Another great weekend weatherwise

[08FJR4ME]

When I was growing up in Massachusetts I remember that we would try to keep riding until early November, and then we'd take the bikes to the basement for "maintenance season." In late March, when the temps would climb into the 40's on a nice day, the bikes would come back out and get registered and insured for the new year. It cost about $18 for a year's worth of insurance, and if you cancelled it in November, you'd get a few bucks back. I think the excise tax would run another $15 or so for the year if you were riding something old enough.
In any event, I still ride with some of the same guys in the summer... and they're still up there.... and they're still "enjoying" the maintenance season. I guess there are advantages to living where Mother Nature forces you to take this respit from riding.

Growing up we always looked forward to winter and the outdoor sports it brought. More snow meant better skiing and a longer ski season. There's a certain rhythm...

Well, take advantage of the remaining nice days. The bikes are already in the basement further north.

Well those days are gone! $695 for insurance and $208 for excise tax. They don't call it Taxachusettes for nothin.

 

[Fred W]

So, old man weather did cooperate. Today was gloriously warm and sunny. A perfect day for a ride. Joann and I jumped on the bike a little before noon and headed out to scout some of the Northern-tier NH bridges and maybe a few new roads. We found a couple of new ride-through bridges that were nice. Then ran up to the Campton area and followed the road East into Waterville Valley.

Although I had been skiing there multiple times before, little did I know that Waterville Valley is a viscous trap. It's a dead end!! You can't get any way-ah from they-ah. So on the way back out route 49, the same way we came in, I saw an interesting road marked "Sandwich Notch Road".

Map

Swell, says I. That looks like it will get us up and over the ridge to Sandwich, NH. Well, did I mention that it rained last night? We got about 1/2 way up to the height of land and the dirt road became a series of washouts and seriously loose junk. I think even if I wasn't 2-up I wasn't going to make it through the notch today. So after an extremely precarious turn around in sandy loose wet junk, we headed back outta there glad to leave with all the paint we had arrived with.

Sorry I didn't get any good picture evidence of this fiasco. I'm sure it would have been quite entertaining. But once my glasses got all fogged up from the exertion of attempting to turn the bike (I really did think I was going to drop it a few times) on the side of the slope I didn't have the composure to break out the photographic equipment.

Some days of exploring are just not as good as others. But the weather was great and the paved roads were awesome.

Moral of the story: Sandwich Notch Road = Dual sport territory (at least today).