Day 3 (Saturday) - I woke up on Saturday a bit sore from the Friday afternoon bike crash but otherwise ready to go. I grabbed a large regular and headed to Whitefield. Kevin T was already there when I arrived at 6:15 am and we were off and riding by 6:30.
The trail was as scenic as we’d been led to believe and the miles rolled by. The biggest drawback was the amount of dew on the long grass in the early going that left both of us damp and muddy. The temps were in the 50’s which was very comfortable for riding and we cruised along at 10-20 mph depending on the terrain and surface. The first few miles hadn’t been groomed recently but the middle miles had been cut recently we actually passed the mowing truck which was just getting going for the day. There was a great stretch of solid dirt trail with a long steady descent into Gorham. We hit the turn in a little over 1:40, with no crashes, just one near miss at a water bar near the highway under-pass.
We both fueled up a bit at the turn and took 2 or 3 minutes to walk a bit and then we were back on the bikes. The long steady climb wasn’t too bad but the 10 mph seemed like a lot more effort after 20 miles on the bike. We saw a deer on the way back but otherwise very little wildlife. We also only saw one other rider on the trail. The 39 mile ride seemed to go by pretty quickly (at least for me, I’m not sure how Kevin felt as this was only his second ride this year) and we were back at the trail head 3:20 after we’d started.
I’d highly recommend this ride, the views of the mountains and the closer up views of the forest was great. There were only a couple of road crossings and you really got the feeling of being out on a remote trail when you were rarely more than a mile from Route 2.
I decided on the ride home that I’d stop at my favorite (and convenient to Route 93) hill and go for my first run in three weeks. I headed to Loudon and got in a nice relaxing 3 mile run up/down Oak hill. This is a great little hill with some spectacular views from the fire tower on the summit. It was a great way to get back to running again!
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