The Whites and Greens is behind us :Snorkle: . So now it's time to start planning for the next one...
Because NAFO is so late in September this time, even though not too many of you are attending!!, (Joann and I are)
Therefore, and without further ado, I shall duly proclaim:
[SIZE=14pt]This year's date for the Covered Bridges of NH Foliage Tour will be Saturday October 2nd!![/SIZE] :hyper:
This will be a single day organized ride, but there are all sorts of other things to do in the area this time of year on your own the other day. Many riders will have their photo-happy pillions aboard for the day. The pace will be 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 welcome to join along, as long as they do not have noisy exhaust pipes :nono: and are willing to put up with a bunch of old fogies on their FJRs. IOW, sporty riders will probably be bored to tears!!
We will be following the full traditional ride route (this ride is a tradition), 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).
After lunch we'll wend our way back to the south and east, past Lake Sunapee and bagging bridges all along the way, and wind things up at the Hopkinton Dam in Contoocook.
If we should happen to finish the route early enough (so gobble down those grinders!) and if they are still running it, we can then make a dash down Rtes 202 and 31 to Greenfield NH and see the Yankee Siege Trubuchet, the world class pumpkin chucker. They set a new world record last year and I heard something about them retiring. Hopefully that is only from competitive chucking and they will still have their (free) weekend exhibitions running. They started doing that to bring people to their farm stand in the fall (cha-ching).
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 last year and liked it. I would just be careful about cancellation policies in the event of rain.
Teasers:
Do look back through some prior years ride report threads for more pictures of what you can expect to see.
Disclaimer (aka the fine print):
[SIZE=8pt]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[/SIZE] sightseeing tour, (which doesn't really look all that special in the gray drizzle) we will reserve as rain dates: Sunday the 3rd as 1st option, and the following weekend of the 9th or 10th if necessary (as it was last year).
Because NAFO is so late in September this time, even though not too many of you are attending!!, (Joann and I are)
Therefore, and without further ado, I shall duly proclaim:
[SIZE=14pt]This year's date for the Covered Bridges of NH Foliage Tour will be Saturday October 2nd!![/SIZE] :hyper:
This will be a single day organized ride, but there are all sorts of other things to do in the area this time of year on your own the other day. Many riders will have their photo-happy pillions aboard for the day. The pace will be 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 welcome to join along, as long as they do not have noisy exhaust pipes :nono: and are willing to put up with a bunch of old fogies on their FJRs. IOW, sporty riders will probably be bored to tears!!
We will be following the full traditional ride route (this ride is a tradition), 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).
After lunch we'll wend our way back to the south and east, past Lake Sunapee and bagging bridges all along the way, and wind things up at the Hopkinton Dam in Contoocook.
If we should happen to finish the route early enough (so gobble down those grinders!) and if they are still running it, we can then make a dash down Rtes 202 and 31 to Greenfield NH and see the Yankee Siege Trubuchet, the world class pumpkin chucker. They set a new world record last year and I heard something about them retiring. Hopefully that is only from competitive chucking and they will still have their (free) weekend exhibitions running. They started doing that to bring people to their farm stand in the fall (cha-ching).
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 last year and liked it. I would just be careful about cancellation policies in the event of rain.
Teasers:
Do look back through some prior years ride report threads for more pictures of what you can expect to see.
Disclaimer (aka the fine print):
[SIZE=8pt]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[/SIZE] sightseeing tour, (which doesn't really look all that special in the gray drizzle) we will reserve as rain dates: Sunday the 3rd as 1st option, and the following weekend of the 9th or 10th if necessary (as it was last year).
