600k Ride Information
Start Location: Hill Street Park and Ride 2 Hill St., Woburn, MA
Start time: 4:30 am on July 11th for 600km; 9:30 am on July 11th for Northbound 200km, 7:00 am on July 12th 200km return from Westbrook
Finish Location: Spark by Hilton Woburn, 14 Hill St., Woburn, MA
Time Limit: 40 Hours (finish by 8:30pm July 12th) for 600km; ~13.5 hours for each 200km segment (Finish by 11:00 pm 7/11/2026 Northbound and 7/12/2026 8:30pm Southbound)
Length:
603k / 375mi with Merchant Control at New Boston NH, Open Controls at Northfield/Tilton NH, Open Controls at North Woodstock or Lincoln NH, Open Controls at Conway NH, Staffed Control at East Baldwin, ME, Overnight at Westbrook Community Center, and Merchant Control at Merrimack MA
202k / 125mi with Merchant Control at Exeter NH, Photo Control at Packer’s Fall, Durham, NH, Merchant Control at Meserve’s Market and ends at Westbrook Community Center (Not Coastal Route, Unlike Portland Express)
205k / 127mi with Merchant Control at Merrimack MA and ends at Spark by Hilton Woburn (Complete overlap with the 600km Return from Westbrook)
Lights & Reflective Gear: Required
Ride Leader: Tsun Au Yeung
Sanctioning: RUSA/ACP for 600KM, RUSA only for 2x200KM
Cue Sheet: TBD
Online Map/GPS:
2026 600km Draft version: Route submitted for approval, cue sheet available.
2026 Northbound to Westbrook Draft version: Route submitted for approval
2026 Westbrook Return Draft Version: RUSA#2807.
Registration: via BikeReg
Please note the “new” start location (We used this back in 2021)! We will be starting at/near the Hill St Park and Ride in Woburn (right off of I-93 next to the Tri-Community Greenway) and finishing at the Spark Hotel by Hilton. There are also several other hotels in the same area for riders coming from out of town.
This year the 600k will be using a *new* route (dubbed New Hampshire Boarding Schools Tour), this version goes through 1 more boarding school campus and have fewer elevation gain after Denmark ME as the route meander along the quiet River roads along the Saco River, about 20% routing different than White Mountain Getaway.
Lodging: NER is renting space at the Westbrook Community Center for the overnight. There will be showers, food, and secure bike storage. Sleeping accommodations will be floor space in a gymnasium/function room setting. Riders will be able to send a small duffel bag of gear and a sleeping bag/bedroll to the sleep stop. (You can include an air mattress/thermarest.) Gear will be returned to the start (fast riders note: the gear shuttle will probably get back to Woburn by noonish/1PM).
If you would like a hotel room in Westbrook/South Portland, there are several within a couple of miles of the community center (including the Super8 we used in 2021 and 2022 as the sleep stop). Riders wishing for a hotel room must make their own reservations and we will only take drop bags to the Community Center.
600km Riders who plan to not sleep and ride straight through/riders who plan to finish the ride before noon-ish/1PM on Sunday: We will ask you to drop off your brevet card at the front desk of the hotel and email us your gps track. Volunteer can only reasonably be back to the finish around noon.
Parking at the start: Free but park at your own risk as suggested by MassDOT.
600km Route Description
Have you ever looked at an NER route, and said “what this really needs is another mountain pass?” This was my (Sarah) take on my favorite parts of the old NER Lake Winnepesauke 400k, combined with Kancamagus Pass, and a return via Portland. It’s chock-full of rollers (about 18,000 feet of climbing, comparable to PBP), some beautiful brand-new pavement (and some typical New England potholes, sorry!). The climbing is front-loaded; the return trip from Portland is along the same route as the 400k and is gentle rollers, a welcome reprieve after the previous days sharp rollers and mountain pass.
The ride starts by weaving its way through the outskirts of Boston on popular club-ride roads towards the New Hampshire border, quickly getting to countryside punctuated by small towns. Service are available in Hollis and Amherst and just before New Boston, the first real climb of the day will wake up your legs, followed by the first section of dirt on a well-behaved dirt descent and a second paved climb. New Boston is a control on this route, at just under 100k (58 miles) into the route it offers a nice store for a short break and a refuel point. Be advised, there’s no stores immediately on route between New Boston and Northfield (for 41 miles) as the route goes through rural stretch of Weare, Dunbarton, Bow, go through the campus of St. Paul’s school then skirt through the western side of Concord, New Hampshire along the western shore of Lake Penacook, then the route will go on NH-132, which is parallel to I-93 most of the time (light traffic) but rural, before reaching the Northfield/Tilton area where riders have couple choices on route for lunch.
From Tilton to Lincoln the rollers are constant, but the scenery is the best New England has to offer–hilltop vistas and deciduous trees give way to pines lining mountain valleys as you criss-cross the Pemigewasset River up into the White Mountains. There are service/store along this stretch but be sure to fuel up in North Woodstock or Lincoln–it’s 35 miles without services, and that 35 miles is the Kancamagus Pass. This classic climb stretches straight up for 13 miles; then you have a long descent into Conway. (Note: for any riders that want to book their own lodging and want to stop on the early side, there is a hostel in Conway just a block off the route, but official control closing is at 12:10 am, so you’ll need to head out in the dark or at dawn (~4:30am the latest). We recommend pushing on but want to make sure people are aware of the options.)
The section from Conway to Portland rolls through remote, quiet farmland and woods; bring good lights to supplement any moonlight along this stretch. The roads are twisty and pavement quality varies; stay alert and use caution on the descents. It can also get misty and colder than you’d expect through this section; several riders found it reminiscent of similar moments on PBP. It’s more down than up through here, but it’s far from flat. When the rollers start to flatten out, you’re going through Hiram and Cornish along the Saco River. Riders will get a water and morale booster stop about 41 miles after Conway at East Baldwin, ME. Please show gratitude to our host and enjoy the display. Then there’s another 20 miles going to Westbrook from East Baldwin, using some finished segments of the Mountain Division Trail in Windham. Overnight stop is at mile 248.
After Westbrook/Portland, the route joins the 400k route for most of the return trip. You’ll hop on some of the lovely, hard-packed stone dust Eastern Trail, and follow the East Coast Greenway route for a good portion of the day both on and off the bike paths. Enjoy the gorgeous section down along the Merrimack River by daylight if you’ve only done it by night on the 400k! Gentle rollers throughout will keep you awake without the steep inclines of the previous day. Fast riders going through without sleep may have few options for services on day 2; be aware and pack accordingly.
A note on dirt: There are five stretches of dirt on the route. The first two are early on day 1: a less than 1/2 mile stretch on Mack Hill Rd follow by a 1.2 mile stretch on Joe English Road, which avoids a sometimes unpleasantly-busy stretch of Rt 13. Then there are segments of River Roads in South Hiram (which is quite broken that I consider it as “dirt”) and another unpaved segment of River rd in Baldwin. These two “dirt” segments are punctuated by the nicely paved segment of River Rd in Cornish (it is continuation of the same road from Hiram). On the second day, there are two more: 3 miles of crushed-stone bike path (usually 11 miles, but only 3 for 2026), which can get a little sandy, and .5 miles of well-packed dirt road (Sheep Rd) on day two. All of the dirt should be passable on skinny tires. Please also be aware that the bike path can get crowded in good weather with families; use caution and be courteous.
2x200km North bound Routing: Variation of roads segments in different direction taken from the Portland routes, the Overnight 200km, and roads covered in Southern Maine Perms. The goal is to avoid coastal traffic provided the ride starts later in the morning.