Mountain high

The Kancamagus Highway (Route 112) from Lincoln to Conway, N.H. About 35 miles.

Woe be to anyone who drives this White Mountain National Forest highway in autumn, for they shall encounter the leaf peepers. But if you can motor it on a summer weekday, or anytime in the spring, it's downright tolerable. And the top-down views of the tree-carpeted mountains can be majestic when the weather's right.

"The Kanc" is a relatively new road, having been open to automobiles for its entire length only since 1959. As such, it isn't as tightly cornered as some other backwoods byways. But there's a hairpin turn about nine miles out of Lincoln, and a later stretch of winding road along the Swift River makes for some nice handling. Meanwhile, you'll definitely go up (about 2,000 feet from Lincoln) and down (about 2,300 feet into Conway). A picnic lunch at Sabbaday Falls, a 15-minute walk from the highway, is definitely worthwhile.

For a twistier if shorter run, you might want to try the nearby Sawyer Highway (Route 118) which covers 13 miles from Warren to North Woodstock. Although the pavement isn't always the smoothest, the dips and curves of this short shoot through the White Mountain National Forest will keep your gear-shifting hand busy. And isn't that the point of a good sportscar road?

Published in the Boston Globe Calendar's 1999 Wandering New England issue.