The Kancamagus Highway

Miles today: 320.9 (3,286.3 so far)

Hours in the saddle: 6:55 (75:59 so far)

Theme music: Cello rock, Dubstep

We woke up early this morning at 6:30. Julie was having an existential crisis about it until Jaron reminded me that we had changed time zones. Phew! 😅 Jaron poured me half of his purple red bull in a wine glass. 

We noodled around Maine and crossed the border to New Hampshire. We saw a sign that said “Live Free or Die. Choose one.” I was under the impression that that was an inclusive OR, but apparently it’s an XOR. Huh. 

Our highlight today was the Kancamagus Scenic Byway, which is route 112 through White Mountain National Forest. I’d read about it and the couple returning home from Nova Scotia came south to do it, so we figured it was worth checking out. We actually passed by the Mount Washington Auto Road (which we did on our way north) to get to it. We got to see Mount Washington looming in the distance, which was really cool. The weather was perfect today, high of 80 and not a cloud in the sky. 

We had a lot of sweeping turns and piney smells from the trees on our ride today, before, during and after “the Kanc.” About halfway through we stopped for ice cream. Their peppermint stick ice cream had lots of chunks of green and pink peppermint sticks in it and it was delicious. As we were finishing our ice cream, we saw a trike with a trailor pull in to the parking lot and an older couple got off of it. Just last night we had been talking after Jaron had read something about trike sales and demand about how they make riding accessible. The older couple got their ice cream and headed straight for our table and asked if they could join us. The older gentleman said he couldn’t hear so well, so Julie took off her sunglasses and faced him so he could read my lips and spoke really loudly and clearly and we had a nice conversation about where we were from, where we’d been, and where we were going. They are from Connecticuit. The woman took literal cotton balls out of her ears (instead of earplugs), which was adorable. The gentleman said something about taking a 4 month trip right after he retired. Julie asked how old he was when he did that — if he didn’t mind telling — since we’re trying to figure that out ourselves. He said he was 56 in 1987. I wasn’t trying to figure out how old he was, but DAYUM! That makes him 88! Out-frickin-standing! We were expecting that they were going to keep us there talking for a while since we’d been 5 min away from leaving when they asked to join us. But as soon as there was a lull in the conversation, they said they’d better keep rolling. So they took a shorter break than we did! So adorable and so awesome that they are still out enjoying riding in their 80’s. #goals

After we exited the Kanc, we dialed in the fastest route to our next destination which inevitably included some interstate. It was decently scenic though. There was grooved pavement for quite a while. Usually it’s only for a couple of miles. I’ve never found it to be a problem, but with knobby tires things like that do pull the front wheel around, so that was a long time with a death grip on the handlebars. (I’d let some tar on asphalt surprise me the other day.) Our route took us west on a state highway and we got to ride around Lake Champlain. We both said how silly it was that we flew to Burlington for our trip there in...2015? Before Jaron started riding. It was really pretty. The smell — not so much.

Julie chose the Hot Biscuit Diner in Ticonderoga, NY for dinner where we both had chicken-fried steak. It was definitely in Julie’s top 3 CFS meals. 

Jaron found us a motel in Ticonderoga, NY because tomorrow WE ARE GOING TO SEE THE STAR TREK SET!!!! <incoherent teenage girl screams> https://www.startrektour.com/

No pictures today, but since I already used that excuse yesterday, here’s a picture of both of us wearing purple shirts. Don’t judge — this was our longest day so far in terms both of mileage and time. But I got to do my favorite thing with my favorite person.