| Summary | |
| Owner | MITOC Gallery Administrator |
| Creation Date | 2006-10-09 22:44:44 UTC-0400 |
| Description |
Over two days of Columbus Day weekend, Caitlin Bever, Laura Kelsey Meredith, Greg Bokinsky, and I made a ~100 mile fall foliage bike ride through the White Mountains. After much negotiation we met in East Lot at 7:30 Saturday night, loaded all 4 bikes on my car and headed for Camelot. We made a gas and grocery stopa nd arrived after 10pm. Another large dorm group was already there, with the stove and campfire roaring. It was a beautiful clear night (temps in the 40s) so after some had a bite to eat we all trekked up to the Observatory at the top of the hill where we camped under the bright full moon w/ just sleeping bags and dropcloth. We awoke well rested after 7am, ate and headed off to North Woodstock where we left my car at the ski club of on of my friends. We picked up sandwiches at the deli next door and were off on the bikes by around 10am. It was another beautiful, not-a-cloud-in-the-sky day with the temps in the 50s headed for the 60s as we started out. We headed up rte 3 a few miles to Flume gorge where we picked up the bike path. I (inexperienced w/ hill climbing) quickly ditched about 5+ lbs of not *really* unneeded weight my friend drove up from the lodge to pick up where I stashed it. The path was not crowded and very scenic (and rolling) with some steep but short climbs. We stopped at Echo Lake for some great views. The whole climb was a good 1000 ft up thru Franconia Notch (elev: ~1700 ft). Laura had some minor chain issues along the way that she fixed. At the top, the path ended and we jumped back on rte 3 for some relatively flat riding (sligthly rolling) across to Twin Mountain where we picked up rte 302. From there, the road slowly lost about 500 ft before climbing back up 600 ft into Crawford Notch (elev: 1800 ft) where we stopped for a late lunch. The ladies showed their far greater biking experience and conditioning cruising well ahead of Greg and me. My legs began to cramp (insufficient hydration and food!) on the last small climb to the AMC Crawford Notch Visitor's Center. After a long break all was fine. Finally we got to enjoy the spoils of all that climbing with a *very* long descent into Bartlett. It's a 14% grade at the top so we conservatively braked to kept it under 25mph. (Others have reportedly hit 50+ mph on this run.) The first part of the descent was a bit sketchy due to a steep grade and tourists attempting to walk across the road to see a waterfall who seeming do not realize that unlike in a car, it's not easy to stop a bike on that steep descent with speed. It was a bit past peak up in the highest points but still great views. At the bottom, we stopped in Bartlett to get a rubber band to replace a bolt holding Greg's fender then continued on to Intervale, arriving just after 4pm. Since it was still early, we decided to ditch our panniers in the woods by the Intervale parking lot and cruise into town before dinner. We stumbled a bit thru bumper-to-bumper traffic and unpaved (under construction) rte 16, We accidentally left our lock in the stashed panniers but the EMS manager manning the tent sale outside let us park our bikes safely on their front lawn while we walked thru town checking out the sales at the outdoors stores. Caitlin helped Laura justify buying a nice down jacket at Joe Jones before we left and we headed back to Intervale. We stopped at Tuckerman's Restuarant (~1/4 mile down 16a from the cabin parking lot) and put in our names. It was a 40+ min wait so we decided to "check in" to the cabin, change and cone back. At the cabin we ran into Henry ??? who was delivering some furniture for Travis since he couldn't make the keyholder trip the next weekend. We changed and walked back to Tuckerman's for well-deserved beer and nice dinner. Another cool, clear, and cloudless night, Laura and Greg opted to sleep outdoors again. Although the deck over the old cabin was tempting, but worried about my legs holding up for the climbing the next day (and the sleeping bags at the cabin I planned to use was not real warm), opted for a better nights sleep on the sofa :-). We awoke well rested the next morning and leisurely packed up and hit the road before 9. We stumbled thru the rte 16 traffic again and stopped at Hanneford in the south end of N Conway for breakfast and lunch supplies. Then it was off down rt 16 (now at ~500 ft altitude) to the Kancamangus Highway. The first part was flat, then a mild incline for quite a while. It was a nice tree-lined road climbing along the Swift River. At times we'd come over a crest and looked deceptively like a mild downhill run but my altimeter watch (and legs) told me otherwise. I had a minor chain issue. Once again, the more conditioned ladies cruised on ahead. Eventually (after 20+ miles and maybe 900 vertical ft) the grade got much steeper. This last long 4-5 mile steady climb up the last 1300 ft became quite gruelling (at least for us unconditioned bikers). By 1700 ft Greg and I were down to making 150-200 (vertical) ft pushes followed by a short break. (I now really missed the third front sproket "hill" gear my older 10-speed lacked!) As we neared the top, Caitlin came cruising down to check on us having reached the top and ditched her panniers. She offered to take some weight but we wanted to make it ourselves so pushed on. 50 ft short of the pass we all met up again, stopping at the viewing area for a long rest and lunch. Laura had more chain issues but fortunately were not an issue in the lowest gears which was what was used on the climb. After a relaxing lunch break and some nice views (still not a cloud in the sky), we did the last 50 ft to the pass, snapped a photo and began the relaxing long downhill ride into Lincoln. I hit a terminal velocity of 30 mph coming down the 9% grade from the pass. Eventually is levelled off to a steady decline requiring more pedalling (where I pushed it up to ~37mph just to see what it felt like :-)). We all caught up in Lincoln and cruised into North Woodstock after 4pm, clocking in about 112 miles over the two days. My friend at the ski house let us shower up there and relax a bit (let the southbound traffic clear) before we headed back. We enjoyed the trees just south of the Whites had a bit more color left on the way to Concord where we stopped for pizza (letting more leaf-peeping traffic clear out). We cruised back into MIT w/o traffic before 9pm. In all, it was a great trip, challenging, but doable, with a great group and absolutely perfect weather. _Mike |