Hey Folks,

Gonna be heading across NH to central VT for Mother's day weekend, with my wife and daughter in tow. Assuming the weather looks reasonably decent, I plan to ride, and they will follow in the cage. We are heading for Stockbridge VT.

I'm looking for a route that is fairly bike friendly, and avoids large stretches on the slab. But for the wife and kid's sake, I don't want to be a completely roundabout route, either. Google Maps has come up with a couple options, and I played around with it some and came up with this (leaving from Lebanon ME/Milton NH).

NH 75 to NH11, 11 to NH 3 up into Laconia/Belmont (I'm very familiar with this section - rode it today - so should be good to go here).

Continue NH 3 / NH 11 to Andover, NH, where I'll pick up NH 4A to Lebanon NH.

Continue on Rt. 4 into VT, across to VT 100 at Killington, and 100 North to Stockbridge.

This route calculates out to 141 miles and 3h31m on Google Maps. The slab route up I-89 is the same distance and cuts 1 hour. I can live with the 3.5 hours as long as the roads aren't terrible. Don't really want to add much more time than that though.

Maps originally suggested a more northerly route from the VT line, Up route 14 paralleling I-89 and the White River to 107, then 107 across to Stockbridge. I've never been on 14 or 107 in VT, but have been on 4 once, and 100 several times (in a cage).

Can anyone suggest any alternatives to my planned route that would either save some time without running I-89, or would be similar time but better scenery, or if any of my planned route is in really rough shape?

Thanks,

Dan

 

If it were me, I'd take Route 4 from Portsmouth all the way over. Great ride, I love doing that ride when I go to Maine from here.

 

Sorry, but is this a joke? Aren't NH & VT small states that are right next to each other? Can't tell if you're serious. For 140 miles?

 

Thanks for the positive feedback. I didn't GMaps it that way, but it's about 35 minutes south to hit 4 in Portsmouth from home, so guessing it will add roughly that amount of time to the trip - so I think I'll stick with the route through Belmont to start off. But glad to know this is a good route.

Geez, Glidr, thanks for the burn already! Should I feel all butthurt now 'cause you're making fun of the noob rider? Yeah, I know, it's an internet forum, when I post here, I open myself up to whatever public comments come back at me. I'll try not to cry too much.

FWIW, this isn't a joke, and it will be the longest ride I've done, in one shot, since I got the bike last September. I'd rather have more info than less, for places I've never been before. Some of the roads in NH are in rough shape, so I imagine some in VT are too - I'd like to avoid 50 miles of frost heaves if I can.

Thanks all for the continued input.

 

Sorry. Nowhere in your post did you say noob rider. 140 miles is a trip that alot of us here might take after work to go out for dinner & go back home, so I wasn't sure. Deleting my replies after you've seen this.

 

You are correct, I didn't specify that I was a noob - and post count certainly is not necessarily indicative of experience. I have about 400 miles on a '77 CB750K in summer of 1995, and about 1800 miles on the '02 1200C I'm riding now, since last September (parked for winter from Thanksgiving until the end of March). So yes, I'm a noob.

I'd personally love to have the time in my life to take frequent 140 mile rides on a daily basis - but I work 50-55 hours a week during riding season (and mostly can't commute on the bike due to needing my truck for work) and have a wife (who also works 40 hours a week) and 5 year old daughter to spend time with as well as a house to take care of. A ride like this, for me, either involves the wife and kid coming along, or schedule coordination so I can take off for a day without unduly impacting them too much. I'm sure it's nothing to most of you guys, but I'm completely psyched to have the chance to take this trip - it's a big deal for me.

As far as your previous comments, it's all good - no need to delete them for my sake. But of course they are your comments, so yours to do what you wish with. In my head their tone was rather venomous - but perhaps I am more sensitive than I like to let on . And we all know how easy it is to misinterpret tone in a text-only forum. I appreciate your expansion and explanation of the original comments.

Ride safe!