Monday, October 27
Day of the Ride
The temperature had dipped very slightly below freezing the night before, and when we came out of our rooms, the cars were coated in a light frost. @worf had put his winter rims and tires on the night before, he informed us, in order to avoid any uncertainty about the grip of summer tires on cold pavement. On my Cayman, I still had my summer Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tires. It was getting close to the lower end of their operating temperatures, but I felt I'd be able to manage with them.
Frosty Morning
We lined up in front of Peach's Restaurant in North Conway shortly before 8am. Being a Monday morning, the main drag in North Conway was bustling with commuter traffic, but fortunately, the linear parking spots across from the restaurant were all empty, allowing us to line up our 718s nose-to-tail. It was nice seeing all of the model and color variants next to each other.
Breakfast Meetup
Peach's Restaurant is a great little breakfast spot. Home-y, rustic, characterful. And.... fast. Really fast. Our breakfasts were served in - I swear - less than five minutes after ordering them. I am confident that this is a new personal record for me. I have never been served an ordered breakfast that fast, ever.
Lookin' fine
We continued the get-to-know conversations from the night before. We learned that @worf ran a classic Porsche repair shop. About @GT40Guy's interesting career changes. Soon @kwikit356 arrived and had joined us, and we learned some fun anecdotes of his early Porsche enthusiasm, about his ownership of early-era Porsche 912 and 356 models. I explained my plans for the day's ride, about how I had chosen the route, and about what kinds of photo stops and techniques I planned to employ. The vibe was relaxed and easy-going; our little group was gelling nicely. And it was clear that everyone was keenly looking forward to our upcoming ride. It was nice to see that sort of enthusiasm.
With breakfast done, it was... time... to... ride (er, drive). Back outside, we set up three radios for communication: one for the lead driver, one for the middle driver, and one at the tail end. We then motored south down the busy main street of North Conway, soon turning off onto NH-112 west, and within a few more minutes, the busy town was left behind and a clear open road lay ahead of us.
Start of the Kanc
NH-112 is also known as the Kancamagus Highway, so named for the 2,855-foot high Kancamagus Pass over which the highway runs. "The Kanc", as it is known, is not the twistiest of routes, but it is scenic and offers many good lookouts. I planned to do a large chunk of my car-capture photography along this first stretch of our drive.
We drove a short way up NH-112 to a nicely-paved pullout, where we got out to set up a bit for the next stretch of the drive. I wanted to get some captures of our string of Caymans and Boxsters from vantage points on the outside of the car. I set up my GoPro looking backwards and we headed out for another segment of the route.
This lower part of the Kancamagus Highway was super beautiful today. The forest is mostly deciduous through here, and although the leaves were past peak-color, they were still mostly on the trees - although now almost uniformly a reddish-brown russet color. Combined with a warm morning sun and the perfectly-paved gentle curves of the road, we captured some great views of our little Porsche Procession.
At a point called "Lower Falls", we pulled off into another large parking area. We were a little suprised to note that almost all of the cars parked here were some sort of sports car, and it soon became clear that there was another driving group on The Kanc.
Sportscars always draw interest, especially for other enthusiasts, and even our comparatively small 5-car Porsche group had drawn out some of the other group to check us out. We learned that they were a group of drivers from New York City, out for a long-planned four-day driving excursion. Soon we were chatting, sharing info and notes, and a photographer with a framed gimbal setup was taking panning shots of our nicely-lined up cars.
Groups Galore
I set up my spare drone on the front tow-hook mount of my Cayman while we chatted with our new auto-enthusiast friends. For those of you who laboured through the pre-trip section of the GTS Chronicles, you may find it interesting that this spare drone is the one that I retrieved and repaired after crashing it into Luke's sailboat on the Ottawa River, while filming a segment for the
@gtschronicles Instagram channel. When strapped down and attached to the tow-hook mount, it makes for a perfect mini-gimbal camera, remotely controllable from inside the car. (If you haven't read about the dramatic history of this drone, you can read about it starting here at the section called
"The Incident" in the GTS Chronicles Trip Report)
Pristine Tarmac
Off we went again, this time with me bringing up the rear. With the drone-as-gimbal out and low over the pavement in front of me, I angled it to the right and when we hit straightaways, I pull out into the opposing lane and came up from behind, trying to capture dynamic rear-lower-three-quarter shots (a particularly attracive angle for the 718)
We stopped at the Sugar Hill Scenic Vista pullout, getting our first good mountain views. Once again, we were approached by fellow sportscar enthusiasts - this time a couple who themselves owned a Porsche. We were really getting a lot of friendly socialization on this first part of our drive.
Perfect to a T
Onwards. Up the road climbed, wide, perfectly paved and lined. As I mentioned earlier, the Kancamagus Highway isn't really that twisty. It has faster, sweeping curves, with only a few that could be considered sharp. Our elevation increased above the 2,000 foot elevation mark, eventually topping out just before 3,000 feet at Kancamagus Pass. Ahead of us, an imposing cliff on the southwestern ridge of Mount Huntington rose high into the sky.
Hancock Hairpin
The highway descended and soon arrived at the Hancock Lookout. Here, the highway wraps around the lookout in a perfect hairpin, and is the most notable turn on the route. We stopped here and I sent my primary drone up for a shot of Caymans and Boxster rounding the big curve. A bit like all of those hairpin shots of the hotel on the Swiss Furkapass, except with no hotel, less curvature, and with trees.
I quickly landed and packed up the drone and headed out to catch up with the rest of the group, which had stopped at some point further downhill and were waiting for me. When I got there, I thanked them for their patience with all of the camera nonsense. We were almost finished with The Kanc, though, and I promised them less camera action and more twisty action on the next segment of the day's drive.
Down through Lincoln
We continued west, descending into the small town of Lincoln, nestled between the high peaks of Franconia and Scar Ridges. We didn't stop here, instead driving straight west, underneath Interstate 93 and continuing on NH-112, although now it was no longer part of what is considered the Kancamagus Highway.
The next identified segment of our drive was highway NH-118, which branches off from the 112 not far west from Lincoln. This highway is also known as The Sawyer Highway, and it traverses along the wild and untouched forest along the southern flanks of Mount Moosilauke. I'd been on this route a few times before while driving to various mountain trailheads, so I knew this stretch was twisty. What I didn't realize, but soon did as we turned onto it, was that it has recently been repaved. Perfectly repaved. And only months old, given the darkness of the pavement.
Mindful of the cool (temps were around 8C / 47F), I started off on this stretch with a bit of tentativeness, but soon realized that grip was ample. I pushed a little harder, and the Cayman responded, as it always does, with complete unflappability. Piloting it along this stretch of road was a joy. It brought back memories of the first hard twisties back in the Austrian and Italian alps on
2023's Euro Delivery trip. The road's twistiness quotient is much higher than that of The Kanc's, and coupled with a complete lack of traffic, it was a blast. The thinning out of the leaf canopy also meant sight lines in the tight turns were excellent. The Sawyer Highway was turing out to be awesome.
We stopped halfway along The Sawyer Highway for a few shots taken from the side of the road. Everyone lept out of their respective cockpits, brimming with excited exclamations of the road's awesomeness.
After obtaining some nice zoomed-in roadside shots of our Caymans and Boxsters in procession, we continued west on The Sawyer Highway, now descending towards the town of Warren. Perhaps this western segment is a little less twisty than the eastern part, but it is still quite good. Verdict: The Sawyer Highway is great. Do The Kancamagus Highway for the views, but do The Sawyer Highway for the drive.
Our next exploratory segment
At Warren, we stopped and I briefed our group on the next road segment. I wanted to generally continue west, and had selected NH 25C - a possibly interesting backway connecting Warren to Piermont, a town along the Connecticut River on the border with Vermont. It turned out to be a pleasant enough route, through some nice hilly country and farmland vales, but it wasn't truly twisty. But still nice. Looking at the map in restrospect, I think NH-25 (non-C) might have been a better choice.
Soon we arrived Piermont, where we pulled into the parking lot of a gas station and we got out to discuss next steps. By now it was lunch time, and our three American friends were planning, like myself and @BGTS2025, to head back home after our group drive, but several had early evening commitments and each were now starting to think about breaking off from the group and heading back south.
We decided that we'd find a local place for lunch, discuss next steps over food, and for those who needed to depart, we'd say our goodbyes.
Lunch Stop
Our luck with restaurants continued, as we located the perfect lunchstop - the Little Grill at the Mill in nearby Bedford, Vermont. Located in the bottom level of the historic Bradford Mill building, it was a quaint and rustic spot, quiet on this Monday afternoon, but open.
Over lunch, we reviewed our day up to this point. Everybody seemed pretty happy with how things had turned out: a fun mix of good food, scenic lookouts, fall colors, plenty of breaks, fun social interactions, great food, and, of course, some sublime driving in one of the world's best sportscars. I outlined what my next road segment would be to the group, pointing out that the next stretch wasn't too long and would allow them to easily catch the next north-south Interstate west of our location,
As we walked back up to the parking lot, decisions were made. @worf, @GT40Guy and @kwikit356 chose to skip the next segment, and had all decided to break off and head south back to their respective hometowns.
After gathering for a final shaking of hands and farewells, everyone drove off. For myself and @BGTS2025, however, the day was not over. I still had a decently long set of roads left to sample, all of them continuing west in the general direction of New York state. These roads would serve two purposes: more driving enjoyment and also part of our journey back to Ottawa, Canada.
From Bradford, Vermont, @BGTS2025 and I continued west, still on highway 25 (now VT-25 instead of NH-25), following along the banks of the Waits River. Eventually we turned off onto a very nondescript sideroad - one that one would normally never consider by looking at a state highway map, but which I knew from detailed street-view analysis was actually a pretty decent paved route with what looked like a decent amount of twisties.
The road - largely known as Chelsea Road along most of its length - was surprisingly good. It occasionally ran through small clusters of farmlands and the occasional house, but mostly it was away from built-up areas. Traffic was sparse. There were plenty of decent turns to make it interesting, as well as many interesting elevation changes. There was the occasional bit of traffic on these roads, and whenever we caught up to a slower car, we simply elected to find a pullout and wait for a few minutes. Passing areas were few and I didn't want to antagonize any locals.
Chelsea Road ended at an intersection with VT-113, a more arterial route that we took west into the little town of Chelsea, Vermont, nestled in the bottom of the deep valley formed by the upper reaches of the White River. This place felt like that quintissential picture-perfect Vermont mountain town: sleepy, picturesque, tidy, homey, and full of Subarus. We stopped to take a picture in front of a historic bank building.
Rural backtown
After briefly heading south on north-south VT110 out of Chelsea, we turned off onto yet another good prospect: Chelsea Mountain Road (not to be confused with Chelsea Road, which we had used to arrive in Chelsea from the east). Chelsea Mountain road had substantially more elevation gain and loss, and was also quite nicely curvy. It brought us up and over a height of land known as Osgood Hill, and then led down into the valley of another branch of the White River, in a spot known as East Randolph. Continuing west, we chose another paved backway to bring us over another north-south ridgeline complex to Randolph Center - and the north-south corridor along which Interstate-89 runs.
Chelsea Mountain Road
West from Randolph Center brought us to Randolph proper - the largest town in the area. We bypassed Randolph on its north side and then headed up VT-12A, a highway that followed in the valley bottom of yet another branch of the White River.
Generally speaking, the main mountain ranges of the Green Mountains in Central Vermont run north-south, and present high, semi-continuous barriers to east-west travel. Sure enough, our westward progression was halted by the long north-south ridgeline of the Northfield Mountains, and the valley and our highway bent almost due north. That was ok, because one of my goals for the day was to sample what I knew to be a very twisty mountain pass route, and that route was a little ways to our north.
At the town of Roxbury, we turned back west, up a small backway known as the Warren Mountain Road - one of the few in the area that manages to cross the Northfield Mountains. It looked like an interesting and potentially twisty route, but I knew there was one fly in the ointment - a short section of gravel just east of the summit at Roxbury Gap. Fortunately, the gravel section of road was well-oiled and/or slightly damp, and quite free of rocks, potholes, or washboards, and with a bit of slower speed driving, we were over it without trouble and without getting the cars all muddy. A much higher-speed paved descent down the western side ensued, and we soon were in the wide deep north-south valley of the Mad River. To our west another higher north-south wall of mountains rose up: the main spine of the Green Mountains of Vermont.
I was really looking forward to our next segment of twisty: VT-17, also known as Mill Brook Road. VT-17 crosses over the spine of the Green Mountains at Appalachian Gap, a 2400-foot high notch in the nearly continuous ridgeline. I was familiar with this route from decades old twisty road driving trips, and I knew it was good - one of the best in the Northeast. I was especially keen to experience this road in the Cayman GTS. I hoped for good, dry pavement and minimal traffic.
Boxster at Appalachian Gap.
My hopes were rewarded. After letting a couple of slower vehicles get well ahead of us, we pulled out onto the lower part of VT-17 and began our westward ascent up to Appalachian Gap.
The road was every bit as good as I remembered it - even better, as it seemed to have been paved sometime in the last few years. VT-17 is one of those rare Northeast Highways that is genuinely tight. Very tight. Think West Virginia, North Carolina, Tail of the Dragon tight. It is quite short - not nearly as long as those southern Appalachian routes, but what is there is very good. Several interesting combinations of turns are thrown at you - back and forth esses, wide and tight hairpins, sharp kinks, varying radius turns. All wide and perfectly paved. This was my first really substantial twisty road since driving the Cayman on deliciously awesome European twisties - more than two years ago now - and oh, how I'd missed this sort of thing. The Cayman ate the road up, leaping and bounding from turn to turn, crisply turning in, tenaciously holding its line as I became more comfortable with the grip level (temps were decent, road was dry). *Such* a fun machine. Rocketing out of tight corners with my shortened second gear, the car positively launched towards the next turn, then one satisfyingly short shift up to third before quickly needing to brake hard back down to second for the next tight turn. And in short order, I was cresting the height of land at Appalachian Gap.
I stopped at the Gap's lookout area and waited for @BGTS2025 to finish his run. A light mist had started to fall over the road and the car here at the Gap, and I was most grateful that the eastern ascent had been clean and dry.
@BGTS2025's GT Silver Boxster GTS soon arrived, and we set up the cars for some nice hero shots, climbing up the steep rocky sides of the Gap to get good photo angles. We could see that the road was distinctly damp as it began its westward descent. It was apparent that the moisture was getting squeezed out of the clouds on the westward slopes, developing into a thin drizzle that kept everything on that side cool and wet. Inversely, on the eastern side, the side we had just come up, a rain shadow effect had kept things dry. Nice and grippy and dry!
After taking our Appalachian Gap hero shots, we continued west down VT-17. The Western slope is as good as the eastern slope, with a different yet very interesting set of super tight twists and turns. Unfortunately, we couldn't really take full advantage of these curves. The combination of cool temperatures, wet road, and the simple fact that we were on descent rather than ascent - all of these were likely going to make grip a real concern. I could sense instinctively that even a little bit of spirited driving risked a very unpleasant plow/understeer sort of situation. And there was no way I was going to ruin an otherwise amazing driving day with an incident like that.
The curves faded away as we transitioned from mountain descent to undulating farmlands. The clouds also faded away, as did the drizzle and dampness, further confirming the nature of the effect that had wetted out the western side of the Appalachian Gap twisties. Ahead in the far western distance, we could see the silhouettes of the Adirondack Mountains of New York state, now only a few tens of miles away.
Farmlands crossing
Undulating farmland backways brought us to a crossing to New York at Crown Point, near the bottom end of Lake Champlain. We now turned north, heading in the general direction of the Adirondack High Peaks region. I know this region well: mountains, trails, AND the good roads. I practically didn't even need to look at the map.
I had a final sequence of good roads lined up in my mind, but the day was drawing on, and late in October, the sun sets early. I realized we wouldn't be able to tackle them all before darkness set in. We did have time for a last gem or two.
I chose Lincoln Pond road - a well-paved and quiet backway leading from Moriah Center to Elizabethtown. While lacking absolute tightness of curves, the pavement is good and wide, well-lined, and there are plenty of decently sharp 30 and 35-mph signed curves, along with some aesthetic ups and downs. It was a fitting final flourish to the day's "official" twisty road driving.
The rest of the ride back was on standard-issue, most-efficient routing. Even so, there were plenty of small sections of enjoyment: the climb up and through Cascade Pass, and the generally curvy nature of NY state route 3 west of Saranac Lake, and the backways east of the town of Canton. All served to make the evening drive back towards Ontario enjoyable. And throughout, my mind would often wander back to just how capable the 718 platform is as both a comfortable long-distance tourer and twisty-road attack dog. I felt especially grateful in those moments to have been able to experience and own a car such as this.
We crossed back into Canada shortly after 8am. The curves were over now; it was a simple straight-line, cruise-control-on 45-minute ride back north along divided highway 416 to Canada's capital region. @BGTS2025 and I chatted a bit over the radios, reflecting on the great road-trip we had just completed. Small bouts of drizzle and rain aside, it had gone without a hitch: plenty of interesting roads, plenty of interesting roadside stops, fun company, beautiful fall scenery, good food, and, of course, the satisfying feel of a lightweight, taut mid-engined sportscar underneath us. Indeed - it had been a great 36 hours of road-tripping.
That is a wrap on the story of this little road trip. Many thanks to our three new U.S. friends, for taking time out of their days to meet and drive with us. For others who wanted to join but were unable to.... especially @SailineInMaine, whose idea this was in the first place: hopefully next time!
Interactive trackmap with photo points - Late Fall 718 Drive - click map to view
Day 1, Drive Down - Trip Data
Start Time:
6:30a.m.
End Time:
3:55p.m.
Duration:
9h25m
Distance:
586.32 km
(364.32 mi)
Average Speed:
62.3 km/hr
(38.7 mph)
Start Elevation:
21ft
(6m)
*
Max Elevation:
2081ft
(634m)
*
Min Elevation:
21ft
(6m)
*
End Elevation:
566ft
(172m)
*
* : +/- 75 feet
Total Elevation Gain:
5936ft
(1809m)
*
Total Elevation Loss:
5466ft
(1666m)
*
* : +/- 75 feet
Elevation Graph
Day 2, Group Drive and Return - Trip Data
Start Time:
9:37a.m.
End Time:
9:12p.m.
Duration:
11h35m
Distance:
637.66 km
(396.22 mi)
Average Speed:
55.0 km/hr
(34.2 mph)
Start Elevation:
309ft
(94m)
*
Max Elevation:
2883ft
(879m)
*
Min Elevation:
89ft
(27m)
*
End Elevation:
232ft
(71m)
*
* : +/- 75 feet
Total Elevation Gain:
17469ft
(5325m)
*
Total Elevation Loss:
17629ft
(5373m)
*
* : +/- 75 feet
Elevation Graph
