Mysterious objects in the woods always pique my interest. Whether I’m hiking, skiing, snowshoeing or biking, I stop and wonder: What is that, how did it get here, who put it there, what does it mean? There are stories in those finds.
Would you believe me if I said you could create at least a 15-mile in-town road ride in the East Side area, starting from Hemlock Lane, near Walmart, and ending at Hurricane Mountain Road? Such a ride involves not only distance, but climbing challenges. It’s what my friend, Jeanne Twehous, r…
This is my last column for the Sun.
It’s the grab it when you can time of the cycling season. With darkness outstripping daylight hours, the window of opportunity for cycling is shrinking. If you wait too late in the day to go out, you’ll be coming home in the dark.
Some may see them as roads to nowhere or perhaps forgotten roads that once led to towns, work encampments or cabins of yesterday. I see them as roads to somewhere, or as Robert Frost might say the roads not taken.
I have always had a fascination with old cemeteries. Oftentimes, they’ve been places of beauty and quiet meditation for me. Other times, they’ve been a place to discover the history and lives of those interred beneath their stones. Gravestones' etchings tell their stories.
The idea was to use Bike for Books routes from the 2010s as an outline and go from there. The ride would progress from the Whitaker Homesite and go through Whitaker Woods, along the power lines and then Old Bartlett Road to Cranmore Mountain Resort.
A friend told me about riding horses when she was a kid around Rockhouse Mountain in Conway. I could just imagine how exciting that was, especially with a downhill gallop to the farm. Could I do a ride like that on my bike? That question was the spark that lit my fire.
Friday, Sept. 19, was a beautiful day for a Fryeburg, Maine, pre-fall and Fair ride. Skies were blue, temperatures mild and the sun was shining. The Mount Washington Valley Bicycling Club’s website (tinyurl.com/49874pz5) posted a “mixed gravel and pavement ride” to Fryeburg’s Hemlock Covered…
On a beautiful fall day with blue sky and sunshine, it’s time to get outside. You can drive around like leaf peepers and gawk at nature’s finery, snapping pictures to show people back home. Or, you can immerse yourself in the kaleidoscope of color, smells and sights by walking, hiking and cy…
Recently, my wife and two friends were returning from a filling Cornish, Maine, breakfast when we found ourselves driving some back roads in the borderlands region of New Hampshire and Maine we hadn’t been on for a spell.
That’s an odd-looking dog I said to myself. The slim creature with the perky ears then revealed itself and two others as I neared a bend in Wolcott, Vt,. by the winding Lamoille River. The trio had no interest in meeting me; instead, they did an about-face and gave me a triple white-tailed m…
Fall doesn’t officially start until Monday, Sept. 22, yet high school fall sports are well underway. Many teams have had their first games, meets or races. That meant it was time for me to contact local high school mountain bike coaches to see how their season was going.
Like Mud Bowl and the White Mountain Milers’ Half Marathons, mountain bike festivals are part of the fall activities calendar. Celebrating the waning of the light and the drop in temperatures as the season rolls toward winter, these festivals provide a great excuse to gather the mountain bik…
Tim Straz had his epiphany about five years ago. The Wolfeboro mountain biker and gravel rider enjoys pedaling the Cotton Valley Rail Trail to access dirt roads and climbs in the area. You’ll also find him on trails supported by the Greater Wolfeboro chapter of the New England Mountain Bike …
Five years ago, I wrote a column about fall family scavenger hunts. There was no Mount Washington Valley Rec Path at that time. The primary purpose was to get families out on trails and paths, discovering what they could see, hear and touch in nature. My secondary agenda was to promote the i…