East Coast, Part 2, New Hampshire

The East Coast trip

Part 2

New Hampshire

The White Mountain Inn is situated on a hill overlooking the small village of Franconia. It is an older Best Western and is showing its age, but our room was pleasant and conveniently located 2 doors from the lobby. The village is very small and only has one restaurant.

The Dutch Treat is about what you might expect for an older, small village in the mountains. I guessed that about half the patrons were from the Inn, not wanting to travel far after sitting in their cars all day. We ordered chicken wings and salad with beer. A safe choice. The food, when it finally arrived was quite good. The waitress helped us select from a long list of local craft beer. Mine was very hoppy, Roz chose a lighter lager. Both were excellent, but we were part way thru our second pints before the food arrived. The food was tasty and properly prepared, but the slow service and a few bratty, noisy kids kinda spoiled the ambiance. Rather than stay and chat with the other travellers, I grabbed a six pack of Ying Ling at the local Mac’s Market and headed back to our room.

The next morning I decided to go for a walk around the town before waking up Roz. A little way past the Dutch Treat on Main Street, there is a roadside pull-off with an historic plaque. The plague and accompanying story board outline the history of the stone furnace located on the opposite shore of Gale River. Apparently the early settlers built several of these large stone structures to assist in melting the ore found in the local hills and making steel. It is hard to imagine working at the site and enduring the intense heat that must have been necessary to forge.

I followed a hiking trail back in the opposite direction along the river and turned right on Easton Street. I was curious about a large yellow stone building I had spotted when we arrived. The Dow Academy boasted to provide the finest pre-college education and training to proper young men and women. The Academy was founded in 1884 by Moses Dow. The current structure was built in 1903 and included the sports field and track next to the river.

I returned to the Inn just as Roz was emerging from the room to go for breakfast. The breakfast area was small and crowded. The inadequate seating forced guests to sit in the lobby, perching their cereal bowls on their knees or on the coffee tables. The standard BW breakfast buffet was as disappointing as ever. We grabbed a coffee, a banana and a yogurt each and returned to our room. I don’t know why hotels even bother with this type of attempt at breakfast. I would prefer they reduced the price by $10 and offered nothing.

About 10am we hopped on the bikes and set off to explore the region. As I mentioned the Inn was situated in the White Mountains and we were hoping that the roads were worth the 2 days we had set aside here for exploring. We were not disappointed.

We went thru town and turned left on hwy 42; a nice relaxing back road thru forests and fields up to the town of Bethlehem. On hwy 302 I found a little café called The Maia Papaya. As we stood at the counter of this hippy-styled and rustic café searching the overhead chalkboard, an older gent in shorts and hiking boots came over and offered his assistance. He comes here almost everyday on his way home from his morning hike and highly recommends the dark roast coffee. There were 3 coffees in urns on the side table, all were organic and from fair practice central America plantations. And because we had passed on the BW breakfast we each ordered the egg sandwich special. Both the coffee and the sandwich were excellent as was the conversation. A nice find for sure. Outside I noticed a sculpture standing in front of a building a few doors up the road. I walked over and was totally amazed at the metal sculptures on display. The one that really caught my attention was one that looked like The Alien riding a motorcycle. All the separate pieces welded together looked like they were actually from motorcycles. For instance the tires were several rows of bike chains. Unfortunately the store was closed so I could not go in to explore the smaller objects inside or talk to the artist, but the half dozen large pieces outside were totally awesome.

We continued along hwy 302 and down thru Crawford Notch. This was definitely worth the ride. The notch follows the river most of the way thru the state park and is cut thru the granite in several places. It is an absolutely stunning ride with several spots to pull over and take those amazing scenic shots. But the destination today was really Mount Washington.

Mount Washington is located off hwy 16 about 15 miles north of hwy 302. The scenic road up the mountain claims to be the oldest amusement park in North America and the highest point you can drive a car (or motorcycle) east of the Rockies. I have tried on 2 other occasions to ride up this mountain but was disappointed because of the weather. Today it was bright and sunny 25C and virtually no wind. Perfect.

After paying our $17 each at the base of the mountain we noticed a very large sign warning us that the road is steep and twisty in areas and not always protected by barriers. If you suffer from vertigo or are afraid of heights, you are advised to park your vehicle and take the shuttle bus. Roz stopped and read the sign and asked if I was serious about this. I told her that we had come here specifically to ride this road, I was doing it; she could take the shuttle if she wanted. She followed, ‘But don’t go too fast’.

The road is 8 miles long and except for one small section is well paved. I did not find it all that twisty or steep and because we were on bikes, did not have to get too near any steep embankments when downward cars passed. We have been on much steeper and twistier roads on our travels but never anything this high into the sky. There are a few spots to pull over on the route but most are not well paved and one had fresh, deep gravel making it difficult to stop. At the top, 6400 feet, is a large graveled parking lot. Up a set up steps, about equal to 2 stories, is a large building with bathrooms, a small café and a gift shop. All were much too crowded to be bothered with, I was more interested in climbing the last 20 feet or so and standing at the cairn marking the highest point. Certainly an amazing and exhilarating sight. One of the things that struck me most was the wind. As calm and warm as it was down at the base, the wind at the top howled and it was necessary hang onto the railing to make sure you didn’t get blown over. And it was cold, only 12C according to the gauge on the Harley. I walked around soaking up the atmosphere, trekked over to the weather station with markers commemorating hikers and weathermen. Apparently the highest wind ever recorded was on this peak. Whew, that must have been a real scary day. I walked over to the railing and peered over the edge at Roz down there in the parking lot. Yep, well worth the trip; fascinating adventure.

On my way back down to the Harley, I passed a little sign with an arrow pointing to the way down via a hiking trail. I cant imagine walking all the way up, but just then a young guy emerged to greet his friend claiming that it only took six hours from his campsite. He would love to get a ride back down. Personally I would have taken the opposite tack. On the ride back down I told Roz to lead, I figured she could find her way. As we approached the small dirt section, we noticed a car pointed toward us but it was backing down the mountain. As we got closer we noticed a woman further down, in the middle of the roadway, with her cell phone to her ear and screaming. ‘I cant do this, I cant go any further. I cant, I cant’. Apparently she was the driver of the car now parked in the centre of the roadway and was talking to the driver of the car backing down the road. I guess she either did not see the sign at the base or had been talked into ignoring it. We squeezed past and wondered how they were going to resolve this problem; there were no pull off or turn around areas handy. But I’m sure the staff had seen this scene more than once.

We continued up hwy 16 to hwy 2, over to 115 and back down to Franconia. We had missed lunch so decided to simply revisit the Dutch Treat for an early dinner. We fell into bed early that evening convinced that the ride up Mt Washington would be the highlite of this trip.

Well maybe.