, it just seemed a nicer ride in that direction. Stopped again for another couple pictures, to give a convertible mustang that was crawling along, a chance to get ahead. Same spot as before. Caught Bear Notch Road back over to Crawford Notch Road, and caught the Mustang again. Made short work of him. Bear Notch Road is a seriously nice ride! Took Crawford Notch Road and caught he West Side Hwy into North Conway, before heading back to the cabin in Tamworth. All told, I did 220 miles in 6 hours including the ride up and down the tram and the hike at Cannon Mountain. An excellent day!
Nice stuff. I learned to ski on Cannon Mountain as a boy. I was just up there for a few days two weeks ago. It looks like you had better weather!
Damn... darksided the front, too! Looks like a pretty unique front suspension set-up... would like to have seen a closer shot of the suspended side...
