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The first thing I did Sunday morning was call up Weather Underground to see what we were facing. It was a typical crap shoot...a wicked looking band of showers running a line right through the northern section of the route for the day. It looked like we could spend the whole day in the rain or miss it completely. I decided to push on with the ride and updated my web site accordingly.
I arrived at Seacoast at 8:00 where Paul had already set out the coffee and donuts. By 8:30 we were just getting ready to depart when 4 additional riders showed up.
So, 16 riders left Seacoast at 8:45 and headed north through Derry and east to Chester.
The traffic was light and the roads mostly dry for the first part of the ride. After a very short jaunt on 101e we hopped on 107 north through Deerfield and on down to Pittsfield. From there we took 28 north for to Barnstead and then White Oak Road into Gilmanton. There is a fun back road from Gilmanton that runs over a clear top hill with nice views to the north and south. We stopped briefly at the Circle in Alton Bay and picked up another participant. A power ride to Wolfeboro then on to Rt. 16 in a light drizzle.
I led the group on to 113 where we made short work of a gas stop then made a stop at the world famous Madison Boulder!
A 1/4 mile dirt road leads to the parking area!
The Boulder itself....
Getting ready to leave...
From here we jumped back on 16 to Conway were West Road led us around all the worst of the traffic. We stopped at Subway in North Conway where we picked up another participant, grabbed lunch, and turned on to Hurricane Mountain Road.
HMR is a tight, twisty, well paved goat path. Taken with a grain of salt it is a ear to ear grinfest. Taken with a little more speed its a butt clenching, teeth grinding, white knuckled test of skill and luck. I led a pace that had us all arrive at the end safely and smiling.
After a quick photo we pointed north on 113 through Evans Notch. I love this road. In the Park its a green, tunnel like, tree covered canopy over slightly bumpy pavement and interesting elevation changes and turns. About 1/2 way through the Notch there's a nice picnic area with views of the Whites to the west.
Parking the group....
Shroud covered White Mountains...
Some of the crew....
After lunch we exited the notch and followed North Road back into NH. From there we made short work of 115 and 3 into Lincoln where I finally ended up losing about half the group. I am really rigorous about trying to keep the group together and Toby was an absolutely fantastic sweeper with his Monster and Red Helmet, putting up his fist at each change of route or major intersection and letting me know all were accounted for! At the end of the day though, I confused another red helmet for Toby and ended up having about 5 guys miss a turn.
Toby and I exchanged voice messages though and everyone was on the same page. After gassing up in Lincoln the group split up for the ride home. I slabbed it down 93, ran through about 10 minutes of hard rain where my Olympus One-Piece proved its worth, and arrived home at about 5:30 with 320 miles on the odo.
Great ride, great riders. No damage to persons or property. No tickets..at least as far as I know!
Those of you going on the Big Big Long Long Ride...ride will recognise this trip as a subset of that trip. Any suggestions for improving the ride are welcome!
Thanks all...
Dave
Who was there!
Alan A - Intercepter
Bob B - CBR600 F4
Clive - ZX1100
Todd B - Aprilla RSV
Alex S - GSXR750
Terry - Busa
Mark - FZ1
Zoltan - Aprilla RSV
Toby C - Monster
Mark - Duc 999
Adam - ST2
Alan - Duc 1098
Walter - BMW K1200?
Patrick - R1
Rich - R1
01Y2F6 - Guess!
Guny - FZ6
(Pics also available at Photo Gallery)
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