At the beginning of August, Barnstormer posted about new pavement on route 119 in NH. Gary and I decided we wanted to ride it. We met on Thursday morning at the Mobil station on route 70 in Lancaster, MA to start our ride.
Before riding the new pavement, we needed lunch. We decided on Bentley's Roast Beef on route 101A in Amherst, NH. We rode to Amherst on beautiful roads up through Pepperell, MA and Hollis, NH. It was a cool morning with clouds fighting with blue sky to see who would win. I'd call it a draw.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/MWkiuPVFtdYagKRN8We had the bikes parked under a beautiful shade tree. Based on the configuration of the parking lot, we wondered if they were vulnerable to somebody backing into them. We decided to leave them be.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/3aya3DpVicfNDcrMAAfter lunch, I noticed a CR-V driven by an older gentlemen backing up and he seemed too close to the bikes. Given that I've already had someone back into my bike causing $1,000+ damage (Honda plastic is expensive!), I jumped up and ran to his window to tell him to be careful. And then I watched him complete his maneuver. All was well and I put my type-A personality back in my pocket.
We left shortly thereafter and started on our ride. We took 101A west to 101 west to 31 south. This is the same route I rode about a week ago. Route 31 south was so much fun I wanted to take Gary on it. But unfortunately, we got stuck behind a rental box truck for most of the ride.
We rode 31 south all the way to Ashby, MA. And the turned west on 119. We followed 119 all the way to Rindge, NH. The leg from Ashby to Rindge is a mostly straight wide-open run from MA, but it's pretty. There's new pavement on most of this ride.
In Rindge is where 119 gets twisty. And it gets even more twisty westbound through Fitzwilliam, NH. There's new pavement all along this route. The Fitzwilliam westbound to Winchester, NH leg was mostly cloudy with rain threatening skies. We never got rained on. But the pavement was wet in many spots. So we got lucky.
In Winchester we exited 119 and took 78 south back into MA. It's particularly twisty in the brief section that goes through the Mount Grace State Forest. We followed 78 south to 2A east to 122 south to 2 east to 32 south to our typical rest stop at the Country Store in Petersham, MA. At that point we had been 2 hours on the bikes and needed to stretch.
Since I ride a GW, I grabbed and ice cream cone. Gary fought the ice cream temptation and got a soda. He snapped this picture of me walking back to the bikes while opening my ice cream cone.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/u6xaf4h7c2up1KMbAFrom Petersham, we found our way home. The WX improved as we headed further south and east. Was a fun day.
