ionbeam
2 FUN
Last Sunday Ion and Mrs. Beam met up with Charlie and Lady Hoss (Arlene) at the Victorian train station in North Conway, NH. The Hoss'es waited patiently while the 'Beams shot a bunch of pictures. Regrettably, it was still too early in the season for the steam trains to come out of hibernation.
Photography sure makes a feller hungry, so we had a big lunch, then with tour guide Charlie in the lead we took off. The following picture is of Charlie and Arlene as Charlie prepares us for Hurricane Mountain Road. Alas, there was no way to accurately convey what we were about to experience. Hurricane Road is actually only ~1 lane wide, it climbs nearly straight up in places with Talladega Speedway banked hairpin corners. It would be impossible to stop in many places due to the steepness and banking. Going down the back side of the mountain there were moguls in the road which in one direction launch you like a jet off a carrier deck and coming back up involuntarily initiates huge wheelies. This was one of the few times my pillion couldn't shoot pictures and had to hang on with both hands.
The adventure begins...
On the way up we found a Ditch Diver off the edge of the road, down a steep hill, desperately waving for us to stop. His motorcycle was on its side, only a few of feet from going into a stream. I was able to find a place to stop that wasn't too precarious. I feared for Charlie's safety when I saw where he stopped! The road was steep and starting to bank sharply. If his front wheel were to have gone over the edge of the pavement Charlie would have been in the opposite side ditch. Shortly Good Samaritan in his cage stopped too. Fortunately Ditch Diver seemed to be ok, he was wearing some of the gear but not all of the gear. It didn't look too promising for us to get his bike back up the embankment. We had to move fallen trees and embedded boulders to clear a path. With much effort we finally got the Ditch Witch Suzi on the road. Amazingly the damage wasn't too severe. Left to right: A befuddled Ion, Ditch Diver, Arlene and Good Samaritan.
Here Ditch Diver makes the final assessment of what parts will remain beside the road and what he will try to take with him. Charlie is on the right with his trusty roll of duct tape that happened to be a matching black color. Diver says he lives in MA and he was planning to ride his Ditch Witch home. Best we could figure out he was coming back down the hill and his front end washed out, then his bike flipped going down the embankment.
After some drama when trying to get back on our bikes on the steep hill, we finally continued up the mountain.
This is the Mt. Washington Inn.
Obligatory glamour shot of PigPen on a better day.
Charlie on the left with his Blue Baby and Ion with PigPen.
The remainder of the day:
We had a great day! Really enjoyed meeting the Hoss’es and appreciated Charlie’s guided tour. While the paltry 320 miles we traveled that day won’t impress anyone, we hit the saddle at 8:40 am and returned home 9:20 pm.
If the friggin’ rain ever ends I hope to get back out and do some riding with Charlie and other local FJR owners.
Photography sure makes a feller hungry, so we had a big lunch, then with tour guide Charlie in the lead we took off. The following picture is of Charlie and Arlene as Charlie prepares us for Hurricane Mountain Road. Alas, there was no way to accurately convey what we were about to experience. Hurricane Road is actually only ~1 lane wide, it climbs nearly straight up in places with Talladega Speedway banked hairpin corners. It would be impossible to stop in many places due to the steepness and banking. Going down the back side of the mountain there were moguls in the road which in one direction launch you like a jet off a carrier deck and coming back up involuntarily initiates huge wheelies. This was one of the few times my pillion couldn't shoot pictures and had to hang on with both hands.
The adventure begins...
On the way up we found a Ditch Diver off the edge of the road, down a steep hill, desperately waving for us to stop. His motorcycle was on its side, only a few of feet from going into a stream. I was able to find a place to stop that wasn't too precarious. I feared for Charlie's safety when I saw where he stopped! The road was steep and starting to bank sharply. If his front wheel were to have gone over the edge of the pavement Charlie would have been in the opposite side ditch. Shortly Good Samaritan in his cage stopped too. Fortunately Ditch Diver seemed to be ok, he was wearing some of the gear but not all of the gear. It didn't look too promising for us to get his bike back up the embankment. We had to move fallen trees and embedded boulders to clear a path. With much effort we finally got the Ditch Witch Suzi on the road. Amazingly the damage wasn't too severe. Left to right: A befuddled Ion, Ditch Diver, Arlene and Good Samaritan.
Here Ditch Diver makes the final assessment of what parts will remain beside the road and what he will try to take with him. Charlie is on the right with his trusty roll of duct tape that happened to be a matching black color. Diver says he lives in MA and he was planning to ride his Ditch Witch home. Best we could figure out he was coming back down the hill and his front end washed out, then his bike flipped going down the embankment.
After some drama when trying to get back on our bikes on the steep hill, we finally continued up the mountain.
This is the Mt. Washington Inn.
Obligatory glamour shot of PigPen on a better day.
Charlie on the left with his Blue Baby and Ion with PigPen.
The remainder of the day:
We had a great day! Really enjoyed meeting the Hoss’es and appreciated Charlie’s guided tour. While the paltry 320 miles we traveled that day won’t impress anyone, we hit the saddle at 8:40 am and returned home 9:20 pm.
If the friggin’ rain ever ends I hope to get back out and do some riding with Charlie and other local FJR owners.
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