Rides

Railtrail

Country Road

Off-Road

On Road

Northern Railtrail, 24 Miles, Lebanon to Grafton, NH

Two sections of the 23-mile Northern Railtrail highlight the six easy regional railtrail rides. Leaving downtown Lebanon, the first tour follows the rushing Mascoma River to Lake Mascoma, with an optional return loop via Crystal Lake. The second ride continues east from Enfield village center through Canaan, ending in the old village of Grafton near the one-of-a-kind Ruggles mica mine. Views of Cardigan Mt. and Tewksbury Pond, as well as a ride through a deep rock cut of almost quarter mile, are also features of this flat route along the old Boston & Maine corridor. Plusses are great birding along the Indian River and an interpreted train wreck site from 1904. "Many killed, come quick!"

Other railtrail rides include two sections of the Cross Vermont Trail, which will one day connect the town of Wells River on the Connecticut with Burlington on Lake Champlain. The B&M’s abandoned Oliverian Branch, which once ran south and east from Wells River through Haverhill, N.H., remains a trove of railroad artifacts for the explorer to uncover. You will probably have this trail to yourself. For moose watching, this is the place.

All railtrail rides include the history of the building of the roads and their demise. Stories include how the Enfield Shaker colony got the best of the railroad developers and the the tale of the curious 1852 Wells River Railroad War between the Boston, Concord & Montreal and the Connecticut & Passumpsic.

LINKS: northernrailtrail.org, railtrails.org

Academy Road, Thetford

As the author notes, hundreds of miles of early nineteenth century roads lead "to everywhere and nowhere." Rarely visited except by the people who live on them, what are usually now known as "town roads" form the heart of the undiscovered Upper Valley. Many were once built as turnpikes - toll roads layed out for long distance travel in the 1800–1830 period. Turnpike Road in Norwich, which once formed part of a toll road to Montpelier, leads to 360 degree views from a recently restored fire tower on Gile Mt. The Topsham Road out of East Corinth, though paved, is as "back" as any back road could be. Leading to East Topsham, a long-bypassed village, you will have the eight-mile ride there along the Tabor Brook all to yourself.

The back road rides in A in P are too numerous to count – at least thirty tours include some or all of these rarely visited gems. Let’s just say you will revel in the solitude.

Near Gile Mt, Norwich

Abandoned roads abound in the Upper Valley region, and the topographic maps in A in P that date from the ‘60s and ‘70s are the keys to finding them. As the rural population moved downhill to the valleys beginning a century ago, local roads began to be "thrown up" by towns that didn't want to maintain them. Some are lost forever, but others survive as a web of fat-tire routes through the forest. Hartford, Strafford Norwich and West Fairlee are particularly rich in abandoned roads that lead to copper mines, cellar holes and the cemeteries of forgotten neighborhoods where hundred once lived, farmed and died. Adventures in Paradise takes you there and tells the stories that go with the artifacts.

Near Quechee

Thanks to paralleling interstate highways – I-89 and I-91 – main roads in the Connecticut and White River valleys are marvelously traffic-free. Riding north from Hanover on NH 10, historic bridges allow for loops of 20, 34, 50, or 65 miles . Each of the lovely villages along the way – Lyme, Orford, Haverhill, Newbury, Bradford and Fairlee – has a history and character of its own, as told by the author. From the 400 million year old rocks of the Devonian Age in Fairlee to the invention of the steamboat in Orford, these rides are drenched in history and beauty.

A real gearhead, are you? A in P includes eight demanding long distance rides, including "The Prouty Century," which is the focus of the Upper Valley’s premiere cycling event, an annual July fund-raiser for the Norris Cotton Cancer Center at the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center.

Hills? We got hills. Try Tour 36, Peaceable Kingdom, a loop from Bethel to Randolph Center and return, or Tour 40, Stairway to Heaven, in Strafford.

LINKS: theprouty.org