Day 69 Blue Mountain Lake, NY-Hague, NY

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Jo Day 69 (Oct 8):  It was a cloudy overcast morning at Lake Durant Campground, NY.  Kevin, Alan and John took off for their 83 mile ride today in the Adirondack Mountains It sprinkled a little. We crossed over the Hudson River (misc info: Mount Marcy is the highest mountain at 5,344 feet and near the summit of Mount Marcy is Lake Tear-of-the-clouds, the source of the Hudson River). We drove by the guys a few times today and we stopped at a park in Newcomb, NY...we had full cell phone coverage at the park, so we parked the van for about 2.5 hours mainly so that Janut could research and contact campsites and motels.  Vince caught up to us at the park and we exchanged phone numbers in hopes of meeting up somewhere along the way.  The overcast sky produces terrible lighting for picture taking...we were disappointed in our blah looking pictures because the colors are at their peak but the camera and iPhone just couldn't capture all the beauty around us.  We saw Kevin and John on the side of the road...Kevin was changing out his flat tire before their 2 mile downhill thrill ride into Ticonderoga.  We stopped at the Walmart in Ticonderoga...yeah, yeah, you know the drill by now.  Camping at the Rogers Rock Public Campground, NY.  332 sites along a narrow road that goes up and down and winds all over the place.  It's crazy, this place is huge and there is only one garbage dump site.  Alan went on a 27 minute round trip trek just to dump the trash!  He was gone so long in the dark we thought we might have to put his picture on a milk carton!  It's really dark here, if you don't have a bright flashlight, you might get lost.  Alan took the brighter flashlight and the campground map with him when he took out the trash.  So I had the crappy dim flashlight when I went to the bathroom via a side trail up the hill.  On the way up I hit my head on a low tree branch because I was looking down at the ground to avoid tripping on tree trunks, roots and rocks.  There are many side trails that go up the hill to the bathroom.  In the dark abyss, I wasn't sure which side trail took me back to the van (John took the wrong side trail back and ended up at the water spigot on the other side of the creek!).  The crappy flashlight was so dim that I couldn't even see how to get to the main road to walk the long way around back to the van, so I just stood there for a moment trying to get my bearings...I lucked out and saw someone with a bright headlamp walking down the main road.  I waited until they walked by and lit up the path and then I sprinted towards them and walked behind them! I made it back!
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Kevin Days 68 and 69.  Boonville, NY to Ticonderoga, NY.    Ticonderoga NY to Hancock, Vermont.
A quick catch up post for the last couple of days as we had no cell service.  The fall colors have exploded in the Adirondacks, and we had spectacular weather on Friday  which really made the colors pop.  Saturday was cloudy and a chance of rain. Luckily it didn't rain, but the colors are much more subdued. Riding was great-although very hilly through the Adirondacks.  Sunday we entered Vermont, via ferry across Lake Champlain. Weather again was cloudy.  Vermont is hilly, and we crossed the Green Mountains today, via the Middlebury Gap.  While only 2,000 feet in elevation, the Gap is steep! Two sections with 14% gradient! Glad to have that 26-27 granny gear combination!  We took the Covered Bridge alternate instead of through the town of Middlebury.  Sadly the covered bridge has burned and was closed.  But we laugh at closed bridges!  We carried out bikes across the burnt out bridge. I'll put up some more pix in a separate post. I'll add captions to pictures as I remember what they are!