June 21, 2023
Who Could Turn Down a Room over a Bar?
Severance to Raquette Lake
I suppose I should have bought two cans of Chef Boyardee spaghetti and meatballs for dinner last night but I was distracted by the display of bagged junk food right next to the canned stuff. So it was unheated spaghetti and Doritos with iced tea for dinner. The camp assistant manager comped me a Slim Jim. (I ate it. It was disgusting.) By the time I finished I’m sure the mosquitos had extracted more nutrients than I took in.
I slept not a wink and have no idea why. I was comfortably warm and my camp site was level and soft.
Breakfast wasn’t much better. Two English muffins with PB&J. My onboard food was down to three Clif bars, two bananas, an apple, and one final English muffin PB&J. Google said there was a gas station six miles into the route and nothing else until Long Lake, 46 miles away.
Riding on inadequate fuel just doesn’t work. It’s like bonking for hours on end. I felt lethargic, my legs felt like lead, and I had a headache. And there was another monster hill about 10 miles into the day. Good thing the scenery was great, otherwise I would have called a cab.
There were plenty of critters during the day: wild and domestic turkeys, a couple of deer, mysterious sounding birds, a red squirrel, and a mini herd of buffalo.
In Newcomb I met two bicycle tourists who were on their second day of a ride around the Adirondacks. They were going to camp near Long Lake.
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When I arrived in Long Lake they were eating at Stewart’s, upstate New York’s gas station and ice cream chain.
They left as I arrived hardly saying a word. I wonder if they use the Coldshowers app.
I bought something resembling food and started looking for a place to stay in either Long Lake or ten miles further in Blue Mountain Lake. (The Adirondacks are Minnesota East in the lake department.)
Google said the indoor places were either closed or prohibitively expensive ($300+). Campgrounds were several miles off route.
Then I got the idea to check out Raquette Lake, 13 miles past Blue Mountain Lake. They had a bar that served food and had cheap ($60) rooms. Bingo. An added, albeit somewhat masochistic, benefit was the fact that I’d do one of tomorrow’s climbs today.
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I bought some ice cream which combined with a tailwind to nudge me another 24 miles.
As I rode I passed at least a dozen motels not mentioned by Google that had vacancies. Let’s just say I am losing my faith in the mother of all search engines.
According to the info on my maps, the mountainous part of the Adirondacks ends at Old Forge, which I should reach before noon. Words cannot convey how much I want to put the mountains behind me. I dream of long, level terrain with a tailwind pushing me along at 15 miles per hour. I dream of Kansas. I am losing my mind.
Today's ride: 70 miles (113 km)
Total: 1,649 miles (2,654 km)
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