By Marty Basch

Richard Morris gave succinct advice for crossing the small grassy airstrip on mountain bikes before rolling into the woods.

"We always look both ways," said the co-owner of the Franconia Inn, an avid mountain biker and trail runner.

Good words. Don't want to be hit by a plane doing its thing at the Franconia Airport.

The western White Mountain community of Franconia is a magnet for hikers, and all disciplines of skiers in winter, while road riders seek undulating mountain back roads.

And then there are mountain bikers who like riding the 100 miles or so of trails; add more miles as the network is connected to trails in the neighboring towns of Easton and Sugar Hill.

"We have what rural mountain biking trails looked like," says Morris during a stop on a six-mile loop ride that headed east from his inn on Route 116. "We are not a polished system. If a tree falls, we ride around it. If a big tree falls, we pile up branches and the tree becomes a feature of the trail and we ride over it."

In a word, the trails are technical.

That's code for rocks and roots. Throw in twisting and steep, too. Elevation also. But don't leave out scenic, thrilling and historic. The network uses cross-country ski trails, snowshoe trails and other forested routes through a backwoods neighborhood with a variety of landlords. There are several places for trailhead parking throughout the community. Many of the ski trails have signs, and there are marked snowshoe routes while neon tape is also used.

"We don't have a lot of flat," says "Big Ring" Bob Lesmerises, owner of White Mountain Bike Shop next to the inn and well-known Franconia cyclist, skier and mechanic. An active member of the Littleton Landsharks bicycle club, he also competes in many White Mountain races like the 24 Hours of Great Glen and Crank the Kanc.

He's the man to see for route suggestions and a map ($3) before venturing into the woods on, he recommends, full-suspension mountain bikes. Though he might send neophytes to the nearby Franconia Notch bike path in the state park, he says the two-mile single track trail along the Gale River in town is good for beginners.

"We'd like to get the ski trails in more rider friendly shape," he says. "But they do dry out nicely in spring and we can sometimes ride until December."

Easton Road's a picturesque launching point for a ride on the Franconia trails. Out-of-state guests play tennis on the inn's fenced red clay courts against the airport with glider planes tethered down. There are stables and folksy bicycle shop all in view of the massive Cannonballs. Then there are the legends of the area, one living, one dead. Poet Robert Frost once lived in a home along the road, while Bode Miller sightings are frequent when he's home.

Morris expertly led the way during the challenging technical ride incorporating a myriad of pathways from single track to unmowed ski trails and sights from a delightful look out to Sugar Hill to tunnels of trees. The route - Birch Run, Glide Path, Lover's Lane, Old MIttersill Road, Chainlink, Suzanne's Little Thing, Von Ryan's Express and Well's Road - included a lot of climbing.

It was a way to do a slow grind up the road once traveled by Baron Hubert von Pantz, who founded the now resurrected Mittersill ski resort in 1945. The ride also went by Tucker Brook, a creek that bears the name of the legendary backcountry ski trail built in the 1930s that winds down the western side of Cannon Mountain and includes 13 tantalizing turns. Then there was the wickedly winding Chainlink, the first mountain bike trail cut in Franconia in 1986 or 1987, according to Morris. The trail got its name from a huge chain found near its length when it was cut. The chain still hangs in the trees.

Mountain bikers know that what goes up, goes down. After sinuous Chainlink and its brook crossings, the circuit relented with Von Ryan's Express. The wide ski trail has four-season views and, in summer, patches of blackberries before pavement is reached and eventually bucolic Easton Road, where you always have to look both ways at the White Mountain scenery.