White Mountains

Tuesday morning I woke up, got my cycling gear ready, packed up my truck and off I went. Before hitting the highway, I stopped by and did my civic duty and voted. From there it was off to grab a nice hearty breakfast from Newcomb Farms to fuel the body. My usual breakfast partner could not make it due to working back to back double shifts at work. What a madwoman! Ha-ha…I know she’ll be reading this so I had to give her a little needling.

The drive up to the White Mountains in NH was fantastic. It’s so nice to get such an awesome day in November. A little over two hours later I pulled into the parking lot of Loon Mountain. My mission for the day was to bicycle up the Kancamagus Pass. I’ve done the pass at least once a year for the past three years, and usually in October. I wanted to mount my camera on the handlebars and film my decent. So I wrapped my mini-tripod with bungee cord and off I went.

My stead, before the ride.

From Loon Mountain’s parking lot to the top is almost 11 miles with an elevation gain of about 1,800 feet. I hadn’t ridden my bicycle in nearly two weeks due to work commitments & weekends away. I wondered how my legs would react. As I pedaled away, there was a thin dry layer of salt on the road with sand on the sides. Where there was shade, it was wet and slick. I made not of that for the decent. Thin tires, 40mph speeds, slick roads & sand do not make for a good combination.

Heading up the pass.

It took me just under 56 minutes to ride to the top. I wasn’t pushing it as hard I usually would because I was overheating. I put one base layer too many on and I was sweating bullets. I took a minute to catch my breath, flipped on the camera & away I went. Descending on bicycle is like skiing, it’s a lot of fun, but in the back of your mind you are always thinking that you are mere inches from total disaster. I rode down a bit more conservatively than I usually do, especially coming into the 1^st bend. One could easily hit 50mph here, but before coming into the corner it was very slick. So I tapped my brakes going about 40mph instead. The tripod and camera kept listing to the left and I kept helping it back to center. As always the ride down was so much fun! My trip down took just under 24 minutes.

A cold mountain river.

At the parking lot I stowed my bike and took a look at the video. I got a good chuckle at it. Since the memory card was filled, I downloaded it to my laptop. When this was done, it was time for the good ol’ shower in a bottle. After getting cleaned up and gear all stowed, off I went to take some pictures of nature’s immense beauty.

I grabbed a nice early dinner in North Conway and had planned on finding a nice little café to sip a coffee and bang out this blog. Along the way I saw a Starbucks, which I usually avoid like the plague, but I was sure they would have wifi. Now, I’m not a fan of Starbucks coffee, so instead I grabbed a hot chocolate, plugged my laptop in waited. Little did I know that Starbucks charges for its wifi! I must say that I wasn’t too happy about this and being quite disgusted, I got up & left. Just another reason to never, ever go into Starbucks.

By now it was dusk and it was time to start heading back. Along the way I kept and eye out for moose. I saw one back in August around dusk when coming home from the Mt. Washington race. This time I had my camera at the ready. Alas, no moose, nor squirrel.

Bridge over the river.

On the way back I met up with my buddy Pete in Somerville for a pint & burgers at a local pub. We went to O’Sullivan’s Pub which had some of the tastiest burgers I have had in a long time. After food & pints, it was time to go home. On the way back I stopped by the automatic car wash to clean the salt off the bike. I walked through my door close to midnight, my day complete.

Near the top of the Kancamagus Pass.

More views from near the top of the pass.

Another great view...how can you go wrong on days like these?

One more for the road.