Lincoln is a hiking town first, but it rides well. The Franconia Notch Recreation Path is one of the finest paved trails in New England, nearly nine miles down the floor of the notch under Cannon Cliff and the Franconia Ridge, with the Basin and the Flume at the bottom. Loon Mountain, 6 min from the lodge, runs a lift-served downhill bike park in summer with rentals and lessons for people who have never pointed a bike down a mountain. The Kancamagus is a road cyclist's classic climb. And half an hour north, the towns of Franconia, Littleton and Bethlehem have built one of the largest networks of free singletrack in the state, more than seventy-five miles between them, groomed for fat bikes in winter.
What Lincoln does not have is a bike shop on Main Street; rentals come from Loon's shop at the mountain and from Plymouth and Littleton. And one of the town's best easy rides, the Lincoln Woods Trail, is closed from June 15 into November 2026 while the Forest Service rebuilds an eroding riverbank. This guide covers the paved path, the bike park, the road rides, the gravel roads, the North Country trail networks, the rentals, and the closures, so a guest with a bike on the roof or none at all knows where to go.
The Franconia Notch Recreation Path: the paved classic
The Recreation Path runs about 8.7 paved miles through Franconia Notch State Park from the Skookumchuck trailhead at the north end of the notch to the Flume Gorge visitor center at the south, following the Pemigewasset River under the biggest scenery in the state: Cannon Cliff and Echo Lake, Profile Lake and the Old Man plaza, Lafayette Place, the Basin. It is a real hill, climbing about 800 feet from the Flume to the top of the notch and dropping back, so most people ride it north to south for the long downhill and get picked up, or ride out and back from the Flume or the Basin for a shorter day.
It is shared with walkers, strollers and families, so it is not a training ride, and the two-lane path narrows on the bridges. Parking is free at the Flume hiker lot, the Basin, Lafayette Place and the tramway lot at Exit 34B, with the Lafayette Place lots full by eight on summer weekends. Our journal piece on the bike path covers the ride in detail, and our Pemi Trail guide describes the unpaved foot trail that parallels it.
Loon Bike Park: lift-served downhill 6 min away
Loon Mountain's bike park, at the resort's base 6 min from the lodge, uses the lifts to carry riders up about a thousand vertical feet and sends them down more than fifteen miles of purpose-built downhill trails, from the three-mile beginner flow trail with forgiving corners to berms, jumps and technical lines, plus eight or so miles of cross-country trails at the base that need no lift. Day and part-day lift tickets are sold at the mountain, and the bike shop rents full-suspension downhill bikes, standard bikes for the cross-country trails and e-bikes for exploring, with helmets and pads. Beginner packages bundle a group lesson, a rental and lift access, which is the right way to try downhill for the first time.
The park runs on the summer and fall schedule, typically weekends from late spring and daily in July and August, and closes for the season with the foliage; check the resort's site for the current calendar and ticket prices. Our Loon Mountain guide covers the rest of the mountain's summer operation, gondola rides and all.
The Kancamagus and the notches: road riding
Road cyclists come to Lincoln for one ride: the Kancamagus Highway, thirty-four miles from Lincoln to Conway over Kancamagus Pass at 2,855 feet, with a long, steady climb of about 2,000 feet from town to the pass, a screaming descent along the Swift River, and no services, no water and no cell signal for the whole distance. The road has a narrow shoulder in places and heavy weekend traffic in foliage season, so it rides best on a weekday morning in summer, early, with a car at the far end or the legs to climb back. Every overlook is a rest stop.
The other classics from town are the Franconia Notch Parkway's frontage, which is the Recreation Path rather than the highway itself (bicycles are not allowed on the interstate), the loop north through Franconia and Sugar Hill on Routes 18, 117 and 116 with the Kinsman Range for a view, and Route 302 through Crawford Notch, an hour's drive east, for a second mountain pass. Bear Notch Road, the nine-mile gravel-shouldered connector between the Kancamagus and Route 302 at Bartlett, is a fine climb with views and is gated in winter.
Gravel: Tripoli Road and the Forest Service roads
Tripoli Road, the seasonal gravel Forest Service road from I-93 Exit 31 over Thornton Gap to Waterville Valley, is the local gravel ride: about twelve miles of dirt and broken pavement with a real climb, light traffic, and trailheads and campsites along it. It is gated from roughly November to May. Zealand Road off Route 302, Haystack Road and the Gale River Loop Road off Route 3 are shorter gravel spurs to trailheads, quiet except for hikers' cars at dawn, and all seasonal. The Forest Service alerts page lists the gate dates.
Lincoln Woods: the easy ride that is closed in 2026
In an ordinary year the Lincoln Woods Trail on the Kancamagus, five miles from the lodge, is the easiest off-road ride in town: a wide, nearly flat old logging railroad grade along the East Branch of the Pemigewasset, open to bicycles for about three miles to the Pemigewasset Wilderness boundary at the Franconia Brook bridge, where bikes must stop because wilderness rules forbid them. Not in 2026: the trail is closed from June to November between the highway and the Osseo Trail junction for riverbank repairs, with heavy equipment on the grade. Ride the Recreation Path or the North Country trails instead this season and check the Forest Service alerts page for the reopening.
Franconia, Easton and Sugar Hill: the NEMBA network
20 to 30 min north of the lodge, the Franconia Area chapter of the New England Mountain Bike Association maintains a network of more than forty miles of trail across Franconia, Easton and Sugar Hill: thirty-odd singletrack trails from beginner flow to technical New England roots and rock, on town forests and conservation land, with e-bikes allowed on the network. Trailheads sit around Franconia village and off Route 116 and Route 117; the chapter's map and the trail apps carry the current routes and any closures. It is the closest real singletrack to Lincoln and the best afternoon for a rider who wants dirt without a lift.
PRKR MTN in Littleton and the Bethlehem Trails
Just outside downtown Littleton, 30 min north, PRKR MTN Trails is a community-built network of more than twenty-five miles across about a thousand acres, free to ride, mixing old-school technical New England singletrack with newer machine-built flow trails, and shared with runners, hikers and, in winter, skiers and snowmobiles. In winter its volunteers groom more fat-bike singletrack than anywhere else in New Hampshire. Littleton Bike and Fitness in town rents and repairs and knows the trails.
Next door, the Bethlehem Trails Association, formed in 2017, has built a network of its own on the hills above Bethlehem village, from long hand-built descents to family loops, and the three towns' groups work together; between them they claim more than seventy-five miles of trail within a few minutes' drive of one another. A rider could spend a week up here and not repeat a trail, with Schilling Beer in Littleton and Rek-lis in Bethlehem for afterward. Our Littleton and Bethlehem guides cover the towns.
Rentals and shops
Lincoln has no bike shop on Main Street. Loon Mountain's bike shop at the resort base rents downhill bikes, cross-country bikes and e-bikes in the bike park season, with helmets and protection, and handles the lift-ticket packages. Rhino Bike Works at 1 Foster Street in Plymouth, 25 min south off I-93, is the full-service shop for the region, with rentals, repairs and the largest selection in central New Hampshire; call 603-536-3919. Littleton Bike and Fitness serves the North Country trails from Littleton. Bring your own helmet if you have one, and a spare tube; the Kancamagus has nowhere to buy either.
Winter: fat bikes and groomed trails
Winter riding here means a fat bike on groomed snow. PRKR MTN in Littleton grooms its singletrack for fat biking and rents nothing, so bring the bike or rent in Littleton; Loon's Adventure Center grooms cross-country trails at the base that fat bikes share in season; the Recreation Path is not plowed and becomes a ski and snowshoe route. Check each network's grooming report before you go, and stay off soft trails after a thaw; a rut frozen into the grooming lasts all week.
Rules of the road and the trail
Bicycles are banned on the Franconia Notch Parkway itself and in all federal wilderness, including the Pemigewasset Wilderness beyond the Lincoln Woods boundary. On the Recreation Path, ride slowly around walkers and call out on the bridges. On the North Country networks, ride open trails only, yield to hikers and horses, stay off closed or muddy trails in spring, and support the volunteer groups that build them; the trails are free because riders give back. Wear a helmet everywhere, carry water for the Kancamagus, and tell someone your route; the notch and the highway have no cell service to call for a pickup.
Where to stay
Loon's bike park is 6 min east, the Recreation Path is 12 min north, the Kancamagus starts at the edge of town, and the North Country trail towns are 20 to 35 min up the interstate. Guests with bikes keep them in the sunroom or locked on the back deck overnight, and the hose is there for the mud.
The shape of a good riding day from the lodge: the Recreation Path early, before the walkers, then lunch in town and the bike park or the Franconia trails in the afternoon. For the Kancamagus, leave at dawn on a weekday, arrange a pickup in Conway or ride the pass out and back, and carry everything, because the road offers nothing.
Useful links
- Loon Mountain: bike park, rentals and lessons
The current season calendar, lift-ticket prices and beginner packages. - Franconia Area NEMBA
The trail network in Franconia, Easton and Sugar Hill, with maps and trail status. - PRKR MTN Trails, Littleton
Twenty-five-plus miles of free trail and the winter fat-bike grooming report. - Bethlehem Trails Association
The Bethlehem network and how the three North Country towns connect. - White Mountain National Forest: alerts and road status
The Lincoln Woods closure and the seasonal gates on Tripoli, Zealand and Bear Notch roads. - Rhino Bike Works, Plymouth
The region's full-service shop for rentals and repairs, 25 min south. - Our Franconia Notch bike path piece
The paved path ride in detail, with where to park at each end. - Our Loon Mountain guide
The whole summer mountain, gondola and all.
Sources & official info: loonmtn.com · nemba.org · prkrmtn.org · bethlehemtrails.org · outdoors.org · rhinobikeworksnh.com
— Launchpoint Lodge, From the lodge
