This will be pretty much the same old traditional foliage and sightseeing ride that we've had for the past several years. The only thing that will be a bit different is that I intend on inviting the folks from the NER forum to join us. I have no idea how many will take me up on that, but I thought it would be fun to see a few fresh faces and show the other New England Riders that FJR folks aren't a snobby bunch.
This year's date for the 2012 Covered Bridges of NH Fall Foliage Tour will be Saturday October 13th!! :clapping:
This will be primarily a single day, organized group ride, but there are all sorts of other cool things to do and see in the area at this time of year. Why not make a weekend of it? Many riders will have their photo-happy pillions aboard for the day. The pace will be very easy (speed limit or 10 over, flower sniffing, easy), so as to enhance your every photographic opportunity. And we'll have several rest stops along the way to stretch the gams and flap the gums.
Your friends on bikes other than FJRs are also welcome to join along, as long as they do not have noisy open exhaust pipes :nono: and are willing to ride along with a bunch of photo-shooting old fogies on their FJRs. IOW, sporty riders will probably definitely be bored to tears!!
We will try to adhere to the full traditional ride route (I still need to pre-ride it to make sure all the roads are all open), starting out with kickstands up! at 9AM from the Fiddleheads Cafe in Hancock, NH. Plan on arriving as early as you can manage, as Fiddleheads makes a killer breakfast sandwich on their home-made, toasted bread. :thumbsup:
From there, we'll meander around the countryside in the southwestern corner of NH. We'll be "bagging" at least a dozen covered bridges along the route, most of which we will actually be able to ride through! (only a couple of them are drive-by "decorator" bridges, closed due to weight restrictions).
As usual, we'll stop for lunch at Diamond Pizza in Walpole. They have good (and cheap) pizza and grinders (subs to you non-natives). Note: Diamond Pizza is now a cash only restaurant (and I don't think they have an ATM either) so bring some bux for lunch. After lunch we'll wend our way back to the south and east, around Lake Sunapee, bagging more covered bridges all along the way, and eventually wind things up near the Hopkinton Dam in Contoocook.
For those coming from "outta town", there is a B&B directly across the street from Fiddleheads called the Hancock Inn, which is quite lovely. However, I think they are also quite spendy (~$200 / night), and they do book up early in the foliage season. In the past, folks coming from out of town have stayed at chain motels in down in Keene, NH to the southwest. There is also the Jack Daniels Motor Inn, just down the road in Peterborough, or the Inn at Crotched Mountain in Francistown, which is where The Axeman stayed prior years and liked it. I would just be careful about cancellation policies in the event of rain.
Assuming the weather allows the ride to go off on Saturday as planned, we can regroup (anyone staying in the area) at Fiddleheads on Sunday AM and I'll take you on over to (and ride up) Mt Kearsarge in Warner. There is a nice little goat trail of an auto road that runs most of the way up the mountain, and then a short 1/2 mile hike up to the bald summit with some spectacular views. This has been a well received addition in prior years.
Ride Routes
The Ride Route for the Covered Bridges tour has been fully tested. You can download a copy of the GPS route files from the following links:
2012 Covered Bridges Tour.gdb < < Preferred Garmin proprietary format
2012 Covered Bridges Tour.gpx < < Generic GPS Exchange format
The (optional) Sunday ride routes to climb to the top of Mt Kearsarge, with a lunch stop at the Flying Goose Tavern in New London, and ending off at Dodges General store in New Boston is also available here:
2012 Kearsarge Mt Loop.gdb < < Preferred Garmin proprietary format
2012 Kearsarge Mt Loop.gpx < < Generic GPS Exchange format
(note: you will need to do a right click, save target as... to download the "gpx" format files )
Teaser Photos from prior years:
Also, take a look back through some of the prior years' ride report threads for more pictures of what you can expect to see.
Disclaimers (aka the fine print):
Because riding on New England back roads in the rain at that time of year can be an iffy deal (cold and raw, wet leaves, wet wooden bridge decks, etc.), and because this is primarily a FOLIAGE sightseeing tour, (which doesn't really look all that special in the gray drizzle) we will reserve rain dates: Sunday Oct 14th as the 1st date rain-check option, and a later weekend will be the second option if it's possible. Announcements on rain deferrals or weather cancellations will be posted here in this thread.
To get through some of these covered bridges requires traveling down a few short sections of dirt road (and as is generally the case on any Fred W ride routes). These dirt roads are some of the more scenic ones we will traverse (in more ways that one ). They are all very smooth and well packed, though there are some elevation changes (some folks report that being a bit skeery). Nobody should have any problems getting down them, just use your rear brake and copious engine braking and it's all a piece of cake. But I wanted to let you all know about them in the interest of full disclosure. If it has rained a lot the night before we will make some detours to avoid the mud.
This year's date for the 2012 Covered Bridges of NH Fall Foliage Tour will be Saturday October 13th!! :clapping:
This will be primarily a single day, organized group ride, but there are all sorts of other cool things to do and see in the area at this time of year. Why not make a weekend of it? Many riders will have their photo-happy pillions aboard for the day. The pace will be very easy (speed limit or 10 over, flower sniffing, easy), so as to enhance your every photographic opportunity. And we'll have several rest stops along the way to stretch the gams and flap the gums.
Your friends on bikes other than FJRs are also welcome to join along, as long as they do not have noisy open exhaust pipes :nono: and are willing to ride along with a bunch of photo-shooting old fogies on their FJRs. IOW, sporty riders will probably definitely be bored to tears!!
We will try to adhere to the full traditional ride route (I still need to pre-ride it to make sure all the roads are all open), starting out with kickstands up! at 9AM from the Fiddleheads Cafe in Hancock, NH. Plan on arriving as early as you can manage, as Fiddleheads makes a killer breakfast sandwich on their home-made, toasted bread. :thumbsup:
From there, we'll meander around the countryside in the southwestern corner of NH. We'll be "bagging" at least a dozen covered bridges along the route, most of which we will actually be able to ride through! (only a couple of them are drive-by "decorator" bridges, closed due to weight restrictions).
As usual, we'll stop for lunch at Diamond Pizza in Walpole. They have good (and cheap) pizza and grinders (subs to you non-natives). Note: Diamond Pizza is now a cash only restaurant (and I don't think they have an ATM either) so bring some bux for lunch. After lunch we'll wend our way back to the south and east, around Lake Sunapee, bagging more covered bridges all along the way, and eventually wind things up near the Hopkinton Dam in Contoocook.
For those coming from "outta town", there is a B&B directly across the street from Fiddleheads called the Hancock Inn, which is quite lovely. However, I think they are also quite spendy (~$200 / night), and they do book up early in the foliage season. In the past, folks coming from out of town have stayed at chain motels in down in Keene, NH to the southwest. There is also the Jack Daniels Motor Inn, just down the road in Peterborough, or the Inn at Crotched Mountain in Francistown, which is where The Axeman stayed prior years and liked it. I would just be careful about cancellation policies in the event of rain.
Assuming the weather allows the ride to go off on Saturday as planned, we can regroup (anyone staying in the area) at Fiddleheads on Sunday AM and I'll take you on over to (and ride up) Mt Kearsarge in Warner. There is a nice little goat trail of an auto road that runs most of the way up the mountain, and then a short 1/2 mile hike up to the bald summit with some spectacular views. This has been a well received addition in prior years.
Ride Routes
The Ride Route for the Covered Bridges tour has been fully tested. You can download a copy of the GPS route files from the following links:
2012 Covered Bridges Tour.gdb < < Preferred Garmin proprietary format
2012 Covered Bridges Tour.gpx < < Generic GPS Exchange format
The (optional) Sunday ride routes to climb to the top of Mt Kearsarge, with a lunch stop at the Flying Goose Tavern in New London, and ending off at Dodges General store in New Boston is also available here:
2012 Kearsarge Mt Loop.gdb < < Preferred Garmin proprietary format
2012 Kearsarge Mt Loop.gpx < < Generic GPS Exchange format
(note: you will need to do a right click, save target as... to download the "gpx" format files )
Teaser Photos from prior years:
Also, take a look back through some of the prior years' ride report threads for more pictures of what you can expect to see.
Disclaimers (aka the fine print):
Because riding on New England back roads in the rain at that time of year can be an iffy deal (cold and raw, wet leaves, wet wooden bridge decks, etc.), and because this is primarily a FOLIAGE sightseeing tour, (which doesn't really look all that special in the gray drizzle) we will reserve rain dates: Sunday Oct 14th as the 1st date rain-check option, and a later weekend will be the second option if it's possible. Announcements on rain deferrals or weather cancellations will be posted here in this thread.
To get through some of these covered bridges requires traveling down a few short sections of dirt road (and as is generally the case on any Fred W ride routes). These dirt roads are some of the more scenic ones we will traverse (in more ways that one
). They are all very smooth and well packed, though there are some elevation changes (some folks report that being a bit skeery). Nobody should have any problems getting down them, just use your rear brake and copious engine braking and it's all a piece of cake. But I wanted to let you all know about them in the interest of full disclosure. If it has rained a lot the night before we will make some detours to avoid the mud.
Last edited by a moderator:
