Prisoners of Gravity, Part B
We left Orford and headed north along the Connecticut River to Haverhill (pronounced hayve-ril). This is about as nice a route as one could want. The farms, villages, and vistas were all beautiful. The weather was nice too. At Haverhill we would begin to climb Mt.Moosilauke.
I looked at my GPS and noted that we started the day at 450 ft. We topped out at 1,850 ft. The climb was slow and uneventful except for crossing the Appalachian Trail near the summit. The downhill was very steep and we had to brake a lot to stay around 30 MPH. We let it roll on a couple of straight sections and easily went over 40 MPH. Near the bottom, the pitch was less and we had a long period of coasting at 20-25 MPH. At that speed you can actually relax a bit and enjoy the scenery.
We got a motel room a few miles north of Lincoln NH, near Franconia Notch. Franconia Notch is where the Old Man of the Mountain used to be. The Old Man of the Mountain was a rock formation that resembled the profile of a man’s head. This symbol is on all NH road signs and on the back of the NH quarter. It fell off the mountain and now resembles a rock out-cropping. For some reason we went up to see something that wasn’t there.
At dinner we discussed tomorrow’s climb of Kancamagus Pass. We are ready. We have replayed all of the climbing to this point. Brian noticed that we called all of the climbs mountains until we had gone over them, at which point they became hills. While Kancamagus Pass is longer than anything we have climbed, it is not as steep. We both feel that we are ready.
We woke at our usual time of 5:30 to a pouring rain. We found the weather channel on TV and it appeared that the rain would clear later in the morning. We layed around and stalled waiting for the rain to stop. Finally we packed up the bikes, put on our rain gear, and went across the road for breakfast. We each ordered a huge breakfast and drank lots of coffee and watched rain in the stream outside our window. Our patience seemed to be paying off. It seemed like it was starting to clear.
We rode 3 miles intoLincolnand stopped at a market. We bought sandwiches, fruit, chips, and pop for lunch. Kancamagus Pass is in a National Forest and there would be no place to get lunch on the mountain. By the time we left the store, the sun was trying to pop though the clouds. We shed the rain gear and started the climb. We started the climb at 8:45 and reached the summit three hours later. The climb was steady but not so steep that we weren’t in control. What a great feeling of accomplishment!
We had lunch at one of the outlooks and took a trophy photo at the summit. The ride down the mountain was fast but not as steep as some that we had ridden. We came down the mountain in 45 minutes. We had conquered what we had feared the most about this trip. Not bad for a couple of Fat Riding Old Guys.
Wes
