At 2,855 feet, Kancamagus Pass is the highest paved public road that crosses New Hampshire?s White Mountains.
It?s early November in northern New England. The leaves have fallen, the tourists have gone home and the daylight hours have gotten very short. Then, just when I think it?s time to put the motorcycle up for the winter, it happens: Indian Summer. Warm temperatures and bright sunshine mean it?s time for one last ride. After a quick scan of the map, I decide that a ride over the Kancamagus Highway is in order.
The Kancamagus Highway is an absolutely spectacular road that twists its way through the heart of New Hampshire?s White Mountain National Forest. In the summer it?s popular with tourists, and in the fall it?s one of New England?s great leaf-peeper drives. Most of the year spirited rides over the Kanc are tempered by traffic, but now, on a November weekday, traffic should be nonexistent. Late November sunlight shines on the Kancamagus Highway.
The highway was constructed as a joint venture by the New Hampshire Department of Public Works, the U.S. Bureau of Public Roads and the U.S. Forest Service. It opened in 1959 and takes its name from nearby Mount Kancamagus, which is named for a Native American of the same name. In English, it translates as ?The Fearless One.? Kancamagus was the final sagamore (chief) of the Penacook Confederacy. In the late 1600s he tried to maintain peace between Native Americans and European settlers. Continual incursions by settlers final...