Day 6 - The Homestretch
After the prior day's toasting at the border, none of our NERDY gang was real keen on riding in the late afternoon heat again on the final day. But even the night before we realized that the forecast was for a scorcher even worse than Sunday. The only possible savior would be if there were some pop-up thundershows we could ride through (intentionally) along the way without our rain gear on. But as you will hear, we had no such luck.
Since we knew what laid ahead, getting out on the road early was the plan. A quickie (free) continental in the hotel lobby and KSU at 7AM. Loading up the bikes the air was already very warm with humidity in the vicinity of 145%. But it was somewhat overcast (thankfully) as we rolled out along the northern NY countryside, and down into the Adirondacks, it became much more pleasant as the morning continued.
A couple of the target roads for our Adirondack ride were Moose River Road (an excellent 14 mile twisty back road that goes from Port Leyden to Rte 28 inside the park), and then Rte 28 (nice wide open high speed sweepers) up northeast and around through Indian Lake and then back down to connect with US 9 just before Lake George.
Traffic was relatively light in the park on a Monday morning, so passing slower traffic was no problem. The luck of the HiViz was with us, as at two different points we were nailed on radar at ~ 20-30 over (one time as I was making a pass at ~85 in a 55), but none of those nasty flashing blue lights were seen in the blurry mirrors.
We lost Mike (BigOgre) somewhere around Indian Lake as he needed to make a straight(er) line toward the Island of Long in order to get home that night.
Rolling down into the Lake George area the heat was back, along with some increased traffic.
We stopped at a Stewarts in Warrenburg for a little butt break and fillup, but ended up grabbing an early lunch since everyone wanted to sit in the store's AC for a while. Stewarts stores are just great institutions. I wish we had them in Cow Hampshire. After our Stewart break we rode by the south end of the lake.
Million Dollar Beach
Million Dollar Lakehouse
When we crossed route 4, the Mainiac boys (Ray and Charlie) split off and took 4 northeast putting them into a better position to head for home, rather than following my southeasterly plan through Vermont and New Hampster.
Getting closer...
Some of Barry's girlfriends
I knew of a fun little (unpaved!) road, VT Highway 121, that runs from Rte 11 in Londonderry, VT down to the little village of Grafton. So of course, and much to the dismay of ionbeam, he with a balding rear tire, we just
had to take it.
VT 121 is so smooth it encourages you to ride it fast, even two up on an FJR. Cornering technique is the real key to being comfortable on these kinds of roads. You just have to throw all that sport bike training you've worked so hard on right out the window. Instead of leaning your body inside of the corner, like you do on pavement, you need to force yourself to do exactly the opposite and keep your body straight upright while pushing the bike down into the corner. It is counter-intuitive after all the on-road training and drills, but it really improves your ability to steer around a corner on loose traction conditions, and allows you to make a
controlled slide should either end break loos (intentionally or otherwise).
Saw this guy on one corner on VT 121
Nice VT horse farm
Cute little covered bridge in Grafton
From Grafton 121 is paved and continues down through Cambridgeport to Bellows Falls on the Connecticut River, and the border of NH. We stopped for another sweat break in a shady spot beside a gas station in Bellows Falls so everyone to cool off a bit. I'm not sure it worked so well, as everyone who was left in the little group now was getting a bit crotchety, including TMJ on the other end of my intercom.
Across the river and into Walpole, NH, we were in our home territory now. We find ourselves on Rte 123 quite often and know most of the turns well enough to wick it up a bit when there are no cars ahead. It ain't all that smooth in a few places, but it it also ain't all that straight. There is one particularly funner section of a couple of miles alongside the Warren Brook in Alstead that the road is very curvy, recently paved, and with some open sight lines after being completely washed out and repaired a few years back in some big storm. Good chance to erase some chicken strips, even two up.
We could almost smell the barn now and buzzed down through Hancock, a common ride starting point for us, and lost the ionbeams there as they veered off to stop at the RTE destination Fiddleheads' Cafe for a coffee break. It was now just the bbdigs and ourselves "breaking bad" for the homesteads.
We waved goodbye to Jack and Jane at I-93 Exit 5, exactly where we had started this little trip just 6 days and 1800 miles prior, as they continued on down south to Taxachusetts another hour of slab to their home in Lynnfield.
Epilogue
On this little adventure, we had a lot of very fine riding on some quite interesting rural roads, excellent weather the whole time albeit a bit lot warm for the 2 days ride home (how you southerners do it is beyond me. I'd really much rather ride in 20 degrees with a heated liner than 90+), a great couple of days up in the Huntsville area, exploring new territory and seeing some sights and places that we'd never have seen on our own (special thanks to Major Tom huron52 for setting up that Ride and Find. Josie and I had a blast doing that), and we got to stay at a first rate resort in the Muskoka region, which is clearly a destination spot not to be missed.
We had ourselves some great times, at a great place, with some
really great friends.
What could be better than all of that? (rhetorical question)
Can we go back now and do it again? (non rhetorical question)
Thanks again to the
CFR '13 disorganizers.
Billy (You done good, son. Real good.)
Jeffy (Glad you didn't get hurt too. It could'a happened several different ways!),
Ian (Special thanks for leading the rideout on Sunday AM)
Ray (Not sure exactly what your role was, but I know you were involved in multiple ways, and we can commiserate the B's tanking together)
Tom (for the previously mentioned Ride and Find)
and anyone else behind the scenes who pitched in to make it such a truly great time.
Yeah, we like to hang out with some of you crazy Canucks. Who the hell wouldn't?
