NH's Great North Woods

[ChicknStripEatr]

I'm looking for some hints of any "must ride" (or even halfway decent) roads up around the Conn. Lakes. I'm riding a loop which I've done a couple times before. My route usually consists of 16 in Conway north to 26 to 145 then hop on 102 in Pittsburg to start heading back south, meandering my way back to the Kanc in Lincoln then east back to the valley.

I've never really strayed from the main roads north of Errol/Colebrook and was hoping some of the NH guys could suggest something a little different.

Thanks in advance.

[oVTo]

How about the New England Riders "Best Roads"? Link

[SVRACER01]

skip conway.
302-> 113-> 2-> 5-> 35
or 302-> 35-> 5-> 2-> 113

its a good loop that will bring you right back to conway so you can hit the Kanc. traffic should be light too

[SpoonMan]

It'll take you a bit further west, not bad, but if you're hopping on 102 in West Stewartstown/Canaan VT then skip that and head on 114 towards Norton VT, then South to Island Pond, in Island Pond Pick up 105 back to Bloomfield VT and then you can get back on 102, which is all new pavement from there to Lancaster NH. That's one of my favorite rides.

[ChicknStripEatr]

skip conway.
302-> 113-> 2-> 5-> 35
or 302-> 35-> 5-> 2-> 113

its a good loop that will bring you right back to conway so you can hit the Kanc. traffic should be light too

Conway is base camp, so we usually grab an early breakfast and hit the road before all the Masshole's turn 16 into a parking lot. The last time I was up in the 5, 2 (Bethel) area the pavement was complete garbage, granted that was almost 10 years ago now, are conditions any better up there?

It'll take you a bit further west, not bad, but if you're hopping on 102 in West Stewartstown/Canaan VT then skip that and head on 114 towards Norton VT, then South to Island Pond, in Island Pond Pick up 105 back to Bloomfield VT and then you can get back on 102, which is all new pavement from there to Lancaster NH. That's one of my favorite rides.

Now that has some potential! Especially because if I remember correctly, 102 south from Canaan to about Northumberland was pretty boring.

[whynot]

I'll be on some of these roads tomorrow, knew them years ago when I had a camp in Guildhall VT.

It'll take you a bit further west, not bad, but if you're hopping on 102 in West Stewartstown/Canaan VT then skip that and head on 114 towards Norton VT, then South to Island Pond, in Island Pond Pick up 105 back to Bloomfield VT and then you can get back on 102, which is all new pavement from there to Lancaster NH. That's one of my favorite rides.

[SVRACER01]

Wirelessly posted (HTC EVO "DROID" : Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 2.3.3; en-us; Sprint APA9292KT Build/GRI40) AppleWebKit/533.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/533.1)

skip conway.
302-> 113-> 2-> 5-> 35
or 302-> 35-> 5-> 2-> 113

its a good loop that will bring you right back to conway so you can hit the Kanc. traffic should be light too

Conway is base camp, so we usually grab an early breakfast and hit the road before all the Masshole's turn 16 into a parking lot. The last time I was up in the 5, 2 (Bethel) area the pavement was complete garbage, granted that was almost 10 years ago now, are conditions any better up there?

It'll take you a bit further west, not bad, but if you're hopping on 102 in West Stewartstown/Canaan VT then skip that and head on 114 towards Norton VT, then South to Island Pond, in Island Pond Pick up 105 back to Bloomfield VT and then you can get back on 102, which is all new pavement from there to Lancaster NH. That's one of my favorite rides.

Now that has some potential! Especially because if I remember correctly, 102 south from Canaan to about Northumberland was pretty boring.

I don't know. I usually only get to hit them in the winter in my car. They were kinda gnarly this winter. I love smooth pavement as much as the next guy, but there's something about tearing up a road that's all tore up.
Does that make sense? Ya, that makes sense.

[01xj]

113 is pretty bad. I was up there last week and I had to make sure all my teeth were still somewhere inside my head when I pulled up to 25.

[DucDave]

Couple of shorter rides you probably already know about!

Hurricane Mountain Road.

113 through Evans Notch. (Yeah, it's rough, but it's a nice ride!)

East on 302 and south on 16

If it's nice ride to the summit of Mt Washington.

Then, Bear Notch Road is recently paved! That will take you to the Kanc. Left back to Conway, right to Lincoln!

[SpoonMan]

114 from Canaan to Island Pond is all brand new! Only a few bad spots from flooding earlier this year, but nothing that will get you into trouble if you're riding at a sane pace. 105 From Island Pond to Bloomfield isn't the greatest, but ok. 102 South from Bloomfield to Lancaster is brand new as well. Great roads!

[ChicknStripEatr]

113 is pretty bad. I was up there last week and I had to make sure all my teeth were still somewhere inside my head when I pulled up to 25.

Yea, I figured.

Couple of shorter rides you probably already know about!

Hurricane Mountain Road.

113 through Evans Notch. (Yeah, it's rough, but it's a nice ride!)

East on 302 and south on 16

If it's nice ride to the summit of Mt Washington.

Then, Bear Notch Road is recently paved! That will take you to the Kanc. Left back to Conway, right to Lincoln!

My place is about 5 mins from HMR, now I actually use that road more for the trailheads when hiking Kearsage or Blackcap. But yes, I have ridden HMR dozens of times.

Bear notch is one of my favortie quick loops, especially late in the afternoon when most are at dinner or heading home. Jumping off 16 onto River Road -> West Side Road has some pretty long sweepers at the base of Cathedral Ledge. You end up back on 302 just south of Attitash, a quick ride up to BNR then down to the Kanc.

[ChicknStripEatr]

114 from Canaan to Island Pond is all brand new! Only a few bad spots from flooding earlier this year, but nothing that will get you into trouble if you're riding at a sane pace. 105 From Island Pond to Bloomfield isn't the greatest, but ok. 102 South from Bloomfield to Lancaster is brand new as well. Great roads!

Good to know, I'll keep an eye out, I've already downloaded this route into the GPS instead of just heading straight down 102.

[ChicknStripEatr]

RIDE REPORT:

Set out early Friday afternoon from RI in hopes of beating the rain to Mt. Washington Valley; fail. Traffic through Mass sucked as usual so entry into NH was delayed. We started hitting light mist once on 16 in Portsmouth, NH. The steady rain started coming down in Rochester, that meant a 60 mile ride in the wet.

Set out early Saturday morning for a 280 mile loop. Followed 16 north to Errol where we jumped on 26 west toward Colebrook. A quick trip on 3 toward 145 north and onto Pittsburg. Once in Pittsburg we took a left on 3 south and jumped on 114 in West Stewartson. 114 took us to 141 were we crossed into Quebec. Follwed Canada 141 to 147 in Barford, Quebec. At that point followed 147 south back to 114 back in VT. We followed 114 (which I've gotta say seems as though it was paved by the gods) to 105 and grabbed lunch in Island Pond, VT. 105 took us to 102 in Brunswick, VT. 102 was also a really fun road. I think we saw a total of 3 vehicles while on it. Followed 102 to 3 in Lancaster, NH. From there we followed 3 to 93 south to Lincoln. Once in Lincoln took the Kanc, which sucked liked every other weekend, clogged with Harley's and tourists and riddled with frost heaves. Pulled back into Conway around 6pm.

Slabbed it back to RI today in the heat, 700 miles on the trip odometer when I pulled into the driveway. Great weekend.

[markbvt]

grabbed lunch in Island Pond, VT

You didn't eat at that weird cult's cafe, did you?

--mark

[nhbubba]

We started hitting light mist once on 16 in Portsmouth, NH. The steady rain started coming down in Rochester, that meant a 60 mile ride in the wet.

Are you aware of 153 north of Sanbornville? It's on that NH Best Roads list and parallel to 16. I did not know about this until Saturday. Not exactly great for making time to Conway, but if you're already running late and there's traffic on 16 anyway, it is a nice diversion.

I'm not sure I'll ever take 16 again unless I have to.

[ChicknStripEatr]

You didn't eat at that weird cult's cafe, did you?

--mark

The place we ate at was called Ponds Edge Pub and Eatery, I don't know about any cult activity but we had a really cute blonde for a waitress!

Are you aware of 153 north of Sanbornville? It's on that NH Best Roads list and parallel to 16. I did not know about this until Saturday. Not exactly great for making time to Conway, but if you're already running late and there's traffic on 16 anyway, it is a nice diversion.

I'm not sure I'll ever take 16 again unless I have to.

Yes, well aware, I've taken every route in search of by passing the cluster f*ck on 16. 153, 25, 125, 113, 41, even 93 across 112, 16 still seems to be the fastest. The problem spots I've noticed over the past 3 - 4 years are north bound on 16 in Rochester where they are doing the lane widening or south bound the traffic light in West Ossipee at the Yankee Smokehouse, those are the 2 major bottlenecks. I've been going up there a few times a month for the past 15 years and every year the traffic congestion gets worse and worse. It's to the point now I won't travel on 16 at all on a Friday afternoon/evening, or Sunday between 11am - 6pm. We just plan our travel accordingly. The trip used to take me 3 - 3.5 hours now 5.5 - 6 hours is not uncommon, if we go at the wrong time.

[nhbubba]

Cool. Just figured I'd make sure as all. Really enjoyed my ride there Saturday afternoon.

..south bound the traffic light in West Ossipee at the Yankee Smokehouse..

This held me up too. I was crossing over on 25 after having come up 109 through the boros. Should have found a back way, but didn't have the time. That whole intersection there is a cluster and a real downer. The split for 25 east couldn't come soon enough.

Not much to do about the construction in Rocheater. Fortunately that isn't far from home for me.


Thanks for the report. Hope to use some of that data for a ride myself someday..