View Larger Map
At our map meeting on Thursday night, Michelle said, “It looks like tomorrow you’ll be climbing 660 feet–No, that can’t be right, maybe it is really 1,660 feet.” I had seen the 3D topographic map in the motel office, and knew that we were in the middle of a lot of bumps, so I was prepared to believe the higher number. But after an immediate, and intense climb right out of town, there was considerable speculation about just what that missing number should be.
It was, remarkably, cold today. It was overcast, and even though it probably got into the 70′s I spent much of the day chilled. But it was a spectacularly lovely ride. Just after we crossed the Connecticut River into New Hampshire, we turned onto River Road, which I remember from a bike trip that I took with Peggy when I came up to visit her last year.
Our first covered bridge was not in Vermont, but in NH.
Even the corn was beautiful.
We passed through many small towns. They inevitably were all located on high ground, and we had to climb into each one. in Piermont we caught up with a father and son riding cross country on recumbent trikes.
The town of Haverhill is loaded with beautiful historic buildings, many of which are for sale.
Our 40 mile SAG stop was memorable because of the four high school students we met. They we dropped off in Maine and are riding back to Westchester, NY, self supported.
These little guys came from way down in the pasture up to this rock wall to see what all the commotion was about.
We rode up and down for the next 20 miles. Towards the end we had a 2 mile climb that I think was a warmup for our trek up the Kancamagus tomorrow. From the summit we had an amazing 12 percent descent.
In Woodstock we stopped for lunch at the Woodstock Inn. We are staying tonight at the Kancamagus Motor Inn. Here is a picture of one of the prettiest perennial borders I have ever seen.
Are you curious about that missing fourth number? It turns out that it was a 3. Today’s ride had a total climb of 3,660′. The great thing is that at this point in the ride, that is in our comfort zone!
