(pics on flickr)
I leave for home this friday, so this weekend was my last chance to go
see something worthwhile. I didn't want to do another 2-day deal, with
an 1100 mile trip this friday / saturday staring me in the face, and
neither did I want to stick around. So I settled for seeing Mount
Washington, up in the white mountains in northern New Hampshire. I
actually drove right past it on my last big trip, but that's when I had
the hiker on the back of the bike, so I missed it. Plus it would've
added another 2 hours onto the day, and it was already going to be 11
or 12 hours in the saddle as-is.
So I got up at 8 Saturday morning, and was out by 8:15. I'm very low
on cash till the paycheck wednesday, so the rule was "avoid tolls."
And NH likes to screw you on that front. 93 and 16 both are toll roads
after you cross over. So I took 93 as long as I could for free, and
then ditched and went small for another 80 or 90 miles heading north.
I hit the parking lot for the Mt Wasington Auto Road at about 12:45.
Cars were $20, plus another $7 a head for passenegers. Bikes were
$12. I had $11.45 to my name, without backtracking to an ATM. I asked
two guys on huge cruisers where to find an ATM, and why I needed it,
and one of them just laughed and gave me the 55 cents, along with some
good advice about what the road was like. "Steep, and intense."
Here's one of the guys:
The road starts off pretty normal for the first mile or two. Then it
gets steep, but otherwise not too scary. Right about the time you
say "what was he talking about - this is easy," two things happen: the
shoulder drops away revealing a mile-long fall should you screw up, and
the road goes to dirt. Yeah.
[img][650:487]http://img67.imageshack.us/img67/5449/dscn2978pk9.jpg[/img]
As long as you keep it below 20mph, it's ok, until the washboarding
started. When you go over little 3-inch high ruts all stacked together
like that, it really pisses the bike's rear end off, and the bike gets
very... unsettled. Your drive wheel begins skipping over the tops of
the ruts and losing contact, so your engine revs, and the butt end
scoots sideways a little. I would love to have a picture of my face
the first time it happened. So I stopped a few times, and took
pictures. Soundtrack was that newish Neko Case album. Here's the road
in the distance, viewed from about 1000 feet (or about a mile drive)
from the top.
[img][650:487]http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/271/dscn3000ex4.jpg[/img]
And of course, I got past the scary dirt roads and the stupid drivers
who stop in the center of the road to point at the mountains with no
problems, only to come an inch away from dropping the bike in the
parking lot. The top lot is reached by a very, very steeply inclined
paved road:
[img][650:487]http://img124.imageshack.us/img124/6174/dscn2982jc1.jpg[/img]
I was following a car, going up it carefully in 1st. He stopped
suddenly to let some people walk by, with me behind him still on the
slope. I grabbed the clutch and the front brake, but it wasn't enough
to hold the bike on the slope. I slid back an inch, dragging the front
tire. Then another inch. The only way to stop fully was to go 1-
footed, and use the rear brake too (right foot). That left me with 1
foot down, and everything else engaged in something important. Then,
the car got going again, and I had to start on the world's worst hill.
It was just like starting to ride all over again (which I'm sure Busty
remembers watching... wasn't always smooth) - "ok, what the f_ck goes
first? Gas, then clutch out, then brakes off... oh god you stupid f_ck
don't drop your bike your wife will kill you." Revvv, clutch, brakes
off, drift backwards a foot, then forward, and on up. That's the
closest I think I've ever been to dumping it. And if I had, there
wasn't much down t
here behind me to slow its fall.
With that happily behind me, I got to go explore the top of the
mountain. It was covered in cloud, so it was almost eerily quiet, as
well as being 54 degrees (30 less than down below). It was cool, but
the view would've been much better if the clouds were gone. I could've
seen Canada from there on a clear day. Oh, and this is where the
highest wind speeds on earth were clocked, 238 mph in 1934. They were
only 25mph on Saturday, thankfully.
After the climb down, I went 10 miles down the road to kill another 2
hours before heading back by hiking up along Pinkham Notch Trail. That
trail actually goes back up another side of Mt Wash, all the way to the
top. I just followed it along a river for a few miles until it veered
off and got serious. The view:
[img][375:500]http://img124.imageshack.us/img124/9017/dscn3010dj5.jpg[/img]
And then I drove home. It was only 368 miles this time, with me gone
from the apartment for maybe 12 hours. Not real extensive. But a good
way to spend the last saturday, I think. And sunday I gave the bike
the day off, and did jackshit. Now, I believe Sketch should be in
town, and hopefully that'll translate into a good final hangout with
the Neuros as well. I'll see the board soon. No more boring travel
logs!
