Tour de Gorham

Here’s another fun ride for you this Tuesday. This perennial favorite is about a 14 mile circumnavigation of Gorham on mostly dirt roads and trails with a bit of paved road thrown in too. The starting point is at the route 2 parking lot for the Presidential Rail Trail.

We’ll start out on the gravel Gorham Emergency Road which is closed to motorized vehicles except in (you guessed it) emergencies when Route 2 through the center of town is impassable. At the airport we’ll get onto the pipeline trail which will take us by the south side of the airport thus avoiding the roads of downtown Gorham. After about a mile we’ll cross route 16 and take a residential road to a foot bridge across the Peabody River and get back on the pipeline trail. Here there will be a short but very steep hill to walk up with the bikes. And then it's a pretty much of a straight shot on the pipeline trail back to Route 2 and North Road. There is the option to leave the pipeline trail at various points and take Route 2 if the group prefers a smoother paved surface for this segment of the Tour de Gorham.

As we cross over the Androscoggin River we can view the progress to the repairs on the Shelburne Dam which was seriously damaged by Hurricane Irene. Next we’ll follow Hogan Road west for about 5 miles on the virtually untraveled north side of the Androscoggin River where there will be awesome views of the river and several power dams. Then we’ll take a left onto the Presidential Rail Trail which will take us back to our cars. Most of this ride will be on pretty flat and smooth trails and roads. The exception is the pipeline trail which has rolling hills and several excellent opportunities to walk the bikes.

Directions: Go north on Route 16 to Gorham. When route 16 meets route 2 at the T intersection turn left. Go through Gorham on Routes 16 and 2 until Route 2 diverges to the left at the traffic light . You'll see the trail head parking lot on the right about .8 miles after you turned left on Route 2.

For those of you who want to carpool meet at The Old Town Hall in Jackson, across the road from the post office at 9:20.

Let's start the ride at 10:00am.