Montreal to Mt Washington and back. That was the plan. Lots of km for a day trip, but nothing unreasonable.

It didn’t start all that well with my alarm not going off … great. So we leave at 9, an hour later than planned. No biggie. Healthy breakfast just before noon. Omelette, home made potatoes and toasts. This is why we often cross the border into the US. Food is made of 82% win, and 18% awesome.

Breakfast on the wayA sight we’ll witness many times, the Hyper in its natural habitat. [note, I still had the Z1000 back then. I can’t make fun of the Hypermotard’s range anymore, as I’m only doing marginally better with the 1098, ~180km]

Ducati Hypermotard @ gas stationWe take a lakeside break after some most pleasant beautiful uphill sweepers.

Lakeside breakAnd soon we’re back on the road … smooth mostly deserted roads.

Kawasaki Z1000 on the roadDucati Hypermotard rollingKawasaki ZX14 rolling

Yours truly in front of the camera. That’s a rare sight. Cherish it.
Kawasaki Z1000 twisties
As the day unfolds, we realize everything is perfect. The roads, the lack of traffic, the weather. One of those “well, everything’s perfect” days. We’re later than planned, but enjoying every minute of it.
Kawasaki Z1000 and ZX14 rollingKawasaki ZX14 rollingAround 4pm, we (finally) reach Mt Washington and head for the Auto Road. The weather up top looks cloudy and brisk. We don’t care. We came here for the damn mountain, we’ll ride up.
Mt Washington Auto Road
Cloudy and foggy it was. Cold too.
Kawasaki Z1000 riding upMt Washington Auto Road in the fog“oh it’ll probably clear up once we get to the top” … that’s the kind of outrageous lies I kept telling myself in my helmet.
The skies did not clear up. Not one bit. I’m telling this was at the top. But really, we could’ve been in front of any shady bar on a foggy day.
On top of Mt WashingtonThankfully, Captain Obvious was there to inform us.
Mt Washington weatherYes, those are anchored chains holding down the house. Chains.
Mt Washington weather stationMt Washington weather stationThe way back was as pleasant as it gets, engines idling quietly, temperature warming up. And that view.
Going down Mt WashingtonGoing down Mt WashingtonMt Washington view
On our way back, we tried a few alternate roads. Some were a great success, others were not. This is one of the latter.
Kawasaki Z1000 dirt roadZX14 dirt road… aaaaand the inevitable happens when you take fancy Supercorsa tires on gravel roads. A flat in the middle of nowhere Vermont, ~200km from Montreal.
Kawasaki ZX14 flatIt’s getting dark, we’re in the middle of nowhere. So we did the only thing anyone can ever do in such a situation. Burnouts and fix-a-flat cans. One of these works better than the other. Guess which one.
Don’t question the burnouts. It was 2am and we’d used 3-4 cans of fix-a-flat. “what’s the worst that can happen? Oh yeah … the tire could blow for real and leave us stranded here.” It didn’t. We still have good laugh about that decision.
fix-a-flat saves the dayWe made it back home in Montreal way past 2am. Quite the full day of riding.