220 miles, 8.6 hours

Since we were staying in Franconia Notch, it was only about three miles down the road to our first stop, the Flume. We took the little shuttle bus ride up the hill, then walked through the flume, along the rim, and back down to the Visitors Center. It was about 1.4 miles up and down hills. Phew! We were both glad we didn't start with a half-mile uphill hike.

The granite in this area is really pretty. I especially liked the pinkish colored granite. Often the face of it would turn very dark, which just made the exposed areas that much more striking.

We then took the fun and gorgeous Kancamagus Highway and turned north. Tamara really liked our next little stretch on Bear Notch Road, though I thought it was a little on the bumpy side to really relax and enjoy.

Mount Washington is one of those famous roads that I don't think should be missed. The top of the mountain appeared to be covered in clouds, but we ran it anyhow. The lady who took our entrance fee said there was absolutely no passing allowed- thankfully, there weren't any cars visible in front of us. However, it didn't take long for us to catch up to a couple of cars.

We weren't going fast- about 30mph- but the cars were going about 14mph. The lead car pulled aside, allowing the 80s Honda Accord in front of us to go past (we got past too). Unfortunately, the Accord only wanted to go a few miles faster. That doesn't surprise me, since he was constantly belching smoke from his overheated automatic transmission. Somehow we ended up in front of the Accord, which was nice.

As we figured, the very top of the mountain was shrouded in fog. We chose not to hike up to the visitors center- why bother, since there's nothing to see? So we turned around and went down until it cleared up. We were still well above the treeline, and it was horribly windy. On a fluke, we got to see the cog train not far from the top. It was cute, though I'm not sure I'd want to spend all day and $60 (per person) riding it.

On the rest of the ride down, I stayed in first or second gear and let the engine handle the braking. I only had to get on the brakes when there was a vehicle in front of us, which didn't happen often, since either we or the other car would stop for photos and such. It was definitely worth going up Mt. Washington for the ride alone, and the views (such as they were) are pretty good too. I'd recommend it.

Tamara and I traded pilot duties the rest of the afternoon, taking small highways north and west towards Montreal. The border crossing was incredibly relaxed- we showed the cheerful French-Canadian our passports, told him approximately what was in our luggage, and we were on our way. We didn't have to show him the paperwork for the bike, and he didn't enter information into a computer. It seems so low-key compared to the Latin American crossings that we have been used to. I'm sure coming back into the US won't be as easy or pleasant.

We camped near Bromont, which is in the forests about an hour away from Montreal.