Two friends and I participated in the inaugural Kearsarge Klassic dirt road randonnee yesterday, basically NH's version of the D2R2, in the southern region of the state less than two hours from Boston: remote dirt roads through mountainous forest and farmland. We rode the mid-length route of 59 miles:
This is typically what it was like about half the time:
And the other half of the time:
Grueling climbs as steep as 14% rewarded us with vistas like this:
No dirt road ride is complete without the token covered bridge:
The weather was fantastic for most of the day, but later on the skies darkened ominously. Not five miles from the finish, the skies opened up on us, releasing a torrential downpour. We arrived saturated, but that wasn't enough to wipe the smiles from our faces after having experienced such a joyous ride:
And after eating a chili dinner (sampling no less than five types of chili) and drying off, Southern NH bid us farewell with this rainbow:
