Archive-URL: http://search.bikelist.org/getmsg.asp?Filename=touring.10207.1032.eml From: Frank Hassler <carolnfrankxusa(AT)yahoo.com> Subject: Adirondacks Date: Tue, 23 Jul 2002 10:32:04 -0700 (PDT) Sorry it's been a while since we emailed you all. We failed to realized how quickly we'd be leaving a civilized area. So this one will be long.... but exciting! After leaving the library in Niagra Falls, Ontario, we were hungry. So off to lunch a a Indian restarant. The place was empty, so we had a nice chat with the owner and he was nice enough to cook up a couple of vegetarian dishes in addition to those we were eating off the buffet. He had a long interesting story about how he was once a nationally recognized runner in India and I think he said he ran for the Canadian Olimpic team when he became a Canadian citizen. His wife was some famous singer and was busy working on a movie in India. Huh. So, we left there with full bellies and proceeded across a little used bridge to the easier boarder crossing into the US ever: three simple questions, no ID check, no checking our bags for explosives, nothing. The town of Niagra Falls, NY is pretty crummy. The immediate area around the falls is a not too shabby tourist area, but the town is run down and kinda crummy. We saw the falls from the American side, then, after a quick stop at a dare devil museum/convinence store, we headed for the hostel. They wanted $47 a night for a private room! Some hostel, it was in a crummy neighborhood too. So we headed out of town on 11th street, through some more not-the-best neighborhoods. And into an industrial area. Very nasty, stinky, and busy, rotten roads. We found a "Tourist Info Center" (aka, learn about our tours and nothing else) and tried to find out We got some info out of them, but we seemed stuck. They said that most hotels run for $60. But we didn't want to go back to the hostel, uphill back through bad neighborhoods. So we took a gamble and went east, after an overpass we were right on top of some motels, and the industrial area subsided. We got a $32 hotel room, about a block from a movie theatre! We watched Men in Black 2 at the theatre, got some dinner, groceries (BTW "Tops" is the greatest grocery store ever, they had all sorts of international foods and in the magazine section even had Dirt Rag!) and supplies at nearby stores, and went back to our hotel to watch way too much TV. NOt a bad off day. The next morning we found our own way to Lockport, and back on to the Northern Tier route. We were afraid that the roads would be scary, but there was a bike lane on the busy 4 lane road we were on, and good shoulders or low traffic elsewhere. At Lockport we watched a boat raised up a level on the Erie Canal, then we followed the canal trail eastward. Not too terribly exciting, but it was flat and there were no cars. We stopped for lunch in Middleport, then continued east. Sadly the trail was kind a crappy in areas, it was basically a double track dirt trail for many miles. We were going to stop in Holly, but we had ridden less then 60 miles at that point and we though stopping would be silly, so we kept going. We ran around Spencerport for a while and finally found a hotel where we took a dip in the pool before dinner and too much TV again. About 75 miles that day. We got a late start the next day (we were up late watching "Unbreakable" on Starz). We knew rain was imminent, but we headed out anyway. Our first plan was to take a short cut through Rochester and save ourselves 20 or so miles from the Northern Tier route. Heavy traffic and heavy rain chainged our minds, so we detoured towards the canal trail again. The rain wasn't too bad once we didn't have to battle cars for lane space, and we finally got to use our rain coats to keep rain off of us. We got to the town of Pittsford where we stopped at a bike shop and had a bite to eat. The pitas they served a this restaruant were HUGE! It slowed me down a bit as we took a different short cut and did indeed save ourselves around 10 miles from the main route. In Pultneyville we stopped at a little store for some ice cream bars (mmmmm hag-en-daz) and baked goods. After 70 miles we finally got to a campground near Sodus Point on the shore of Lake Ontario. We got up pretty early the next day and rode through and beyond Sodus Point. Things were starting to get hilly. As we passed the top of Sodus Bay we stopped for a snack break and watched kids in canoes fuble around in thick weeds, pretty entertaining. We stopped for another snack at Fair Haven where we met another touist. Paul, is a 22 year old German fellow riding his recumbent from Seattle to Bar Harbor. We rode with him for a while into Fulton where we all stopped at a bike shop (paul for a wheel, carol and I were looking for various doo dads) and we found a road bike carol really likes and we might get for her. Then we ate lunch with Paul at a local bar and grill, carol and I ate the first Veggie Burger we have found since Utah... or something like that. Then Paul continued on while Carol and I went to Tops to get some more groceries. Then we left the main route and tried to find some roads that might be straighter and flatter, passing though Mexico (the town, not the country) and Pulaski. We finally settled for the night just after sundown at a campground in New Centerville after just about 74 miles The next morning we headed back to the main route. The area we were passing through was changing, and it was getting very pretty. For a while it reminded me of northern wisconsin. As we moved futher east, it became more like the Boundry Waters, with people living there. By the end of the day, it was more like a mix between the Boundry Waters and the Smokey Mountains. There were rolling hills and many clear or tea stained rivers and lakes. The county roads were pretty well kept. But we were moving kind of slow, we were lazy and now there were hills. We ended the day in the very touristy town of Old Forge. It was kinda cute though, for a tourist town. We stayed at a big commercial campground that had lots of "Kabins" after 70 or so miles of riding. Yesterday morning we got up and got on the road and it wasn't long until we were at the town of Inlet, NY. There we dumped almost 10 pounds of stuff the post office and sent it home. It was all little things, a jersey, a couple battiers, but it added up, and we saved some weight. Then we found the town bike shop/flower shop "Pedals and Petals" where be bought a few things and had some adjustments done to my slowly dying headset. There we ran into Paull again. He was in a town 20 miles up the road (he moves fast!) and he broke a spoke so he hitch hiked back to this shop to get it fixed. It took us a while, but we finally got underway. We did a big climb around the side of Blue Mountain and then stopped for lunch. At this point we were running a bit behind what we had hopped for, and we wondered if we would get to our goal for the day. Some ice cream in Newcomb got us going again, and we vowed to make our original goal: Blue Ridge Campground. We crossed the Hudson River at its headwaters then off the state highway onto Blue Ridge Road. There were a few big climbs, but in general this road was great, almost no traffic, well paved and a big shoulder. At one point there was about 1.3 miles of construction. The road became compacted mud and big toe sized (and larger) chuncks of gravel. We dodged a few pieces of construction equipment and pushed uphill through this mess. On top of all that, I had vowed not to use my granny gear for the day, so it was extra challenging for me. Shortly after this climb ended the road started downhill. After it flattened out a bit, we stopped for a snack and noticed thunder rumbling behind us. We kicked it into high gear and made it to Blue Ridge Campground. But we didn't want to set up camp in the rain, and it was coming fast. So we busted a super fast time trial to the hotel 5 miles down the road. Lance and Company would have been proud, I think it took us less then 15 minutes, despite some knarly road contitions and carol almost crashing at 20mph due to a big crack between the shoulder and the main lane of the road. We got to the hotel just as the rain was starting and only got a little wet. Unfortunatly we payed over $60 for a hotel room that had last been decorated in 1981, had only 2 channels on the TV, and a bairly functioning air conditioner. But at least we stayed dry, after 88 miles of riding through "mountains". This morning we got up and at the continental breakfast at the hotel. We convinced the hotel manager to switch one of the channels (the office had control over what one of the channels on the TVs for the entire motel were, the other was always CBS) to the Weather Channel. The cold front had not yet passed through, but it was coming soon. So we rushed here to Ticonderoga. We got a few things at the grocery store, which was a mistake because it started raining as we left the store. We donned our rain coats and rode into town, it started to pour. We didn't get too wet and we've been hanging out here in the library for the worst of it (the power went out twice!). So now, I'm hungry, I think we'll go for lunch (it's already 1:30!) and then get a few miles down the road. We have now defeated the Adirondack Mountains and we'll soon take a ferry across Lake Champlaign into Vermont. There are still some mountains to go in VT and NH, but it should be just really hilly in Maine. I'm going to try to ride the whole thing without using my granny gear, wish me luck. We have 8 days (including today) to go the last 402 miles to Bar Harbor. That's only 50 miles a day average, so we can afford to loose some time hiding from the rain today. We'll try to be in touch at least once before we get to the coast. Enjoy a slightly cooler summer, ===== Carol and Frank Hassler >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Check out our cross country honeymoon at: http://carolandfrank.tripod.com <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! 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