OK, OK, so I'd better start making progress on my report..
Friday afternoon I quickly packed up stuff and loaded it onto my trusty R65LS -
I got a late start, and by the time I got to the rally site, it was dusk, and everyone else had gone into the lodge to eat, so I setup my tent, ate some powerbars that I keep in my tankbag and went to bed after listening to a presentation on new Garmin GPS products.
The next morning dawned bright and dew-covered:
Some had splurged for cabins at the resort:
While the more steadfast or thrifty formed clusters of tents:
After breakfast, a number of us headed to WhiteHorse Gear in Conway, NH to stimulate the economy. I bought a clock to stick on the R65LS dash, and a multifunction clock/ambient temp/voltmeter thing which may go on the R65 or may go on my Concours. Tillie the Teutonic twin was quite a hit at the store, and one of the store personnel said that he had owned one long ago and it was his favorite airhead. He also claimed to have done stoppies on his, but I didn't let him demonstrate on my bike. After the store, some people I met from the rally invited me to join them on their ride for the day - but it was a GS1150 and F800GS and F650 and an adventurous K75 rider who were all headed for some gravel mountain roads. I thanked them but said I was going to keep Tillie on the tarmac for the day. We eventually also discovered that one of them lives NEXT DOOR to my cousin Dean, about ~200 miles away in Maine. Yet, we had never met before! So, I headed off in search of mostly paved mountain roads on my own. and started with taking Route 113 up through Evans Notch, which meanders back and forth across the Maine & New Hampshire border.
Like much of the area, we've got plenty of mountains and rivers here - this River flows down through much of the Evan Notch along the road.
Also like many of these notch roads, this one is closed during the winter and is impassable for several months. It also isn't that great a shape when it is open, but technically it is paved - one just has to be wary of many large cracks, potholes, bumps, and moss growing in the road. Oh, and there are lots of bicyclists on this narrow road too. Near the top of the notch is what I had come to see:
These cliffs on the mountains are home to many peregrine falcons. Unfortunately there weren't any out flying while I waited and watched.. still pretty though..
Over near Franconia, NH is what might appear to be the remains of some medieval castle-but, it isn't. It is an OLD iron ore furnace from the late 1700s-early 1800s:
some history/schematic info:
I had planned to ride up to the top of Mt Washington on the auto road to snap some quick pics, but the winds had picked up to 35MPH in spite of the blue skies, and some big clouds rolled over the top 1/3 of the 6200+ foot high mountain. And it started to rain. The pack of about 2 dozen H-D riders with some of the loudest pipes I ever heard also took the opportunity to queue up in front of me at the start of the base road, and I decided that was the last straw - I wasn't going to ride up for 5+ miles into the cold wet cloudscape behind those guys roaring in 1st or second gear all the way, so I bailed on that part of the trip..
Next we have an interesting spot just south Mt Washington in Crawford Notch (Route 302). This is the former site of the Willey House, which was a tavern/lodging room along the carriage road through these mountains in the late 1780s - early 1800s.
The Saco river flows through this notch alongside the road.
The Willey House site is an historic NH landmark, so they've built it up with gift shops, etc.
to be continued..
