Some old memories on this leg. I was exposed first to this area when my sister Joyce got married and she and my brother-in-law Bob lived in New Hampshire. I would visit them and they would take me hiking and camping in the White Mountains. Later, my first cross country motorcycle ride back in 1992 with my softail returned me to the White Mountain areas of New Hampshire to ride these roads and the classic Kancamagus Highway . Today would be a treat of a blast from the past.
Not a lot has changed in New Hampshire in my perspective. A bit more people on the roads, but the same small towns. Rick and I left Waterbury VT by 7:30 under foggy conditions with the goal of completing this pass over the White Mountains by morning and start our final pushes to the east.
Traveling in Vermont is slow. Lots of small towns, slow roads, and rivers and stream to look at. 70 miles and two hours later we cross into New Hampshire. Immediately I stop and give some lame excuse that I’m cold and need my jacket on, but I also ditch my helmet off my head too. It wasn’t much longer and we entered the Kancamagus Highway at its southern end. The road follows a beautiful rock and bolder filled river bed as we zig zag and climb slowly at this point till we reach the town of Lincoln NH, which is the official start we need for our ride to document. I find a local coffee shop that had real coffee and some real homemade cookies and fresh cinnamon rolls that were amazing.
With our sugar buzz intack, we depart Lincoln and continue on the Kancamagus Highway, which starts an aggressive climb with the river right next to us. It is well wooded up here with plenty of greenery. The air starts getting cooler as we climb and it refreshing. We keep climbing through couple of big sweeping curves and near the top before the pass are a couple of tight switchbacks to enjoy.
We go through the pass, which is only 2,855 (but a mountain is only as big as it’s valley), and we start a decent. But before we get to the bottom we take the Bear Notch cutoff to Bartlet NH. Now that Bear Notch cutoff was one of the prettiest roads I have ever been on! Green Canopy road that had greenery right up to the asphalt as the mowers have not come by yet to clear the weeds and grass, but visually it was awesome.
We then take a break to take photos and get a receipt in Bartlet then take highway 2 to Maine and call it a day in Bangor Maine for the night. Tomorrow off to Canada.