Hey... You NERDS!! (New England Riders Doing Stuff)
We have not run this little day ride for a really long time now, last time was way back in 2014! So, what with the resuscitation of the FJRforum and all, I thought that it is nigh time to do it again this year.
For those not familiar with this ride, it is a very casual group ride with a primary focus being on the foliage and New England scenery. Definitely not ridden at a sporting pace, it will also be very passenger friendly since we make several stops along the way for photos and gabbing. We will be following the traditional route, more or less, (we've ridden this since 2006!) which means that we'll be meeting up at the Fiddleheads Cafe in Hancock, NH. This is a little gem of a place that makes a killer take-out breakfast if you arrive early enough, or you can just grab a good cuppa Joe during the meeting and greeting before we head out.
The plan is for kickstands up at 10:00 AM sharp, so plan to arrive accordingly to give yourself time for breakfast and meeting folks. From there we will take many scenic roads to the south and west of rural New Hampshire, and visit about a dozen Covered Bridges throughout the day, most of which we will actually be able to ride through.
There will be a short lunch stop at Diamond Pizza in Walpole, NH (bring cash money - no cards or checks are accepted) which is pretty cheap and decent grub, and then we will wind ourselves back to the north and east. We will hit a few short, unpaved roads, but there is nothing there to get nervous about. Just smooth, gravel roads.
The route will end up at the intersection of Routes 202 and Route 127 in Hopkinton, NH (at the Dunkin Donuts). That is a nice central location that allows everyone an easy exodus in whatever direction they are headed home. Josie and I will be headed back towards Manchester from there via back-roads, if any folks want to tag along.
The primary date will be Saturday October 5th, with a tentative rain date of Sunday the 6th. So tell your friends... They do not have to be on an FJR, but good riding manners are appreciated. If we happen to have too many folks show up for the ride we can split into multiple groups, but we've run this with a lot of bikes before and it not been a big problem due to the light traffic and rural roads we'll be covering.
By all means bring your camera! Or just use your wicked smaht phone! Hope you can make it.
Links to some photos from a couple of previous Covered Bridge rides. If you browse the threads further back in time there are many more.
2014 Covered Bridges Ride Photos
2012 Covered Bridges Ride Photos
Links to download GPS route files (from dropbox)
2019 Covered Bridges of NH.gdb (Garmin Proprietary format)
2019 Covered Bridges of NH.gpx (Generic GPS file format)
Notes: You do not have to create a dropbox account to download these files. Look at the fine print at the bottom and you can skip creating an account.
Before importing the route, make sure that your GPS has the following Navigation settings:
Route Preferences: Faster Time
Avoidances: Disabled
Recalculation Mode: Prompted or Off
The way that I usually import routes is to download the "*.gpx" file and copy the entire file to your GPS's X:/Garmin/gpx folder on the device itself using windows explorer (or whatever program you use). Then the waypoints and route should prompt you to auto import when you turn on the device, or else you can use the "User Data" app to import them. Alternatively you can use the "Send to Device" routine from basecamp or mapsource.
When the route imports it should automatically do a recalculate to match the route to whatever version of maps you are running. Only allow the route to calculate once. Any additional recalculates with fark it up. If that happens for any reason just delete the route from your GPS and re-import the route using "User Data". If you have any problem with the route just let me know by PM and I will try to help.
We have not run this little day ride for a really long time now, last time was way back in 2014! So, what with the resuscitation of the FJRforum and all, I thought that it is nigh time to do it again this year.
For those not familiar with this ride, it is a very casual group ride with a primary focus being on the foliage and New England scenery. Definitely not ridden at a sporting pace, it will also be very passenger friendly since we make several stops along the way for photos and gabbing. We will be following the traditional route, more or less, (we've ridden this since 2006!) which means that we'll be meeting up at the Fiddleheads Cafe in Hancock, NH. This is a little gem of a place that makes a killer take-out breakfast if you arrive early enough, or you can just grab a good cuppa Joe during the meeting and greeting before we head out.
The plan is for kickstands up at 10:00 AM sharp, so plan to arrive accordingly to give yourself time for breakfast and meeting folks. From there we will take many scenic roads to the south and west of rural New Hampshire, and visit about a dozen Covered Bridges throughout the day, most of which we will actually be able to ride through.
There will be a short lunch stop at Diamond Pizza in Walpole, NH (bring cash money - no cards or checks are accepted) which is pretty cheap and decent grub, and then we will wind ourselves back to the north and east. We will hit a few short, unpaved roads, but there is nothing there to get nervous about. Just smooth, gravel roads.
The route will end up at the intersection of Routes 202 and Route 127 in Hopkinton, NH (at the Dunkin Donuts). That is a nice central location that allows everyone an easy exodus in whatever direction they are headed home. Josie and I will be headed back towards Manchester from there via back-roads, if any folks want to tag along.
The primary date will be Saturday October 5th, with a tentative rain date of Sunday the 6th. So tell your friends... They do not have to be on an FJR, but good riding manners are appreciated. If we happen to have too many folks show up for the ride we can split into multiple groups, but we've run this with a lot of bikes before and it not been a big problem due to the light traffic and rural roads we'll be covering.
By all means bring your camera! Or just use your wicked smaht phone! Hope you can make it.
Links to some photos from a couple of previous Covered Bridge rides. If you browse the threads further back in time there are many more.
2014 Covered Bridges Ride Photos
2012 Covered Bridges Ride Photos
Links to download GPS route files (from dropbox)
2019 Covered Bridges of NH.gdb (Garmin Proprietary format)
2019 Covered Bridges of NH.gpx (Generic GPS file format)
Notes: You do not have to create a dropbox account to download these files. Look at the fine print at the bottom and you can skip creating an account.
Before importing the route, make sure that your GPS has the following Navigation settings:
Route Preferences: Faster Time
Avoidances: Disabled
Recalculation Mode: Prompted or Off
The way that I usually import routes is to download the "*.gpx" file and copy the entire file to your GPS's X:/Garmin/gpx folder on the device itself using windows explorer (or whatever program you use). Then the waypoints and route should prompt you to auto import when you turn on the device, or else you can use the "User Data" app to import them. Alternatively you can use the "Send to Device" routine from basecamp or mapsource.
When the route imports it should automatically do a recalculate to match the route to whatever version of maps you are running. Only allow the route to calculate once. Any additional recalculates with fark it up. If that happens for any reason just delete the route from your GPS and re-import the route using "User Data". If you have any problem with the route just let me know by PM and I will try to help.
The next one is the long Columbus Day weekend, on which lots of folks have family plans. Plus Warner runs a big hoopty Foliage Festival that we would have to run through. By the time you get to the third week in October it's getting mighty chilly, and most of the good leaf peepin' is over.
