Because we missed out on cruising “ the Berkshire Trail” yesterday, we decided to cruise over there and do it today.

The road named the Berkshire trail runs from Dalton, Massachussetts to Northampton, Massachussetts, so we made our way over there on Route 20 East, which was a nice cruisie ride through small towns, being a Saturday, traffic was light so the ride was nice.

We had coffee at Dalton then cruised the Berkshire Trail, opps, my bad, here I was telling the troops it was obviously going to be loaded with slutty rich persons houses but No, the Berkshires are of course the range of rolling green hills the area is named after, so the Berkshire Trail was simply a scenic drive through the rolling green hills of the Berkshires with very little in the way of houses. Oh well, nice ride, bit of a Sunday drive, coffee run type of ride though, no Twisties or tight stuff., but a real nice gently rolling cruise in beaut temps, with a low of about 22 and a high of 31 late afternoon.

We arrived in Northampton and had lunch at a classic 1950’s diner, right out of the movies. Although the streets were strangely absent of people, they were all in this packed diner. Our waitress “Jannine” even had the classic 1950’s hair do. Well at least I hope it was a themed hairdo, none of the other waitresses seemed to be “themed”

I should point out, the general consensus was that the food we ate may also have been prepped in the 1950,s when the diner was built………… but tip we did !!!!!!!!!…oh well, when in Rome.

Looking forward to getting back to Joes Garage in New Plymouth for a decent graze in a couple more months give or take. ( Free advertising you guys at Joes!)

Because those touristie type roads were all 45 mph and 55 mph speed limits on the ride over, we decided to hit the interstate to make the return ride a bit quicker. What I thought would be a 200 km day turned out to be closer to 300……..there ya go, Second night in the Comfort Hotel, Albany.

Albany is quite a big city, posted below a couple pics of the buildings in the CBD as we cruise past on the motorway.

Tommorrow we head into the Catskills Mountains in Up State New York, busy in the Winter for skiing, it’s a Sunday tommorrow, let’s hope there are not too many Sunday drivers. Will keep you posted.

Right, breaking news today, now while our accommodation here is on the cheap side and the occupancy is not that high, when we headed off for a run this morning, I asked the troops if they heard the bloody dog barking and the guys fighting over by reception in the night? They didn’t, but I got up and checked the bikes and saw a bit of agro going on between two guys across the yard. They were far enough away so I went back to sleep.

When we got back from our run, we were advised the dog was a Police dog and one of the guys fighting was a swat team guy making an arrest, apparently it’s on the tele today as well. Bit of excitement. I know how to pick the best accommodation venues for sure. No wonder the Police car cruised through here for a look yesterday, maybe they were keeping an eye on one of our fellow guests?!!

A bit later we decided we had had enough of watching drug deals go down and swat team arrests. We thought that Rutland, Vermont might be, how do you say, perhaps the opposite of a tourist attraction, so we decided to bail instead of wasting a day off in this wee town. If I was riding a motorcycle in Vermont again, maybe I would pick a different town to bed down in……….…..just saying.

Packed up and on the bikes we headed south on Route 7, a pleasant ride through southern Vermont in a valley on the edge of the Green Mountains, hills both sides, pleasant enough riding.

We entered Massachusetts, the Berkshires region and by a gliche in my normal OK navigation we finished up continuing south on the Route 100 scenic byway, very peaceful country riding with shag all traffic. We hit route 2, the Mohawk trail and things got a bit busier and more up market as we headed east. When we hit Troy in New York State, the countryside went from peaceful to the Auckland Motorway equivalent, Jesus wept. Anyway arrived safely at the Comfort Inn, south Albany, much more up market then our digs in Rutland. Tommorrow we might finish our tour of the Berkshires where the rich and famous from NYC all have their holiday homes, to see what all the fuss is about!

As we speak, Mark Batty and Tracey Boot are wheels up from CHCH and winging their way to San Fran for a few days then NYC before joining us down the road a piece in East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania on the 20th. Enjoy San Fran you guys, see you in a week, safe riding out of the Big Apple.

The plan for day ten was to start off with a one hour ferry ride across Lake Champlain, a circuit to Lake Placid and Saranac Lake in NY state, before heading south and back into Vermont to Rutland. The weather forecast for that area and in fact Vermont, looked ominous for rain coming in early afternoon, and heavy rain at that. We came up with a Plan B, thinking a 400 km ride with heavy afternoon rain would be unpleasant for our aging bones. We opted to skip to the following days ride which was really just below Montpelier anyway.

We headed down the VT100 to Waitsfield then took the 17 west to go over Appalachian Gap, in the Green Mountains National Forest. This is absolutely the finest set of nice tight Twisties we have ridden to date, would do it again in a heartbeat. Perfect for the adventure bikes, would not be so flash on a Harley as you would be scrapping chrome on every corner. Down off Appalachian Gap, we turned toward Lincoln at Bristol then over Lincoln Gap to Warren.( The gravel pic is on Lincoln Gap road)

Right on the 100 south to a coffee stop at Hancock (that last pic is a photo down the Main Street of Hancock, taken from the old Hancock Hotel where we had coffee) before climbing over Middlebury Gap to Ripton. Due to horrendous amounts of road works on the Western edge of the Green Mountains and in particular on the 7 south, we took the advice of some locals, turned south on Upper Plains Road, snuck around Route 53, the Lake Dunmore road, which was just gorgeous.

Again to avoid a shitload of roadworks in the Brandon area, we took the long way to Rutland by going up the 73 over Brandon Gap to Rochester, south on the 100 then took the 4 over Sherburne Pass toward Rutland.

Murphy’s law, by this time its only 12.30 but the heavens opened from the west, we had seen it coming for a while, donned the wet weather gear and it pissed down cats and dogs as we rode over the Sherburne Pass into Rutland.

All in all, a great days ride, the best Twisties yet, I would rate the Green Mountains of Vermont waaay ahead of the White Mountains of New Hampshire in terms of Twisties for the adventure bike riders.. The White Mountains in NH, gentler curves would suit the Harley bagger boys more so than the Mountains here in Vermont.

Moving right along, now in terms of posted pics, my trip book map was not quite right for today and the REVER app had an operator error as usual with me re- booting the phone, so our route today is both the map pics below joined together. I would have to highly recommend this trip to any rider anywhere near Vermont in his or her travels, maybe ignor this post if you ride a Harley bagger or simply ride it slow and careful. This is a great part of the US for motorcycling as we have found over the past few days.

Now this is a stunning days riding of some 378 kms. I am thinking to myself this was better riding than the White Mountains of New Hampshire and that we have discovered one of New England’s best kept motorcycling secrets. Ignoring the ride north on NH16 from Gorham to Berlin which was nothing to rave about, let’s talk about the road north of Berlin. North of Berlin the road surface smooths out and the road twist And curves it’s way through rolling green hills following the line of the Androscogin river all the way to Errol, hardly a car on the road, 22 degrees, sun shining…….awesome riding. At Errol, hang a left on the NH26 over Dixville notch, we met 5 cars and 2 motorcycles between Errol and Dixville Notch, this is great motorcycling country. North western New Hampshire, there ya go.

Coffee at the Moose’s Muck cafe at Colebrook, headed south to Stratford and hung a right to enter Vermont, through to Orleans then Lowell then over Hazens Notch on 10 miles of gravel to Montgomery Center. Lunch somewhere on the Hazens Notch road.

Next we headed south toward Eden then took the 108 over Smugglers Notch to Lowell. Now this is a very slutty upmarket part of Vermont that oozes money like maple gum on Hazens Notch. Coffee at Lowell to hear how the place is busier in summer than winter. ( ski runs on all the hills in this area) but in the summer, thrives on mountain biking, hiking, gondola rides up the mountain blah blah. Queenstown eat your heart out, what a nice part of Vermont. Actually all of Vermont is outstanding.

Down to Montpelier for the night, capital of Vermont and the smallest State capital in the USA, chatting to some riders from Ohio who have trailered their bikes down to ride the good roads of Vermont and New Hampshire after doing some of the West Coast earlier in the summer. Full of good info.

I would be so bold as to suggest the ride depicted on the map below eats for breakfast, in terms of scenery and outright riding pleasure in terms of Twisties and no traffic, the higher rated popular White Mountains circuit we did yesterday. New England riders need to ride this circuit more often, much more appealing I would be so humble to suggest.

A great days riding.

PS, that thin black line at the top of the map below is the Canadian border.

Great days riding today, first up we had about 120 kms to ride west out of Maine to get to the White Mountains circuit, a rather depressed area of Maine to be fair, the wee town of Mexico, Maine……..tragic place really.

Arriving at the start of the Evans Notch road, we entered White Mountain National Forest on a narrow road to the summit, fully enclosed with trees, neat riding, over Evans notch and down the other side for a coffee stop before heading west through Conway. We turned east onto the Kancamagus Highway, highly rated in these parts by the motorcycling fraternity. It was a nice climb with gentle sweepers, let’s just say if he locals talk this up as great motorcycling country, we are soooooo lucky in NZ with our great motorcycling COUNTRY. To be fair, there were more motorcycles on the Kancamagus than cars.

Lunch in a rest area at the top and down the other side of the Kancamagus we headed north now on the Franconia notch parkway, we assume at some stage on this road we past Franconia notch, maybe where the crowded visitor center was? Nice road though. Next we swung east and south and rode through Crawford Notch State Park, slowed down by a couple of armchair Harley’s nannering along a bit slow on a no passing area. Dickheads!!!!

A wee break and then headed north over Pinkham notch on Route 16, before being relieved of $26 US to ride up Mt Washington auto road. This was an 8 mile climb up a narrow mountain road to a tourist trap shop thingie at the top. Sits at about 6500 feet. Worth the ride but thieving bastardios.

back down off Mt Washington and into Gorham to our accommodation ……….not up to the standard of the Comfort the night before.

360 kms of very nice riding today, none the less.

Monday dawned bright and sunny but with an 8.30 departure we were at a very acceptable riding temp of about 24 degrees which stayed with us till late afternoon when it snuck up to 28. Today’s route was a combination of the Maine chapter of the best motor cycle rides in New England book, as well as Mr Google as to scenic byways in Maine.

As a result we had a very good cross section of what Western Maine had to offer the motorcyclist who has an aversion to traffic and a love of roads with shag all traffic.

So we retraced our route back to Ellsworth, then rode across to Bangor, then took the ME15 up through Dover-Foxcroft to Greenville, picnic lunch at a wee public beach on the Lake at Greenville, then rode up the side of Moosehead Lake……gorgeous ride….. to Rockwood, A very slutty boutique wee hamlet on the lake, along past Brassua Lake and Long Pond to the wee town of Jackman. We had a coffee at Jackman, 17 miles south of the Canadian border then headed south on ME 201, the Old Canada scenic byway. Just south of the village of West Fork, the road hugs the edge of first the Kennebec river and later the edge of Wyman lake, meaning you are riding along the water in excess of 100 kms. Real nice riding. 400 kms today in total. We have probably seen more of western Maine today than a lot of the locals! Did I say I like Maine.

Couple back roads with trees hugging the sides of the road and a hideously rough road surface, keep us awake as we rode into Farmington from Madison, destination the Comfort Hotel couple kms south of town, a cut above what we have been in for the last 5 days, very nice. Few lengths in the pool and a bbq tea and we’re ready for tomorrow’s ride into the White Mountains of New Hampshire.

This is a stunning part of the world, shame the locals can only really do any thing here for the four months of summer as in the winter it’s four feet deep in snow. Cruisie day today starting off with a ride to the summit of Mount Cadillac which gives awesome views over the entire island and Arcadia. A quick visit to the visitor center before a loop of the park and a coffee out at the village of Northeast Harbour, a nicely held secret of this area. What a gorgeous village. The real estate on South Shore road and Sergeant drive would easily rival that of Ocean Drive and Bellvue road at Newport,Rhode Island, but in a much more serene and tree’d setting, simply stunning. Had coffee there and got the tips to ride these streets and look at the real estate from a local again…….love chatting to the locals. We popped back to the Motel for lunch then went for a circuit down to Southwest Harbour, Bass Harbour and Seal cove and were back at the Motel by 3.00. Little bit of re-hydrating then down to the Harbour where there were some Maine lobsters consumed, as you do when in Maine. All in all a relaxing day with some beautiful scenery all at a leisurely pace given the low speed limits in the park and on the local roads.

Let’s just say the Econolodge at Portland was the type of accommodation Mark Batty would have refused to stay at and we will leave it at that, enough said.

We had planned to take Route 1 all the way up the coast to Bar Harbour but we spoke to a local at the servo who goes up to Arcadia every year. He commented that it was still the 4th of July holiday weekend and that road would be a “clusterfk” was the term he used due to the column of traffic on it. We took his advice on the best route to take that would be the most scenic and he was right. We stayed on the 295 to Augusta, then took the 3 across to Belfast, then the 1 to Bar Harbour. The first relaxing, all country, no clusterfck high traffic volumn riding we have had, what a cruisie day. I like Maine.

We stopped for coffee in the middle of nowhere at the Olde Mill diner on Route 3, just east of Lake St George. Didn’t look much from the outside but what an awesome spot with great service and endless filtered coffee that tasted as good as the city espresso’s. Horse, being a connoisseur of all things coffee was not with me so much on the good coffee angle. the locals in their had us pegged as Aussies so we had to put them straight on where the accent came from.

Some real nice spots on the way through, Bucksport, Searsmont, Ellsworth, nice riding.

Arriving in Bar Harbour, we wandered down to a laundromat, which fortuitously had a bar on the back of it, then later headed down into the village. A very cute town, set up for tourists and cruise ships, bit like a mini Arrowtown.

About 5.00 pm the expected thunderstorm hit that had been forecast and it pissed down for 2/3 hrs, good thing the bikes were parked up at the time!!!!!!.

Two nights in Bar Harbour as tommorrow is just cruising around Arcadia National Park and back to the same digs.

Internet playing hard to get for uploading pics so will do that later.

As today was under 200 km we didn’t leave Boston until about 9.30 am. The interstates are pretty boring so we hit the old Route 1 from the get go. Any visitors to New England who are heading into Maine out of Boston and are not in a hurry should take their time to see some of these cool lesser used roads. Don,t try them if you are in a hurry as the speed limits are much slower.

Following the old Route one north out of Boston is quite relaxing. 30 kms or so north of the city the 1A is signposted toward Rowley. Take this road and ride through to Newbury and then on to Newburyport for coffee. This is a gorgeous road, old school classic New England homes, peaceful and relaxing.

We then crossed the inlet and……. my bad……. decided to take the 1A along the coast past Salisbury beach, Seabrook beach because all the locals say this is a lovely ride. normally it would be but DO NOT take your motorcycle over there on the 4th of July holiday week unless you wish to punish yourself. They are packed in like Sardines.

My recommendation, Rowley to Newburyport is a pleasant diversion route if you have the time, then You may as well sit on the interstate and avoid all the traffic lights on old Route one…….just saying.

Heading to Bar Harbour tommorrow and will try the Old Route one again and hope it has less sets of lights maybe?

I like Boston, this is a cool city, plenty of Character and waaaay less crowded than the big apple, especially this weekend. Bostonians are friendly as. ( True story, Captain Henry Collins the 3rd of Connecticut.) . We are staying in a superb spot for the transportation issue, the tram line for Heath street was right outside the hotel at the top of South Huntington, so into the CBD for $2.90 each and got some tickets for the Duck tour, aptly named as the amphibious vehicles do a wee circuit in the river as well as taking you round the usual tourist sights. We had the vehicle Molly Molasses as you can see from the pics. We had to wait an hour or so before the tour started so we slipped into the Prudential building shopping complex for coffee first. Recall from yesterday all the traffic grid locked heading to Cape Cod.? Well Boston has a population of 700, 000 when the 290,000 students are not here. 500,000 of them must have gone to Cape Cod yesterday, judging by the traffic we saw crawling south at walking pace, so the city is like a ghost town today……..…..Absolute heaven.

Pic one is the inside of the shopping mall in the Prudential building, note the absence of people. Awesome. At 11.00 we got on Molly Molasses and did the tour, few pics loaded of buildings and stuff about Boston, the town gardens, Boston Common, blah blah.

Spot the photo I took down town of what appears to be a bronze replica of a slow moving amphibious animal, haha got you didn’t I, this is not what it appears to be to the naked eye, it is actually a very good replica of an Early Model Triumph 800 adventure bike fully kitted out to carry luggage and all. Note the knobby tread pattern on both front tyres, confirming this replica is the adventure model and not a road bike………Deceiving eh? The front fairing and headlight could be mistaken for a turtles head. Amazing. Gotta love it.

I slipped that one in before I have to fess up to taking a, let’s say, partial beating today myself. Spot the pic of the veteran Boston PD lads beside their 117 ci 2019 Harley Road Kings all shiny and new, inside Boston Common waiting to do a VIP escort. Sparked up a conversation and got immeaduuuutly cut down when I suggested it was a shame there were no BMW,s on display here. “ The communists over the river in Cambridge ride BMW,s “ came back from the guy who looked like he might be the most senior, referring I presume to his colleagues in the Cambridge PD. I was then advised, in that cool Boston accent, that the higher ups tried to get them to change to BMW,s once but the Boston PD have had Harley’s about 45 years and the boys were not about to change to that German crap………….words to that effect you understand.

Initially, I started to get the teensiest of vibes these guys were not BMW fans and it was at about this point I had concerns my plans to turn them to BMW converts in one conversation was not going well. During this conversation however, I was cognisant that there is a Harley franchise over here about every 100 meters throughout the entire USA, not just Massachusetts, so I realized immediately what was going on. It is clearly incumbent on all local Boston P.D. boys, and possibly even forms part of their annual KPI,s, to support the US economy by talking up the Harley’s, despite their countless flaws. Needless to say they did not have to give me a wink and a nod for me to realize that deep down, they were actually BMW fans through and through but that it would be politically incorrect for them to fess up to this in public and possibly even jeopardize their (soon to be received) pensions. I totally understood the brothers in blue, so moved right along without another word. Very professional they were with their public denial of the true quality of the BMW motorcycle…… I was impressed with their tact and diplomacy. This is the type of professionalism within the Police I was always proud of when I was in the job in NZ back in the day.

At this point in today’s blog I need to comment that if anyone was to suggest I talk a lot of shit, I would surely deny this vehemently and suggest my beliefs are heartfelt on the above topic.

As the day moved into dusk, the 4th of July celebs kicked off down town, supposedly half a million people watching the festivities. ( I thought they were all at Cape Cod ) With that quoted number of people enough to keep me right away, I elected to watch the fireworks from the air conditioned comfort of the Hotel you understand. The rest of the team trammed down to watch the fireworks from close up. Legends.

We head north into Maine tommorrow.