Day 1 (8/2) - Sarah and I met at about 1:30 in Glens Falls, NY at exit 19 off I-87. There was a courthouse there that said it was ok if we parked there for a week. It took a while for me to outfit Sarah's bike (Trek 1000) with a rear rack and to get the trailer set up and packed. We got on the road at about 3:00 and planed to ride about 20 miles out of town to find a good place to camp. We rode north on US-9 and then headed south of NY-9N in hopes of getting onto Saratoga CR-4. I missed the turn-off somewhere, and we ended up taking some very, very back roads, but eventually found it. CR-4 was a fun road to ride on; it hugged Great Sacandaga Lake and was very curvy, with lots of little hills and only a few big ones. There weren't any suitable campgrounds (we stopped at one "campground" and the offered us a small patch of grass literally 10 feet from the road for $35. No thanks.) , so we kept riding hoping to find something. In the town of Day, there was a nice town park, and near the back of it, we found a nice grassy patch that was well hidden to set up camp. It was almost dark by the time we finished setting everything up. We rode 1/4 mile back to the general store, bought some food and cold drinks, ate, and then went to bed.
| Miles | 32.8 miles |
| Average Speed | 11.2 MPH |
| Riding Time | 2 hours 55 mins |
| Altitude Increase | 1820 feet |
Day 2 (8/3) - We got up a little after sunrise, packed up and got on our way. Just before we got to the town of Edinburg, the sky got pretty dark and it started to lightly rain. A nice woman offered to let us stay in her hardware store until it blew over. She also let us into the town library so we could check the weather. It looked like the worst of it missed us, so we headed out. Just before we got out of town, it started to rain again, so we took cover under and canopy at a ice cream stand and waited it out. After it cleared out we headed toward Northville, where we got on NY-30 north. We crossed the very tip of Great Sacandaga Lake and got a nice view before we started following the Sacandaga River north. Following a river uphill is no fun. Its not very steep, but goes on and on and on at a grade that is just enough to slow you down to your some of your lowest gears if you are carrying weight. It was about 7 miles uphill before it leveled out a little. We stopped in the town of Speculator. The sun had come out on our way up the hill and Lake Pleasant looked extremely temping, so we stopped for a swim, which was great because it had gotten pretty hot out. After our swim and some lunch, we headed out with hopes of making it to a real campground. There were a few rain showers and some thunder, but nothing major. We made it to the Lewey Lake campground at a reasonable hour and set up camp at a site within 50 feet of the lake. We were warned while registering that they had been having bear problems and to keep our food in our car. Duh, did they miss the part where we were riding our bikes? While we were setting up camp, a couple came over from a few sites over and started talking to us. They offered to let us keep our food (aka 100 granola bars) in their Suburban. We said thanks and that we would take them up on that after we got settled in. 30 minutes later we went over to give them our food, and then offered to let us use their canoe! Earlier in the day Sarah and I had been talking about how nice it would be to have a canoe or kayak with us. We visited the other side of a lake, an island and then watched the sunset from the middle of the lake. It was awesome! We were very thankful that this couple was so kind. It was also interesting that their professions were a civil engineering and a biochemist. I'm studying to be a civil engineer and Sarah is studying bio-chemistry.
| Miles | 56.87 miles |
| Average Speed | 11.3 MPH |
| Riding Time | 5 hours 0 mins |
| Altitude Increase | 3326 feet |
Day 3 (8/4)- Today was a pretty hilly day, about 4400 vertical feet in about 63 miles. The pavement was in really good condition, which made for easy riding. It was a pretty nice day, a little warm, nice blue skies, with some clouds here and there. We left camp at around 9am after collecting our food from the nice couple a few sites down. The ride to the next town, Indian Lake, had quite a few small rolling hills, but nothing that large because NY-30 stuck close to Indian Lake. Between Indian Lake and Blue Mountain, there were some larger rollers, but again, nothing to large. We ate lunch in Blue Mountain. After lunch, there was very steep climb of about 1.5 miles. Sarah barely made it to the top because her knee was bothering her, but she did it and kept going. Just before we got to Tupper Lake, there were signs for construction. It turned out that they had ripped up 2 miles of pavement, so we got to ride on a very bumpy, very dusty, and very heavily trafficked dirt road for 2 miles. It was not fun. We stopped in Tupper Lake and got some ice cream. While we were there, I called a few of the campgrounds in the area, but we decided that all of them were to far out of the way to go to. We decided to try our luck and try to find somewhere to camp. About 2 miles out of the town, I spotted a small parking area, which we went to investigate. It was a cross-country skiing/mountain biking/hiking trailhead that appeared very lightly used. We rode down the path (which had been paved a long, long time ago and was grown over) and about 1/4 mile in, we found a nice opening which looked like it had been used before and decided to set up camp there. It was a nice, quiet camping spot and we got to bed early.
| Miles | 62.69 miles |
| Average Speed | 11.2 MPH |
| Riding Time | 5 hours 35 mins |
| Altitude Increase | 4402 feet |
Day 4 (8/5)- Breakfast today consisted of granola bars and warm drinks as there weren't any towns in the direction we were headed. There was a few miles of construction just before we got to Lake Placid. The road was being prepped for paving, so it was all ground up and very rough. Lake Placid was a very nice little town with a great downtown area. We walked around for a while, got some lunch and found some seats overlooking the lake where we could eat. It was nice and sunny and a perfect temperature. After we finished, we started heading out, but passed the Olympic Center and decided to take a look. We ended up going in right as a tour was walking by, so we jumped in with them. The tour guide was awesome, and he brought us into the arena where the "Miracle" hockey game (USA vs Russia) took place in 1980 winter Olympics. He gave us the history of the game and the team and we got to watch the original tapes of the final minutes of the game. It was very, very interesting. While we were in the arena, there was a 75-year-old couple skating who the tour guide told us had won world skating championships. The guy could still lift his partner over his head! Our tour guide was one of the guys involved in creating the first Jamaican bobsled team that was seen in the 1988 winter Olympics and was the inspiration for the movie "Cool Runnings".
From Lake Placid we took NY-86 to Wilmington, passing Whiteface Ski Area and going through Wilmington Notch. There was a nice swimming hole with a 20 foot jump that we stopped at for an hour or so to cool off. After passing through the notch, and getting on NY-9N North, we followed the East Branch of the Ausable River to Keeseville. It was a pleasent, mostly downhill ride. A great way to finish up the day. We passed by the Ausable Chasm, and even though that was one part of the trip we were looking forward to, we decided not to see the main part of it, as the tickets cost an exorbitant amount of money. It looked very cool though. We found a campground just outside of Port Kent, and decided to stay there for the night.
| Miles | 62.46 miles |
| Average Speed | 12.1 MPH |
| Riding Time | 5 hours 10 mins |
| Altitude Increase | 3172 feet |
Day 5 (8/6)- We woke up this morning to a chilly light rain. We packed up as best we could and headed out. It was all downhill for 2 miles to Port Kent, but it wasn't much fun because it was so cold and wet. We got to the ferry terminal and right after we bought our tickets, it started pouring. The only shelter at the terminal was a small information booth, so we stuff ourselves and our bikes in there, and waited for the ferry. I noticed the trailer tire was soft, so I took it off, found the hole and patched it up. We were very happy when the ferry finally showed up. We put our bikes on and then went down below to get out of the rain. The boat was rocking pretty good shortly into the trip, so I went outside to see how big the waves were. They were putting up a ton of spray that was covering all the cars on the front and right side of the boat. I had fun crouching down next to a mini-van and watching the spray whip in front of and over the top of me. When we finally got to Burlington, it started pouring, so we found an overhang and waited it out. When it stopped about 30 minutes later, we went to the grocery store and got some supplies before heading out.
We took US-7 out of the city and it was horrible. Very bumpy, 2 lanes of traffic in each direction, no shoulder and very commercial. A few miles out of the city, it got much better and turned into a nice, newly paved two lane road with a nice shoulder. We stopped for a break near Shelburne in a driveway at the top of a hill. After sitting there for a while, the owner of the house came out and started talking to us. Apparently her son was currently biking across the country like I had, so that was pretty cool. We passed the Vermont Teddy Bear Company near Shelburne. Near Charlotte, passed a country store advertising homemade maple syrup ice cream, so I had to stop. It was very good and was made with their own syrup! We got of US-7 in Vergennes and took Panton Road to Basin Harbor Road to Button Bay Road. Those were a great couple of miles, perfect temperature, no traffic on a nice curvy road through corn fields and woods. We stopped at Button Bay State Park and got a site that overlooked the Lake Champlain. It was very, very nice. I tried to go swimming, but on my first attempt, I dove into a submerged rock covered in Zebra Muscles and cut up my hands pretty good. We decided to stop swim and risk getting cut up, but found a nice rock that jutted out into the lake, and watched a very nice sunset over the lake with geese constantly flying by.
| Miles | 36.49 miles |
| Average Speed | 11.8 MPH |
| Riding Time | 3 hours 5 mins |
| Altitude Increase | 1348 feet |
Day 6 (8/7)- Sarah has been doing much better that I thought she would and are further than I thought we would be at this point, so we decided to have a nice, short, relaxing day today and rode to the next state park south of us, Daughters of the Revolution (DAR) State Park. I made Sarah take the trailer today because it was going to be a short day. She did pretty well, except for the hills. The road stayed right along the lake, so we had constant nice views all day. We got to DAR pretty early in the day and set up camp. There was a nice slate beach at the park. I had never seen a beach like it before, instead of sand, it was small pieces of slate. It feel pretty cool to walk on and was nice and warm, even if the sun wasn't out. Very good for rock skipping too. There was a country store and small outdoor restaurant/ice cream stand, about a mile back from DAR, so we went up there, got some ice cream and some food for the night. It clouded up towards the end of the day, so we didn't really get a sunset.
| Miles | 16.39 miles |
| Average Speed | 9.9 |
| Riding Time | 1 hour 40 minutes |
| Altitude Increase | 748 |
Day 7 (8/8)- It poured last night, so all of the stuff that wasn't in the tent last night was a little damp. We let things dry out a little before packing up. We got onto VT-17 and crossed over the lake on the Champlain Bridge at Chimney Point. It was pretty tall and there was a decent view up the lake from it. It was very windy though. We got back on NY-9N and headed south, passing through Ticonderoga. I wanted to go see Fort Ticonderoga, but I didn't see a single sign for it, and didn't want to have to wander around in the hills trying to find it. We got to the northern tip of Lake George and stopped at Rogers Rock State Park to see if they had room for us. They actually had a site that was open for one night only right on the lake! We took it, and set up camp. The site was great, just 20 or 30 feet from the lake. There were some nice rocks to sit on and it was a great place to swim. Great campsite!
| Miles | 26.31 miles |
| Average Speed | 11.0 MPH |
| Riding Time | 2 hours 20 mins |
| Altitude Increase | 1935 feet |
Day 8 (8/9)- Last day of the trip today. We took it easy and didn't push ourselves because we had the entire day to do about 35 miles. It was a nice day, and the road was mainly lots of small rolling hills around 100 feet tall. We stopped in Hague to look at a map and a local came over and started talking to us. He was pretty eccentric and kept telling us about this hill in town that was called N****r Hill and about how lots of people wanted to change the name of it, but the hardcore locals wouldn't allow it. It was very interesting. He also told us about a huge hill we were going to have to go up a few miles ahead. I thought he might have been exaggerating, but he wasn't. About 5 miles away, just after Sabbath Day Point, there was a huge hill. It was just over 1000 vertical feet in under 2 miles. The ride down the other side was great, and we coasted at about 35 MPH. I started pedaling near the bottom and hit 45 with the trailer. It was fun. I was kind of disappointed that the road didn't stick closer to the lake. There was only one or two good views during the ride. We stopped for lunch in the town of Lake George at a town park and ate some subs that we had picked up a few miles back. I wasn't all that impressed with the Lake George area of the lake. From where we were sitting eating lunch, I could see 5 parasailing boats and 3 party boats. The town was also very commercialized, which is to bad, because it could have been a very, very nice town. After lunch we road the 7 or so miles back to the car in Glens Falls. After packing everything up, we drove back to Hadley on Great Sacandaga Lake to go back to a rope swing we had passed on the first day. I just had to try it out and it was awesome!
| Miles | 37.79 miles |
| Average Speed | 11.4 MPH |
| Riding Time | 3 hours 20 mins |
| Altitude Increase | 3349 feet |