Day 26: Wells River to Lincoln (New Hampshire)

76 km (47 miles) – Total so far: 2,377 km (1,477 miles)

Across the Connecticut river and into New Hampshire immediately after turning out of the motel. Before that decent coffee, eggs and hash browns at the Lunch Counter cafe. This is a point at which two Adventure Cycling Routes cross. The shorter Green Mountain Loop crosses with the coast to coast Northern Tier. After the bonus kilometres I covered yesterday I opted for a more scenic and circuitous route today, with a big hill thrown in.

I joined the Northern Tier and began to head steadily back towards the ocean. I had some more height to lose following the river downstream before heading eastwards from Haverhill. Quiet roads, as most of the traffic is on the Vermont side of the river, especially after turning onto the Moosilauke highway, or route 112. It is more great riding, and eventually over a mountain pass as it climbs to 780 metres. Perfect weather also, a cool morning for August, rising to mid 20s by afternoon. Climbing on a loaded cyclocross bike is tough, and many times I was calling into the forest for my 30 Cube gears. Equally, the 5 mile downhill on a heavily potholed road is not easy.

Here in the White Mountains it is a big tourist area. These are big ski resorts, Woodstock and Lincoln, and very busy now with outdoor summer sports. The cheap motels are not here, but “mountain resorts” are. Needless to say, it will be camping to me tonight.

Sat in a cafe cooling down, I can see it is a beautiful place, but people bring so much noise with them. There remains that desire amongst some to have a motor engine so loud that it turns everyone’s head when it passes. 99% of the time they are male, the old adage that such folk must be awfully deficient elsewhere. There has been nowhere quite as bad as this for that.

Distance 76 kilometres Max Speed 53.6 km / hr (5 mile downhill, but very poor road) Ride Time 4 hrs 20 mins Average Speed 16.5 km / hr Departed 10:05 am Arrived 2:45 pm