Hike+Bike Franconia

The Pemigewasset Wilderness from Mt. Lafayette

Multisport Combo
 While I'm an avid hiker, I loooove biking on my road bike. There's a freedom to flying around on smooth bike paths and roads, quickly, cleanly, and under the power of your own body. It's a fun way to get around, see new things and use different routes, or... see same route by car but differently, slower. Something about the inbetween speed of faster than a walk, but slower than a car seems like the right speed for me.

Trip route and elevation (milage is a bit off)

My recent weekend adventure combined my love for hiking and the thrill of biking together. The first half started with an almost full Franconia Traverse, hiking from Lincoln Woods Visitor Center on the Kancamagus Highway, up and over the peaks of Flume, Liberty, Little Haystack, Lincoln and Lafayette, and down to Lafayette Place parking area on RT 93 (13.5 mi), where I locked my bike earlier that morning (see route map). This hike was partly a prep hike for a Presidential Traverse Day Hike in 3 weeks time, as well as little trainer for a 50 mi bike ride the following week. It seemed like the perfect way to train for both adventures!

First By Foot
The trip really started at 4:30am when I left Boston for NH. Three hours later I started hiking from the Lincoln Woods Visitor Center parking lot in Lincoln, NH. I hiked alone, hardly seeing a soul, until a group of 8 or 10 guys, all about 30 feet apart, walked by opposite me on the Lincoln Woods Trail, finishing a group backpacking trip. I popped in some earbuds in and prepared to listen to a 78 song playlist as I turned onto the Osseo Trail to head uphill. I don't normally listed to music when I hike, but it was helpful to keep my mind off the effort of the uphill, as I sing along with some favorite tunes, new and old.

Ladders Up Flume, not bike-able:)

Flume was the first summit of the day. This morning it had hazy views, the skies were cloudy, and  3 people sat on the exposed ridgeline, who might have been camping there overnight. I passed them by to visit Mt. Liberty, a favorite summit of mine, and met a nice young couple w/a dog atop. I sat for about 5-10 min, drinking water, eating an apple and fig bars. But it was windy and chilly, so I carried on to Little Haystack. At the junction of Liberty Spring and the FR Trail, I was surprised to bump into a hiking friend Angelia, May Lee and a hiking friend of theirs. We chatted about our hikes, wished each other luck and soon parted ways. I carried on past Little Haystack and the crowds that were accumulating and sat instead just below the summit of Lincoln, out of the wind. Its a lovely spot where the mountain edge meets the trail, and drops off precipitously, the valley and highway far below. I inhaled a piece of pizza, another granola bar and a 1/2 liter of water. I popped up on Lincoln and stopped briefly to watch the clouds zoom over the ridgeline. Lafayette was barely visible through the clouds from here, but I was hopeful it would pop out soon, it was almost noon.

View of Cannon Cliff from Liberty

Franconia Ridge Trail - Mt Liberty

View from Lafayette

Soon enough I was up on Lafayette, looking for a place out of the wind and away from the usual crowds to eat lunch. I had just settled in when I turned to see another friend leading a group and  coming my way. Fred and I chatted a bit about our hikes and seeing his favorite mountain flowers and hearing his favorite mountain birds, a welcome sign of spring and the summer to soon follow. I enjoyed the newly visible sun and views for the next 30 min before picking up to make my way to the Greenleaf Hut. No Croo was to be found behind the counter, but they had left numerous cookies and other goodies for people to buy. I left the lovely hut behind and turned onto the Old Bridal Path. It had been many years since I hiked up or down this pleasant route, fairly gentle for it's entire 4.0 miles to the road. Near the end, it stops off at Walker Brook, were about 4 women had stopped to wash up on this now warm, sunny day. I popped out of the woods into the parking just before 3pm, found my bike, and began the second leg!

Inside Greenleaf Hut

Greenleaf Hut and Franconia Ridge

View from inside hut (ridge & pond)

Second by Bike
The ride was portion awesome! The Franconia Notch Recreational Bike Path runs about 20 mi from the northern terminus at the Skookumchuck Trailhead on RT 93 (Exit 35) to its southern terminus at the Flume Gorge Visitor Center (Exit 34A). The path is narrow, in lots of shade, almost completely downhill if taken from N to S, and runs by a river nearly the entire time - so if you do this, bring a suit & towel! This path is under-utilized by bikers, but is used by some pedestrians along the places where trailheads and tourist attractions meet the path, so just be careful of your speed, it can get away from you quickly on the bigger downhills. There is one uphill to watch for, somewhere after the Liberty Springs Trailhead and before the Flume. Other than that, you barely need to pedal. To continue to Lincoln, I pedaled down RT 3 - a road I've grown to love. RT 3 used to be THE way through the White Mountains before RT 93 was built through Franconia Notch right along side. It's still full of motels, cabins for rent, and family oriented hotels & attractions like Indian Head Hotel & Cabins and Whales Tale waterslide park. After a few miles of ogling the attractions and imagining my stay at the Indian Head Hotel & swimming in their outdoor pool, I turned off RT 3 onto Connector Rd and cycled my way via the backside of Lincoln, passing the AT thru-hiker hostel (Chet's), and a house I call the Rainbow House, an amazing, multi-color, multi-faceted huge expanse of a house, painted with care and style. Truely a sight to see! I might have also spotted Steve Smith's house, owner of The Mountain Wanderer Bookstore, due to the trailhead sign out front that said The Smiths... maybe? The ride continued along another bike path that runs on the Kancamagus Highway for just a few short miles. It too runs along a river, this time the Pemigewasset, past Loon Mountain till it spits you back out onto the Kanc, past Hancock Campground and over teh bridge to the Visitor Center.

Southern terminus of path

It was all over in a flash, just 8 hours and 40 minutes later, I was back at my car. I had been concerned about the impending thunderstorms that were forecast to come through around 4pm, so this timing was perfect and just what I hoped for. The thunderstorms never came, so I cleaned up in the visitor center restroom, drove to Lincoln and ate al fresco at Nacho's Mexican Grill. I wolfed down enchilladas, beans, rice, chips and salsa. The service here is attentive, the food is ok - nothing really outstanding. But on this day, at this time, it was damn good!! I finished the day buying a new WMNF parking sticker, as mine had recently expired. A ranger had given me a ticket on my windshield as a friendly reminder:) Thanks Ranger, I got one now!

Lincoln Woods VC

Done!