Through the Notch

Day 64: St. Johnsbury, VT to N. Conway, NH--71 miles


Today, we found one more word that means "REALLY big hill" and that is NOTCH. It's a term I've only heard in the Northeast. This term was demonstrated ALL MORNING from 9:00 until 2:00 when we actually went through the Crawford Notch on our way through the White Mountains.

The day started with a good breakfast at the Surf & Sirloin in St. J (as the locals call it). As soon as we hit the road, though, the granny gears were going strong because we climbed right up and out of town--and then just kept on climbing! I got to spend a lot of time thinking on these climbs because I was going VERY slowly--the slowest I have been since Montana. Here are some of those thoughts: Will my heart explode out of my chest soon? Don't I have another gear? Will my kneecaps pop off? Where is that other gear? Why is David so far ahead of me? WHY DON'T I HAVE ANOTHER GEAR??? And so on...

We did an early lunch stop in Littleton, NH. We had done a very steep climb coming into town and had sweat BUCKETS! Since we were expecting a lot more of the same until we reached the notch, we fueled up.

Once we climbed to the town of Twin Mountain, the scenery became truly spectacular! If you haven't ever been to New Hampshire, it is a MUST SEE. We rode along the base of Mt. Washington, the highest peak in the Northeast. We passed the Bretton Woods ski area and the spectacular Mt. Washington Hotel. We knew the notch was coming, so we were expecting another huge hill. Imagine our surprise when it didn't happen! The last push was almost anti-climactic, and we spent a little time at the top looking at the Appalachian Mountain Club's quarters and talking with some hikers (thinking about our next vacation???).


Then came the awesome 13% downhill! That scoundrel David told me to be really careful on such a steep downhill with all our gear on the bikes--and then he blew past me like I was standing still! I had to chase him the rest of the way down, and it was such a nice change from the hot uphills of the day.

The last 20 miles were much faster because we got back much of the altitude we gained in the morning. We rolled into N. Conway at about 5:15 and found a room near a good restaurant called Delaneys. We had sushi (of all things in the mountains) and it was our first of the trip. Tomorrow--Portland!