The notch loop 81 mile bike ride

The four notch loop – I’ve seen bikers riding up and down the Kancamagus highway (Route 112 that connects 93 in Lincoln NH with North Conway 30+ miles to the east) since my early days of heading up to Mt Washington.  I always thought “that looks like something I’d like to do”.  When I realized I’d need to take some down-time due to my hamstring injury I knew I’d be on the bike a lot so it seemed like a good idea to have a goal.  There are a bunch of variations on heading over the “Kanc”.  I settled on a loop that would have us going from Lincoln to the top of the Kanc, descending to Bear Notch road, and then taking Bear Notch road to Route 302.  From 302 we’d head up through the Crawford Notch, to Twin Mountain, and then we’d turn onto Route 3.  From Twin Mountain we’d climb to the bike path that heads through Franconia Notch, and then descend to Lincoln.  From Lincoln we’d be back on the Kanc for the final few miles to our starting point at the Lincoln Woods trail head.

 

I sent out invitations to a bunch of people hoping someone would be interested, but figured I’d go alone if no one was up for it.  Greg Ward and Ken Tripp were both in for the ride and Paul Bazanchuk decided to meet us along the way.  Ken and I met up on Friday afternoon and drove up to Hancock campground.  We checked out the last 9 miles of the ride which would involve coming down from Franconia Notch and into Lincoln.  I wanted to make sure I knew which side roads to take because the main drag would be busy as it was Highland Games weekend at Loon.  Our 18+ mile ride (9 out/back) went well but I realized my bike was WAY slower than Ken’s brand new ride.  It’d be a challenge for me to stay with Greg and Ken during this ride but fortunately it wasn’t a race.  Greg met us later that night and after a failed attempt at a camp fire we turned in at a reasonable hour.

 

We were up at 6am, broke camp, got coffee at Dunkin’s and were at the Lincoln Woods parking lot at 6:45 am.  Although I protested we were on our bikes a full 10 seconds before the official start time of 7:00 am. 

Tripp ready for action

 

 The temperature in the upper 40’s as we headed off all of us wearing 3 layers and me wearing some very thick gloves.  I figured I’d be a bit warm on the climb but was worried about the big descents (the Kanc and Bear Notch).  Greg and Ken seemed to pedal pretty easily as I was working early on in the climb.  We had about 8 miles of climbing and 1,900’ to the top.  We got some great views as we climbed and the miles rolled by (Ken noted “you could run this faster”).  We hit the top in 49 minutes and then the real fun started.  We had 1,600’ of drop and were easily hitting speeds in the mid-30 mph.  There was very little traffic on the Kanc at that time of day which made it a very enjoyable section.  About ½ way down Paul Baz joined the fun.  He bike from North Conway and would ride with us to Fabyan (he’d get in 55 miles, a solid day by any standard).  We reached Bear Notch road 1:17 in and took a quick 3 minute break. 

 

Baz looking fresh

Then it was a short (relatively short) climb up to Bear Notch and a very fun winding descent down to Bartlett.  Again we had a blast zipping down the road at 35 mph.  It was a bit foggy on the descent and when we reach route 302 we took a quick 2 minute stop for all of us to wipe our glasses.  We continued in the fog as we had a rolling but generally uphill grind toward Crawford Notch, a climb of 1,200’.  The breakdown lane was wide so we had plenty of time to chat while rolling along at 15-20 mph.  The last mile to the top of the notch was a grinding 9% grade.  I was “honking” (http://www.perfectcondition.ltd.uk/Articles/honking/Honking.htm) a term none of the guys had heard before but I’d been using for years.  It looks like it is more of a British term for getting out of the saddle (seat) and standing on the pedals.  We reached the AMC hut at the notch at 44+ miles and 2:55 into our ride.  This would be our only real break of the day.

 

Greg heading up to Crawford Notch

We took 19 minutes at the hut to hit the bathroom, buy some candy, and I slammed down 16 ounces of Coke.  It was warming up but there was also a breeze kicking up, I removed my fleece layer but kept the long-sleeve on.  After the break we had an awesome downhill to Fabyan station (across from Bretton Woods).  The wide breakdown lane and straight road along with the drop got us rolling up to 41 mph.  In that short stretch we dropped 300’.  We also got a nice view of the Mt Washington hotel and a clear view of its namesake.  We took a 2 minute break at Fabyan to get a group shot then Paul headed back home and we continued on.

 

We kept a steady pace dropping another 200’ on the way to Twin Mountain.  Then we got onto route 3 and the wind picked up (headwind) during our 300’ climb to the bike path.  We got to the path (62+ miles) in 4:21 and took a 2 minute break while I removed my long-sleeve shirt.  The bike path was windy especially up to the top of the notch.  That was not an easy climb and the path did a lot of winding and had some tricky turns and downhill parts.  It was especially tricky with the shadows making it hard to pick out any bumps and frost heaves.  We made it safely through the path then bombed down route 3 into Lincoln.

 

The final leg back on the Kanc wasn’t too bad as we now had a tail-wind, we kept rolling.  I kept focused on either Ken or Greg’s wheel (as I’d done for a good chunk of the loop) and stayed as close as I dared.  They took turns at the front but I rarely went to the front...usually I was trying to make up ground.  We hit the finish 81.6 miles and 5:42:13 (including 26:40 of breaks) after we’d left.  The quick soak in the Pemi was ice cold but welcome.  Now I’ll have to come up with the next adventure!

 

shot my shadow at 30 mph

9/21/2013	7:00 AM
From	To	Climb	Descent	Distance	Rolling dist	Time	Split	Break
Lincoln Woods	Top of Kanc	1904	-	8.8	8.8	0:49:14
Top of Kanc	Bear Notch rd	-	1621	10.0	18.8	1:17:06	0:27:52
Bear Notch Rd	top o'  notch	541	-	4.2	22.9
top o'  notch	Rt 302	-	1112	5.0	27.9	1:52:21	0:35:15	0:03:00
Rt 302	Crawford Notch	1252	-	15.4	43.3	2:55:46	1:03:25
Crawford house	Fabyan	-	358	4.2	47.5	3:27:39	0:31:53	0:19:12
Fabyan	Rt 3 (Twin Mtn)	-	181	4.7	52.2	3:43:00	0:15:21	0:02:00
Rt 3 (Twin Mtn)	Bike path	320	-	10.2	62.4	4:21:19	0:38:19
Bike path	Top of Notch	682	-	3.4	65.8			0:02:28
Top of Notch	Lincoln	-	1259	10.4	76.2
Lincoln	Lincoln Woods	161	-	5.4	81.6	5:42:13	1:20:54
		4860