Last Minute Route Help!! Burlington, VT to Beverly, MA

[coldinvt]

Hey'o, great Forum.  De-lurking to put myself at the mercy of the lunatic horde that is ST.n...  :-)

Anyway, a last minute opportunity to ride rather than drive has come up and I want to stay off the highway as much as possible...  Also, I did some riding in Southern NH a couple weeks back and pavement conditions were deplorable, so avoiding NH wouldn't hurt my feelings either.  Any route suggestions would be appreciated!

From home, I'll head over App. Gap (VT17) then south on 100...  Take it from there!!  

Looking forward to seeing what we can come up with!  

[Sport-Touring]

[Hulked Up]

I'm not a big fan of Route 100, kind of over-rated IMO.  You're probably going to have to deal with a fair bit of traffic and do some passing.  Depending on what direction on App. Gap you end up on I would recommend either Route 30 (western side, close to Burlington) or Route 12 (eastern side).  Both of those routes offer scenery as good as Route 100, but with very little traffic, just locals.

Getting you east from Vermont is a bit tougher.  As you know there are no real good east/west routes in New England.  I don't really have any suggestions other than Route 2, which is kind of boring.  Maybe others have some better options.  

[coldinvt]

My usual route south is to take 17 east over the Gap, south on 100 to Rochester (only like 8 mi. of 100, I agree that it's way too touristy), east on Bethel Mtn. Rd. then you're on 89 if you want.  I was probably going to head to Royalton then south over some boonie-roads to maybe Bellows falls, then wend my way through southern NH and into MA on a southeasterly track...  

Any Northeastern Mass roads to check out, or do they all suck?  (Northwestern Mass, OTOH... nice stuff!!)

Thanks!!

[Hulked Up]

From Bethel Mountain I would recommend 106 south to Woodstock, then 12 south to either Rte 44 or 121 by Ascutney.  Cross the Conn. River into New Hampster.  Don't take 103/11, that's just a sprawl zone.  You might want to try 2nd New Hampshire Turnpike, which turns into Mountain Road down to Washington.  Looks good on paper.  Take 31 to Hillsborough.  If you have the time stop in and visit Dick Kemp and his old trucks.  From Hillsborough I like Rte. 149.  Can't help you after that.  No experience with northeastern Mass. roads.

[coldinvt]

Kemp's a genius, eh?  "I can just come out here in the yard and look at it, and there it is."

Sounds like it might be worth checking out!

[Pete ST]

Robster
  It's suprising what miscreants show up on here.  ;-)
If you come down 100 I would take Rt9 over Hogbank Mtn (nice views and curves) though some traffic. Head over to rt 63 south thru Chesterfield to 119 east (some traffic but an OK road) There are quite a few decent roads near the CT river but the further you get from the river the less there are. The northern part of 63 is quite good thru Westmoreland.
 Rt 123 and 123A thru Alstead are decent. Route 149 from Hillsborough to  to South Weare is my favorite.
12 from Goffstown to New Boston ain't bad.
 When you going? I may be doing a loop up thru Ma, VT and NH on Sunday

  Pete Staniforth
  96 Geeper guy

Hey'o, great Forum.  De-lurking to put myself at the mercy of the lunatic horde that is ST.n...  :-)

Anyway, a last minute opportunity to ride rather than drive has come up and I want to stay off the highway as much as possible...  Also, I did some riding in Southern NH a couple weeks back and pavement conditions were deplorable, so avoiding NH wouldn't hurt my feelings either.  Any route suggestions would be appreciated!

From home, I'll head over App. Gap (VT17) then south on 100...  Take it from there!!  

Looking forward to seeing what we can come up with!  

[coldinvt]

Pete!  Geez, they'll let anyone with an email address on here!  

I'll be heading back, Beverly to Burlington, on Sunday and I'm thinking I'll hit NH149 for sure.  Meet for lunch?  I'd probably be near the CT river by lunch but not sure where @ this point...  Keep me posted on your plans and maybe we'll work it out!

-Rob

[Pete ST]

Rob
 OK I have yer number. A couple of buddies are riding up from Ct and doing lunch in Vt on Sunday but I dunno where yet, or if for sure I'll be joining them. So once thing's gel if it looks good for a meet up I'll let you know.
Gotta get the brakes sorted Saturday..

   Pete

p

Pete!  Geez, they'll let anyone with an email address on here!  

I'll be heading back, Beverly to Burlington, on Sunday and I'm thinking I'll hit NH149 for sure.  Meet for lunch?  I'd probably be near the CT river by lunch but not sure where @ this point...  Keep me posted on your plans and maybe we'll work it out!

-Rob

[TrophyHusband01]

Hiya -

I live a couple towns over from Beverly, and have found it difficult to get to Rt. 100 from here while still having much fun. That being said, if I am traveling between the North Shore and the lakes region of central NH, I like to ride Rt. 107 from Northeast MA well into Southern NH. It's not real fast, but is scenic, twisty, and pretty freshly paved. If you can connect 107 to 100 it might be worth your while. I normally take Rt. 4 and get my share of traffic, etc.

A heads-up on the local road blocks in MA...

I work in Newburyport, MA and live in Hamilton, and there are THREE separate bridges out between work and home.

The one that might effect this ride for you is on Rt. 1A in Newbury - Bridge being replaced -  two year project, so you have to take Rt. 1 once you hit MA. If you are taking Rt. 1 and need to get to Beverly from there, take Rt. 97 across, and you will miss the other two closed bridges.

 

[Norwegian Blue]

Off topic:

Spent three weeks in the Champlain Valley in July and early August. Did it ever stop raining? I was feeling quite mildewed by the end of my stay....

Had hoped to buy a new bike at Frank's BMW/Triumph in Essex since they had a fire sale on the F800S, but their two remaining inventory disappeared a couple of days before I got there. Alas.... What with the weather, though, I would have hardly been able to ride it.

Good luck finding a route!

[coldinvt]

Pete: It looks like I won't be leaving MA until late-morning at best, but probably after lunch.  So I'd probably make Ascutney, VT by 2 or 3:00.  

Trophy: Thanks for the recommendations.  I hit no fewer than 3 closed bridges on my way down yesterday...  Walpole, NH and 2 in Assatwoshitts.  PITA!!  I'm going to try 97 to Salem, NH tomorrow for the return trip.

Norwegian Blue: Nope, still raining!! Kidding... we've actually had a positively beautiful week for a change - this is why I live in Vermont!  You definitely brought some RAIN with you though!!  I had to drain my pool 3 times in one week during that stretch!  Come again and bring your rain gear!  ;-)

Thx again (you too, Keith!),
Rob

[Pete ST]

OK Rob  catch U next time
I just found out that Rt 9 in VT is all tore up and jammed up - so I would have had to make some route changes anyway..

 Pete

[coldinvt]

So I decided that, really, the best roads in northeastern Mass are the ones that get you out of northeastern Mass fastest.  The hell with 97.... some day when I've got more time to kill and I don't mind 35-40mph speed limits and hordes of cyclers, joggers, dogwalkers, inattentive drivers and jaywalkers.  128 to 93 north and GTF outta' there!

Once into NH, it's 293 to route 114 through Goffstown and 149 to Hillsborough, which was EXcellent!  A few gravelly corners and pavement quality was maybe a 7 out of 10, but that's a far cry better than some we rode earlier in the month (notably the trashed 137 to Jaffrey and 153 through Effingham).  

From Hillsborough, it was route 31 to Washington then Lempster Mtn. Rd. to the 2nd NH Tpke. to Claremont.  All decent pavement and some more gravel, but overall they were very interesting roads and, like 149, there was almost no traffic.  North on 12 to Barnard and North Road over to Bethel for some beautiful scenery!  And no traffic!

From there, it's the usual - a regular "Dad-style" shortcut to the Burlington area when I'm tired of the highway and I've got an extra 40 minutes to kill...  Bethel Mountain Road down to rte. 100 in Rochester, north to Warren, up the Sugarbush access rd. and over German Flats to 117 over App Gap to lots of great riding in the Champlain Valley.  That shortcut is a great set of roads, if you're ever up this way...

There you have it.  Thanks for the input along the way!

Speed safely,
Rob

[Hulked Up]

Sounds like a good day in the saddle Rob.  So Lempster Mnt. Road was okay?  

I like the road into Washington and if you have the time there are two cool cemeteries right off Route 31 that are worth exploring.

[coldinvt]

It was a great day... and the weather!!  

LM Rd. was good, yeah.  A couple corners strewn with gravel added to the pucker factor and I was constantly expecting it to turn to dirt but it never did.  Hit it!