I will be taking a car from the Portland airport to Gorham on Sept 16 and returning on the 25th. I have room for 1 or 2 riders. I will be hiking the AT between those dates. My plan is to take the shuttle from Gorham to Franconia and hike back.
Any better suggestions or advice is welcome.
peakbagger
09-14-2011, 11:32
FYI, Rt 302 is still closed west of Rt 16 and traffic is rerouted via RT 16 north to Gorham. Its starting to get into early leaf season in North Conway so if you are in a rush avoid it. Be careful there is a Gorham Me ( a suburb of Portland) along the route so if you see signs for Gorham make sure they are Gorham NH not Gorham ME
The fastest way to Gorham NH from Portland is to take Rt 302 to Naples Maine, then take a right off of 302 onto Rt 35 north, follow this to North Waterford where you turn right onto Rt 35 and Rt 5 north. You may want to stop for a minute and take a picture in front of the sign http://www.rvtravelog.com/sign.dir/sign1.htm
Then follow Rt 5/35 to the intersection with Rt 2, then go west on 2 to Gorham. Its about 90 miles and is about 2 hours. Going via North Conway adds about 1/2 to 1 hour to the trip unless you know the shortcuts. If you want to go through Pinkham Notch take rt 302 to North Conway, take a right at the Walmart onto the North South Road, follow it to its end then take a left and go the the traffic light then take a right back onto RT 16 and 302, this skips most of the Conway strip. Whatever you do dont be convinced into taking RT 26 to Gorham NH unless you have lots of time and a high tolerence for slow going.
Thanks for your directions. I used to live in Intervale but that was a loooong time ago. Last time I went to N. Conway I was sorry to see it had become home to so many factory outlets.