Monadnock Loop

A short loop around Mount Monadnock from Keene: NH-101 goes out to Marlborough, NH-124 runs to the Monadnock State Park entrance, and the route continues through Jaffrey Center, back roads to Dublin and the brick mill village of Harrisville before returning to Keene. It's 39 miles of hills, lakes and old New England villages. NH-101 carries trucks between Keene and Marlborough, and the route rides that stretch going out and coming back. Expect police in the village centers.

At 3,165 feet, Mount Monadnock stands nearly a thousand feet above any other peak within 30 miles, which is why it dominates every view on this loop. It's often called one of the most-climbed mountains in the world, and Emerson and Thoreau both wrote about it; each has a spot on the mountain named after him. In Jaffrey Center, the white meetinghouse and the Old Burying Ground behind it hold the grave of the novelist Willa Cather, who spent many summers here.

Harrisville, near the end of the loop, is a 19th-century wool mill village of red brick buildings reflected in its pond, protected as a National Historic Landmark since 1977; the Cheshire Mills ran there from 1852 to 1970. The general store across from the pond is the place to stop. Between Keene and Marlborough the route uses NH-101 both ways, with truck traffic, and the village centers are watched closely, so ride them calmly.